High Security Locks: Protecting Your Assets

No problem. Most ARE smash and grab. Unless they get curious as to why THAT door is heavy duty. (Then they act like hackers, bent on breaking in to prove they can, and the hidden prize will be worth the effort. ).
But I agree, there is no excuse for a cheap quality lock. (Why make it easy?)
Add long screws, and solid blocking , and look for locks with a long bolt throw. Latch covers are good too.

 

As a rule there is only one way to make a lock work and that is to have a fixture the only a hand with the right key can fit inside, but you can't get other things in the fixture.
For the most part a cheap lock will do more good than an expensive one ,seeing that people usually put their most expensive things behind an expensive lock. and a cheap lock just keeps animals out. (garden shed) criminals are not going for the cheap.
However , I will put an expensive lock on a box of rocks that takes a lot of effort to remove.
I've done lock picking in my time and it's not easy , it takes very sensitive hands.

 

Nice thing about my neighborhood, we have a sufficient number of retirees here, who love peeking out their windows at the goings on around these parts, that they recognize any new faces or vehicles. Like our own informal neighborhood watch!

That being said, make sure you're putting twice as much effort into a thief getting through your back door, as it will take them to get through the front. Back doors are generally not as easily seen, and a thief can take more time back there. Either way, slow them down long enough, and it has the same effect as the sign, below.....convince them to go to easier pickin's!

 

A tactic I hope some day to do is get a safe door lock and all and mount it on concrete in an area just convenient enough to see for the perp to waste their time getting it open. LOL

 

I am not going to go into any detail whatsoever, but locks are ONLY for keeping the HONEST people out.
TWO classes of guys that can gain entry into your "locked space" with relative ease are:
"Professional" Thieves.......... and FIREMEN.

You do not have a locked door that I cannot defeat in under 2 minutes with my training and equipment.
And I am not the "best of the best" by a long shot.

 

As Medicineman says, 2 minutes tops. The biggest challenge is multiple locks with different keys. Time is really your best friend. Of course, picking is usually to get the real owner in and most times a thief will just break something. Our pharmacy at work has no key lock, just an electronic strike with a keypad. I have defeated it on 2 occasions when we had a failure. Best security is using 2 locks with different keys.

 

A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link .
Going through doors is one thing but going through windows and walls is much easier. Some body wants in the door is not the only way .

 

Lived in a "good neighborhood" , the kind crooks like to hit to get the good stuff.

Having an old man who understood security we kids had a leg up on protecting our own. First thing was no bushes, good fence, hot wires cattle level of the 5 mile type. Boxer dogs, trained the kids too. Had a perfect entry for a crook to use to conceal their actions so I built an attractive "Cage" on the front. Only 8 feet tall and matched the House, open at the top. Could have looked inviting for a crook except for the flip flop section at the top that if pulled or pushed would limit their exit and increase their time in the cage.
The usual, for me, was a full inside steel door frame, long bolts on the hinge side and the same on the lock side. Typical Dead bolts and extra inside dead bolts top and bottom.

That was just the start.
Any one who cased the place in 15 years never came back.

 

One of the reasons I made hidden rooms is because the house is not worth the effort, It is a modular ,so breaking down doors is not that hard and there are windows all around the house and I'm not living in a prison with bars all around.
I believe that a hidden room is far more valuable ,because if the perp can't see it there is nothing to dig after. Like I said about the false safe ,if their time is wasted after something that is not worth stealing, and there is nothing else to pursue, your further ahead.

 

Bars can serve more than one purpose.

In this case I and my wife were "in charge" of a2 year old.
A niece had called and needed some time to "shop" no problem.
The thing was a spouse was in the mix and she was trying to avoid a confrontation. Of course we didn't know this!
Baby was dropped off and 2 hours later a person wanting the baby knocked at the front door. Now we did not know her spouse so it could have been any one.

Nope I said, demanding he said "I'll kick down the door" (by now that door was a steel exterior grade with insulation).

I said you have 1 minute to leave and then I call the cops and if you attempt to enter I'll shoot, silence, followed by truck leaving.

Baby safe, our kids safe, problem was then turned over to cops.

 

Good discussion on honest people in normal times and lots of valuable information. Around here biggest problem is smart, lazy, computer savy, totally unethical, substance abusers, who also happen to be the children of those you go to church with. They will and have stolen the detachable snow plow blade from the front yard and tried to sell it for scrap iron. When the junk dealer, a friend, called me on it, I have my name and address written with a electric pencil next to the information plate and serial number, his mother called my wife and is screaming that I am trying to have her poor baby, 26 years old, put in prison over an old snow plow blade. In normal times a "good lock" and hidden game cameras have been a God send and as the first post so aptly put it, the 5 minutes it will take to defeat a good lock will help, and if they break a window, pry a door, etc, then you have proof for both the law and your home owners insurance. I fix tools and know of nothing, including 12 " thick reinforced concrete, that will stop a gas demolition saw with the right blade. Local hot shots stole a concrete saw from a work site and tried to break into a steel safe, had a days receipts from a large store, the blade would not cut steel and they gave up. State police took an interest and were in our place on and off for a week doing tests with the saw. Best blade they found was the blade used by firemen, steel blade would cut steel, concrete blade would cut concrete, but none were universal. The local armored car people sent over one of their old units and a new unit, they were concerned as they had had 2 people killed in a holdup a few years earlier, and the old iron one could be opened up in less than 2 minutes, the new one, with Kelvar, tangled up the blades and we were never able to cut it with a saw.

 

"the new one, with Kelvar, tangled up the blades and we were never able to cut it with a saw."
Good intel!
Later I will finish a homemade safe. Inner and outer steel with a YET TO BE DONE
concrete fill between to two steel sections.
So NOW I will add Kevlar in the mix and will have a better safe.
The door is 700 lbs of steel so I may face it (on the inside)with a Kevlar blanket.
Thanks

 

I will add a Kevlar blanket to the outer layer of steel on the inside of the safe before adding the concrete.

 

I live in town and in a gated community, which is another joke and story for another time. Anyways, I can't have anything posted on my front door, with the exception of holiday items that are temporary (Halloween - No Candy sign, Christmas - Wreath, etc..). What I can and do is display my range targets on my back sliding glass door. I just tape it up from the inside. I have had a few neighbors (and one police officer) comment on my target. Even the police officer said he would be 'hesitant' to force enter any place that he knew had a defensive active shooter and that it would become a SWAT issue. I'm hoping the criminals feel the same way and pick a different residence (easier target) and leave me the hell alone.