Updating your home security

With the summer quickly coming to an end, it is now time to double check your locks. Wooden doors that have dried out and contracted in the warm weather will now start to expand again as the rains and damp cold arrive. UPVC doors are just as susceptible to weather changes, but help is at hand. When your locks start getting stiff, it usually takes just a little adjustment to get them back in great working order again and AC Locksmiths will always try to get your current locks working before saying you need new locks. But locks need to be looked at when they are starting to get stiff, especially UPVC door mechanisms, as they have very small moving gears and cogs inside which can be broken when too much force is required to lift the handles.

As the nights are drawing in, life is also becoming easier for the opportunist thief. In a street full of houses with lights on, is yours the only one in darkness signalling no one is home? It might use up electricity, but lights on timers are a good idea. Neighbourhood Watch and alarm stickers are great deterrents in the summer as they can be seen from the road, but in the dark, the intruder needs to be close to see them, by which point he may just try his luck anyway. A big, bright motion detector light at the front and back of your house (also useful when returning late an you don’t want to get your keys out until you are at your door) may be an ideal deterrent.

I would like to say a burglar alarm is a good idea, but recent events have really turned me away from this idea. I was asked to gain entry to a shop by an estate agent as the out-going tenant had kindly left with all keys (lesson to landlords-make sure you always have a set of spares). As I went about my work, only one person challenged my credentials as a locksmith, my id was under my coat and my vehicle was out of sight, and that was for potential work! (I am rarely, if ever, challenged to produce my ID, which I always have to hand. I think the assumption is that an intruder would have to be pretty brave to break in to a shop in plain view of everyone, but you never know.)

As I bypassed the locks and entered the building, the burglar alarm went off. It made a horrific noise, but did not seem to arouse any interest from passers-by. I did not know the code and when I asked the estate agent via telephone, they also had no clue. So I fitted new locks with the siren blaring while the estate agent phoned the alarm provider. My work was soon finished but I waited at the shop, hopefully not looking too shifty, unaware that my I.D. was still tucked out of the way. Hardly a soul looked up at the blaring racket that was the alarm. Eventually the estate agent got back to me with news that left alone, the alarm would go off in twenty minutes as long as its motion sensors were not set off again.

This whole situation made me think – What if this was a house being burgled??

An ex-neighbours alarm seemed to go off almost every time they went out for the day or on holiday. I would always look out of my window (from which I could see a limited view of their drive) and then spend ages annoyed that the noise was distracting to whatever else I may be doing. I often thought I should go and check on their house, but after the first few times, I never did (in the days before I was a locksmith). None of the other neighbours emerged either. The point is, unless you have a system linked directly to a central control centre that will respond to your alarm, are they any use? Like all things, you get what you pay for.

But there is another solution – wireless CCTV.There doesn’t need to be holes drilled through your walls,they can record images day or night and store the recordings for days, rather than the few hours of earlier models. Or you can have an instant image or video sent to your mobile phone if the motion sensors are activated, allowing you to call for help (even from abroad) while the intruder is still in your house.

Another new innovation on the market is a door viewer, with a screen on the inside of the door giving a recordable image of the visitor. When you look through a standard viewer, the person on the outside can tell you are in as the light is blocked off when you put your eye to the door. This can be annoying if the visitor is someone you would rather not see. A digital viewer allows you to see who is on the outside without them knowing you are in. So while it is great for security, it also acts as a means of screening your visitors.

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