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How have you improved your home security?

2K views 10 replies 9 participants last post by  APachon 
#1 ·
In addition to carrying a concealed weapon, have you made efforts to improve the security of your home -- locks, deadbolts, alarms, dogs, safes, etc.? Do you have a plan that you and your family will follow in case of a robbery or home invasion?
 
#3 ·
Yes, Dogs, some electrical devices (master house kill in master bederoom, I can walk around my house in complete dark, I am betting a BG can\'t), Motion sensor lights around perimter of house so I know avenue of approach. Plan with wife. All blinds drawn shut
 
#4 ·
Security Upgrades after Breach!

In 1996 I had a break in. It was a cool night in south Florida and we had our windows open in the bedroom, alarm was on. Around 2am the alarm goes off. I have a severe case of sleep apnea and have to wear a special mask that makes me look like Tom Cruise in TOP GUN. I also have very bad nightmares at times, so my Glock is kept in the night stand with a mag in place but chamber empty, so I\'ll have time to come fully awake as I grab and chamber a round.

So my alarm goes off and I sit up and come nearly face to face (range about 18inches) with a bad guy worming his way inside my window. He\'d ripped the screen, thus setting off the alarm, but the home is OLD south Florida and set up off the ground a bit, so he had to jump up and try and clamber over the sill. His hands were still outside on the sill and his torso was inside the house. WE LOCKED EYES and incredibly HE KEPT COMING. With this look of \"Hey can ya give a guy a hand here?\" There was no time to get the Glock. I stood up and was at this point over him. I got set and in the only time I have ever used a classic martial arts punch I fired one from my hip using my hips to sort of torque more power into the punch. I connected right on his nose and sort of felt it explode as he fell back out of the window. At that point I was wondering if HE was coming in here, were his buddies also entering other parts of the house? Grabbed the Glock and racked it. Grabbed a SureFire 6p and sprinted to the hallway to grab my teenaged daughter. DRAG her on the floor to our room, in case rounds start coming in. She is screaming and when I get back to the bed room my WIFE is sticking her head out of the same window the BG has just fallen from. Grab her and put them both on the floor and tell her to call police and alarm folks who are already on the phone. So I get her gun and give it to her and tell her I\'ll warn her before I come back to the bedroom.

Then I slide off and clear my house (just like I was trained) and thankfully, he was alone. By that time I have units pouring out my ears. The BG gets tracked by his blood trail across the street and through an eight foot thick hedge of Bouganvillia (inch long thorns) which is also dripping blood all the way thru and finally they lose him where he got into a getaway car. The big cop who looks at my swelling knuckes says: \"BOY, considerin'this and those bloody thorns....I think you\'ve just gotten all the JUSTICE you\'re gonna git!\"

Next day, I went to a gunshow and got a pair of knuckle dusters that fit my hand and now leave them on the sill. Now have two Newfoundland dogs average wt 120 pounds, each. Loveable but I\'d hate to be a BG coming in to hurt the family because they will protect the home. Also getting a Sig P220 with light rail, SureFire X200 gunlight and Crimson Trace Laser Grips as my dedicated house gun. Keep the windows closed and locked.:smug:
 
#5 ·
I have replaced all of the doorlocks and deadbolts with the strongest I could find. Added long screws into the frame. I have a monitored alarm with door and window contacts and motion sensors. I have most of my vaulables locked in either my gunsafe (which is pitiful but better than nothing) or a wall safe. I have a dog (golden retriever) who sounds worse than she is. I make sure everything is secure and locked up before leaving the house or going to bed. Outside, I have a 7\" block wall surrounding my little oasis in back with locked gates and motion lights; in front 7 yard lights on posts, motion light over the garage area.

The wife and I have no formal plan although I have been thinking more and more about doing that.
 
#6 ·
Bumper, I know you and Nighthawk are good buds, what me and some of my compadres have been planning is mock assaults. We are in the process of getting a deal on a few airsoft pistols so we can step up the realism. Also we are going to practice room and house clearing at all of our homes. This should show us where tactical problems should present themselves. We are even going to try to do a few live F-o-F runs at night to add to the realism.

~Andy
 
#7 ·
I live in an apartment.

Completely lacking "fatal funnels", a lot of clearing tactics don't really come into play. The few that do however interest me greatly, especially how to approach a doorway.

I will try to post it later, but took my floorplan and made a color coded floorplan. The greatest concern is that I only have two directions where it's reasonably safe to shoot and not break the fourth law. The good news is that all 3 entry points lie in those directions.

My front door looks sturdy and I keep it locked, but I know in reality it is a hollow core door that I could break down in 10 seconds if I wanted to. The good news is that 5 seconds is the maximum amount of time I need to be ready for someone to come through it. I've considered getting one of those devices that you can use to reinforce a door, but the tile floor in my entryway makes such a gadget useless. There really isn't a good way to reinforce it.

My worst problem is that God awful sliding glass door in my living room. Besides being absurdly energy inefficient, it's a security nightmare. I have cut a 2x2 to the length of the track the door sits in. The frame of the door is surprisingly sturdy, and with the 2x2 laying in the track you cannot push the door open. You'd have to break the glass to get in, which is easily accomplished BUT it makes noise.

The window in my bedroom I have blocked up with my furniture. It's also the least inaccessible point, and the first thing an intruder will meet is an obstacle.

I figure in any event my best plan is to fall back and funnel an attacker deeper into the apartment where he'll have to go through a doorway where I will have him where I can shoot him with a good backstop and I'll have him. I've also thought about it very carefully, and have found that in no scenario is escape really viable. If I try to run out at any of the three entry/exit points, I'll go right past the invader and he'll have me.
 
#9 ·
Yep,

Friendly Barking Dumb Dog Useful Only As Decoy/Bait. :biggrin:
Whole Home Alarm.
Recently, combination ornamental & wrought Iron on the basement windows that I welded up myself.
Since my stone house was built by a decently "well off' Dentist way back in 1910 ~ it's constructed like a doggone fort.
My front door is nearly 4" thick & is solid oak.

I am thinking about installing a video surveillance type camera on my front porch if I can figure out exactly which one to buy.
 
#11 ·
QKShooter said:
My front door is nearly 4" thick & is solid oak.
Holy crap, what guage are the hinges to hold up that hunk o wood???

QKShooter said:
I am thinking about installing a video surveillance type camera on my front porch if I can figure out exactly which one to buy.
Get the one that says "Smile you are on QK T.V.!!!"

~A
 
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