Home security and that time I locked myself out
July 25, 2018
Short of breaking a window, our house is pretty secure.
I know this because I pulled the door shut behind me, locking it, and then realized that what I had in my hand was a wad of tissues, not my keys. !$(#*$&)#!
It was one of those crappy confluences: I had 30 minutes to go pick up JB before daycare closed. PiC had JUST managed to get to the gym for a rare 30 minute session, and now I was sitting outside the house asking the dogs to unlock the door for me.
Really.
Rather than ask PiC to leave the gym, first, I desperately tried to teach Sera to be a velociraptor. “Just jump up and hit the lock, Sera, you can do it!” She was so confused. Both dogs were both so confused, they started barking at me. Long story short: It did not work at all.
The front door was securely locked. All the doors and windows are double paned and securely locked, we don’t leave anything open anymore, and there are extra bars along each window and door’s slide path to block them from being opened even if someone managed to pick the lock. Unless I was willing to break an expensive-to-replace-and-install-window (HECK NO), those were not feasible entry points.
We also have home security cameras set up around the house so that if someone decided we must have something valuable enough to break a window or door (we don’t), we would catch them on video. The videos are backed up for free for a week online, and we can download any useful footage. A friend in the legal system has told me that these videos are helpful for law enforcement to identify and prosecute break ins. My downloads are of the wildlife that comes through after dark. May it ever be so benign.
Much to my chagrin, PiC had to race home to let me in the house.
I suppose that’s a good thing (and another reminder to triple check my pockets before leaving the house), I feel better making sure that no one, including myself, can easily get into my home without keys, and there’s no way to convince the dogs to open the doors for a stranger.
There are probably ways to do it that I haven’t thought of but the most obvious parts are covered.
It’s a stark contrast to some friends who don’t lock up their doors or shut their windows before leaving the house!
I did the same thing and also was unsuccessful in breaking in (although breaking a window would have been pretty easy with some of our windows). T was 1.5 hours away and my cell was inside, but luckily we have a key with a neighbor who was home shortly after my break in attempt. We don’t have cameras at our place, although it is something we’ve looked into! We lock up when we leave, although sometimes I might leave a window open and the deadbolt undone when we do a nieghborhood walk with the dog.
Glad your home is secure and PiC wasn’t too far away!
I guess it’s a good thing for you that breaking in wasn’t easy? š I don’t know if we’ll make good enough friends with anyone around here that we’d trust a key to but it’s on my mind.
We not only live in a slightly stand-offish neighborhood (we met our next door neighbor about a year after she moved in, and only the once), but also live right next to a park where plenty of random people roam.
That said we’re not huge on home security, probably because someone is almost aways home.
Still, the house came with a metal screen door, and our windows are made of some material or other that’s quite hard to break. You can apparently throw a rock at it and it’ll fracture but not break. So I guess someone would have to find and throw two decent-sized rocks to get in. Which I hope doesn’t happen because our huge-ass picture window was hellaciously expensive.
But again, we’re almost always home. So it’s probably moot anyway.
Most of our neighborhood seems to be of that stand offish nature so I feel better having our own security for times when it’s just the dogs, or no one, home.
And no one better throw rocks at that window – those are $$$$!
Wow, what a story! Hope you made it to pick up your kid on time!
At a couple of our rental properties we have front door locks where you enter a key code to unlock the door. Life changing – it is really awesome when I’m staying in one of those places not to have to carry a key at all!
An idea to prevent this is to have a spare key inside a combination lockbox, the kind of things that realtors use, that you can hide somewhere in the side or back of the house. More secure than hiding a key on it’s own, and more reliable than leaving a key with a neighbor.
Thankfully for myself at least, our main apartment has a door you physically have to lock, rather than one that locks on it’s own behind you. But that didn’t prevent the time I locked out my wife when she was in the apartment building basement doing the laundry without her keys or phone and I left the apartment and locked the door, and both of our kids were out š
Someone else suggested a lock box too and I think that’s a really good idea! But there’s no managing against all human error, is there? š
We have everything locked down in your place like the front door and windows. Since their are homeless people roaming around the beach and the park that are nearby and we see them walking on our block. Their was one time a homeless person slept in the on the driveway of our neighbor’s house with a sleeping bag and all. The cops stopped by the next morning and forced him to pack up and leave. With occurrences like this, it’s nice to secure your home as best you can.
We don’t have as many local roamers as we used to but I’m too trained to be cautious to leave off these habits š
I’m pretty paranoid about remembering my keys! (Though living in an apartment building, there’s usually someone from the building staff with a spare key who can help out. In school housing though, they usually charge a fee.) It’s probably for the best that one can’t easily get in when locked out.
It’ll be pretty weird once I’m no longer living in an apartment building with a doorman or a secured entrance, if ever. I’ve never really had to think about home security as an adult.
I am now, too!
Is there any draw for you to live somewhere that requires you to think about this stuff?
The last time I locked myself out of the house, I was single and ended up having to go to the neighbors and call a locksmith. I’d gone to take the trash from inside the garage to the curb. The door felt unlocked on the inside and I didn’t check it… turned out that it wasn’t.
