Darker Nights & Home Security

National Home Security Month

You probably won’t know this, but every October in the UK is National Home Security Month. October was chosen for a reason and that is because it’s when the evenings are noticeably darker. That makes it easier for the burglar to know when properties are occupied, and it makes it easier for the intruder to hide in dark corners. Garden hedges are a fantastic place for intruders to hide if they think they have been caught in the act, and they will actively seek out properties with large, softer hedges as potential hiding spots at night. A plain fence might be boring, but it can be the difference between you not being burgled as a matter of choice, over your neighbour.

One of the interesting facts that I read in my magazine for lock geeks this month was that while cylinder snapping is still the number one method of entry (less than 60 secs with no power tools if you only have standard locking cylinders on your UPVC/composite door), a growing number are using the garage where there is a connecting door from the garage to the house. Garages and sheds are notorious for poor security anyway, so these overlooked entrances are an easy target. When the connecting doors often have only 2 or 3 lever locks, there are simple tools that do the job.

Recently I had to gain entry to a property where one partner was denying the other entry over a domestic dispute by leaving a key on the inside of the lock. The locks themselves were top level and ordinarily, would have put me off, but I knew the key was on the other side. Once I checked my customer had legal right to enter the property, I started work. I have an ‘outside in’ tool that goes through the letter box and allowed me to rotate the key and open the door. My point is this, no matter how good your lock is, if you leave a key on the inside of a door with a letter box, or have a thumb turn on the inside, you might as well not bother locking your door. The letterbox is a massive temptation for thieves. Many people leave car keys, door keys and the like on surfaces near front doors. It is very convenient after all. But thieves can go fishing through letter boxes and easily reach things you thought were safe. A good cheap deterrent is a letter bin that goes over the inside of the letterbox. Your newspaper delivery person will not thank you, but you will be more secure. Better still, get an external post box and seal your letterbox completely. Your locksmith won’t thank you if you lose your keys, but he/she will admire your security consciousness.

On that note, there are now safe lockable delivery boxes for all the large packages we now receive from the likes of Amazon. Having watched hours of doorcam footage on Youtube of doorstep thieves, I cannot recommend these enough. Please enquire if you would like more information.

Back to this dispute case; At the same house, I was asked to open the garage. As I said above, garages are often terrible in terms of security and often hold great bounties for opportunists who have time to sell stuff on ebay or at car boot sales. The front up and over door was actually quite secure. I could have opened it with time consuming picking or drilling, but the side human entrance door was poorly fitted and although there was a good five lever mortice lock in place, the gap between door and frame was so big, I popped the door in seconds. As there was a lot of high value stuff being stored in this garage, the security was woefully inadequate, but very normal in comparison to what I see on a daily basis. My point is, do not overlook the security of your exterior buildings. Normally I say one good lock is a good enough deterrent, but on buildings with flimsy doors where we increasingly keep valuable stuff, two locks are going to slow down the intruder enough to make him consider going elsewhere for an easier target.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact me by phone, email or the contact section of this site.

Thanks for reading.