How Secure Is Your House?

[PeaceBlondie]

Oh, shit! I may have to abandon 30-odd years of pacifism and tell Jesus to shove it, since He never lived in a vicious, thieving country like Thailand. I will have to move to a private two-rai compound with four-meter walls, guard towers, searchlights, surrounded by a moat full of crocodiles and piranha, a door two feet thick like a bank vault, with 8 locks and combinations. Some real firepower, too. 88 AK-47's, 256 grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons with nerve gas. Lions, tigers, king cobras.....

[andyc2006]

"There is also a wiki on the subject. Bump Key - Lock Bumping."

Bumping has been around a long time, and I'm surprised that you've just read about it.

An MIT engineer wrote an excellent paper regarding this, how to do it, and how to prevent it. Unfortunately, it was written years ago, and I don't believe you had the chance to do a peer review.

Part of the MIT culture is to run around campus and practice picking locks, especially the ones that give access to the rooftops, elevator control rooms, and "secret" basement passageways.

There are a number of MIT "white papers" on how to pick locks, and it's a tradition to create your own set of lock picks (most students make them from the flat wire bristles that fall off the street-cleaning trucks).

Ah... memories.

But it's really not that hard, and though I hadn't heard of a "bump key" back in those days, the technique doesn't sound very different than standard lock-picking techniques.

Frankly, most criminals aren't going to try to pick locks to doors. They're not that talented (if they were, they wouldn't be criminals). They look for easy entry... doors obscured from view that they can force open, open windows, etc...

99% of lock-pickers do it as a hobby and no more.

[desi]

Time for better locks...

I had mine replaced with a locking system from the UK (the type you need to sign in triplicate for).

And in the event the maid (or others) lost a key (supposedly impossible to copy), I bought a replacement tumbler (is that the correct terminology?) with a whole new set of keys.

I also went with a camera (great for taking surprise photos of the sofa), lazer beams (sleek and mean but goes off when my palms grow too big), alarms on doors and windows (lots of flashing buttons to push and looks impressive nailed into the wall by the door but I keep forgetting the password and the maid believes it's magic and sets itself so it's a moot point anyway).

There are ways to get in if someone really wants to, so it really comes down to feeling safe, over being safe.

In order to do that I'd need to build metal doors all around the exits of my condo - windows and doors - and it just wouldn't look as nice.

So in the meantime I'm quite happy with the UK locking system, camera, lazer beams, and the alarms on all doors and windows.

[Tinkelbell]

Oh, shit! I may have to abandon 30-odd years of pacifism and tell Jesus to shove it, since He never lived in a vicious, thieving country like Thailand. I will have to move to a private two-rai compound with four-meter walls, guard towers, searchlights, surrounded by a moat full of crocodiles and piranha, a door two feet thick like a bank vault, with 8 locks and combinations. Some real firepower, too. 88 AK-47's, 256 grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons with nerve gas. Lions, tigers, king cobras.....

! It's fun to read your post. Your imagination is at best. It lightens up my day. Thanks PB.

[think_too_mut]

That's another beauty of living in Japan - no crime, especially no burglaries. Nobody would be a fool to break into anybody's house for possessions that cost 30$ a piece to city concil to dispose of.

There's plenty of crime in Japan, just all organised under the banner of Yakusa.

And that's the way the Japanese like it, better the devil you know, after all.

That's the real reason opportunist crimes like break-ins and burglaries are uncommon.

It's not.

General wealth, pretty evenly spread, everybody can afford things that, for example, 40-50K $ a year income brings, aversion for 2nd hand things and general honesty leave little room for crime.

Police station in a half million people city (more than 2 times Chiang Mai) is a kiosk with 2 men and 1 small Suzuki vehicle.

Never seen a police car in motion, never heard police siren.

(Re yakuza: they will rather die than steal someone's video recorder).

[wamberal]

They will poison your dogs first,done it to my friend.

Anybody who has guard dogs should train them to eat only from their plate. If they are properly trained, they cannot be poisoned, because they will not eat a bait.

[Tinkelbell]

How Secure Is Your House ?......

Well, my house is prety secure consider that we live in a deed restriction gated community, we live with 2 small dogs ( a chihuahau and a miniature pincher), they are excelent watchdog, they would bark at anyone who's approaching our house in about 75 ft. away. Our mailman call them..." a little fellow with a big noice."

Because I like my house bright, airy, so I tend to leave my patio doors opened wide on both sides day and night ( but not in the summer where we have to turn on a/c during June - September) , hubby has security alarm ADT Company installed, before going to sleep I would set motion sensor from my alarm device where I place it on my night stand.

Feel very safe and feel blessed for a peaceful sleep.

[PeaceBlondie]

Now that we have moved to the village, a dog is out of the question. Some of our neighbors steal and eat dogs.