Currently, I’m in a mixed household culture, nevermind the neighborhood. My husband is not a door-locker, but I’m pretty profoundly a door locker. It creeps me out when I get up in the morning and find out he’s left the front door unlocked. He goes to bed after me and likes to potter around doing stuff once I’m in bed, so– I can lock doors all I want, but all it takes is one potter-“oh, I’ll just do this” that takes him outside, and things are open again.
Our house is in weird a little zoned-agricultural carve-out, so it feels remote, which I think makes him feel like he’s back in his country childhood safe zone… but there are multi-million dollar houses in the fancy neighborhood across the street, a big housing development a block away, and a huge mall less than a mile down the nearest cross-street. (Which is near.) We are nowhere near as remote as it feels to him. Logically he knows that, but in action, not so much.
I’ve been planning on talking with him about it, and maybe also getting smart locks that can tie to our cell phones. I’d feel better if the doors unlock and re-lock automatically or if I can just hit a button on my phone and know that no matter what he’s done, everything’s locked up tight.
Oooh I feel for you! I hope that you can go with something like the smart locks so you don’t have to feel exposed.
Question: Was PiC irritated or gracious? I felt your pain as you described really NOT wanting to disturb his half-hour at the gym. I know how precious those opportunities are when there’s a young child in the mix. Anyway, if he was gracious, you are way more fortunate in your PiC than even your home security. (We’re not nearly as careful as you! That being said, our next-door neighbour recently had a break-in the day after I heard someone walking out back late at night – in a wildernessy-area behind our house – and asked my husband to look.)
Oh you know PiC. I was mortified, he told me not to worry about it. He wasn’t thrilled of course but we both know that I’m just the first one to do this, I won’t be the only one š
My last 2 sets of flatmates don’t bother to lock the doors unless I repeatedly remind them…in the middle of the freaking city center! Break-ins and petty thievery is pretty common in Auckland (at least 5 of my friends have had their places broken into & belongings stolen in the last 3 years). We do have a swipe entry into our townhouse complex, but I mean, it doesn’t take much to slip through the door when someone comes or goes. The only defenses after that are our townhouse patio and main door locks. If one of them is open, uh…
I don’t get it at all.
I have contents insurance, but I live in fear that my laptop/important papers/irreplaceable sentimental jewelry and items will be stolen. I would be totally lost without them!
Yikes! I don’t understand that at all! Is it worth getting a lock on your own bedroom door to protect your own stuff, at least?
I live in a sketchy neighborhood/town (there was the local crack dealer house across the street but that house burned down when some sort of drugs caught fire but, thankfully, nobody was injured). I always securely lock my house, even though I have nothing, and I mean nothing of value. Heck, the kitchen cabinets, toilet, and sink were stolen out of this house before I bought it, that is why it was so cheap. Still, I am not nervous at all. I do have protection and I do have a very large dog. My thinking is that since I do not even own a tv, everyone knows I have nothing of value. I am more concerned that someone would come after me because of my job. That is why I have protection and a dog. I have a friend who has a key to my house. The reality of the world, in my way of thinking, is that no place is safe (within reason, I am not going to live in a war zone) and we just need to live our lives.
We own very little that’s valuable too but it’s the safety of the occupants that concerns me. I don’t want any of my family, human or canine, to be hurt because they walked into a break-in situation.
š I love the picture of you trying to persuade the pooch to unlock the door!
You undoubtedly recall the Garage Invasion episode, which was reported at FaM almost live. That was an adventure, one that made me wish I hadn’t replaced the late, great German shepherd with a dwarf dog, and d**ned glad I owned a .38. The cops were glad, too, believe it or not…one of the guys on the SWAT team, when I pointed out the pistol (which of course I’d set down a long way from myself so as not to scare the men) said “good for you!” {sigh}
Personally, I resent living in an armed camp. IMHO, the burglar and the home invader belongs behind bars, not me. However, after that adventure, I live in jail, too. (Though I like to think my mess hall serves up better chow…)
* On all the hinged exterior doors: heavy-duty (but not horribly unattractive) steel security doors equipped with hardened, drill-proof locks (no, you can’t get those at the Depot: gotta get them from a real locksmith). If you try to drill one of these things, it will break your drill.
* On each sliding door: two locks, plus a dowel in the slider slot plus an alarm that screams like a banshee should someone break the connection.
* Solid-core door on my office, also equipped with a hardened, drill-proof lock.
* Motion-proof lights all the way around the shack, installed under the eaves where it’s difficult for the perp to unscrew a bulb. All the windows, alas, are also sliders: two locks apiece, one dowel apiece, one screamer apiece.
* Locks on the side and backyard gates.
* A wrought-iron fence and gate across the gate alcove to the alley, secured with a heavy padlock.
I draw the line at alarm systems. Had one and hated it. There really IS a limit. Besides, I have an alarm: two indefatigably yappy corgis.
If you’re friendly with the neighbors, you might consider trading keys. If you each have a place outdoors where you can hide a key, each person hides a door key at the other person’s house. When the perp finds it (he will), he’ll try it on the neighbor’s door, find it doesn’t work, and with any luck will assume it’s just an old key. If at all possible, hide it at a house that’s not right next-door to yours, as that would be pretty obvious to a smart burglar. If he’s on meth, he might think of it; if he uses other kinds of dope or alcohol, not so much.
It was DEFINITELY a picture. I was well aware of how foolish I looked even while doing it.