Help making this man's new castle a fortress?

[Hopyard]

I don't know if my approach has any real value, but it makes sense to me and costs very little.
1) ON front door--- put a door bar on there when you go to sleep. Same for door from the garage into the house.
These cost about 25 bucks at Target. If you shop around you can find some in the same price range which have built in
alarms.

2) Put up some Beware of Dog signs. Doesn't matter if you don't have a dog.
Having a dog is better, but the signs are a minor deterrent unless its a dognapper.

3) As already mentioned, and if your garage door opener can be fixed up this way, change the code. If you can't change the
code chances are it changes automatically -- on a more modern unit anyway, so that won't be an issue.

4) If you buy an inexpensive sound activated electric switch or remote activated electric switch, you can plug it into
the outlet your garage door opener gets its power from. Turn the power to the garage door opener off when you go to bed.

5) Pay serious attention to that side garage door. I put an exterior screen door on; then bolted some bars across the aluminum
frame, and put a combo lock on the inside. Its not fool proof. But it will sure as heck slow someone who thinks they can
ambulate into your garage and ambush you there or gain entry to the house from there.

6) Harbour Freight sells very inexpensive excellent driveway alarms. Mount a couple in your garage so you know
if someone gets in there before they break into the house from the garage. These are inexpensive -- the C cells needed
and the 9 volt needed cost almost as much as the alarm. Use two. It will keep you from getting spooked if one
goes off for not reason; pretty rare actually with the ones I have, but I did once get awakened by a false alert at 2 AM.
With 2 in there, you can probably ignore just one alerting.

7) Harbour Freight again. They sell nice little window alarms that stick on to your window and will make lots of noise
if someone so much as touches the glass hard. Seriously, they cost 5 bucks for a package of 2, batteries included. You can't replace the batteries for that price. I don't think their real value is in the alarm per se, though that might give you
a few seconds wake up. The real value is the message sent to someone looking at your house. They know there is some sort of alarm system, but probably don't know how feeble it is. They also don't know what else you might have. Maybe they'll go find an easier place. I've got something like 17 of these on my windows. Never have a false alarm. They only go off if you happen to bang something against the glass.

8) Depending on your location and climate, you might be able to mount some motion activated solar flood lights on the outside.
Not the cheapest stuff, but you don't need an electrician to run weatherproof boxes to the eves and gables.

9) Old work-boots-- dirty. EXTRA LARGE. Leave at front door. Leave on back patio. Check out the stores that sell used
clothes for el-cheapo stuff. Leave the impression there is a tough working man inside.

10) No NRA signs, CC signs, Hunting oriented signs or pics or stuff that can be seen from the outside. It all says
there might be guns worth stealing inside.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[QKShooter]

I haven't talked with the landlord about possibly having home improvements taken out of my rent as I've heard some will do, but I don't care if they won't. I'm doing it anyway. Other ideas or suggestions?

Yes, whatever changes or modifications you make to any rental property - always get your permission in writing from the property owner or it could come back to bite you later on when you're trying to get your security deposit back at some point down the road. It often does.


Just get it in writing now. You'll thank me later.

[paaiyan]

On most garage door openers they have a code. You may want to change the code from the previous electric garage door openers

The garage door does not have an automatic opener.

I don't know,If I had to put myself in prison,I think about moving.

I don't understand what you mean...

Buy a safe and get a good dog...

I perhaps didn't speak strongly enough earlier. I *really* don't like dogs.

Also drive way directors are nice!

The driveway isn't long enough to warrant one and I park in it anyway.

Just get it in writing now. You'll thank me later.

I'm going to work on that.

Hoppy, good points all around. I'll see about the window alarms; the alarm system doesn't have glass-break sensors, just ones that go off if it opens. The door bars I'm going to guess I couldn't get approved. The motion-lights are something I'm definitely looking into. And I never advertise I own guns or anything with stickers. Nothing says "rob me!" quite like an NRA, Kicker or Apple sticker.


Good news, I got the alarm working! For the most part. One of the door sensors got destroyed when they replaced the frame of the door, but the way it's positioned I should be able to replace it easily. I'm planning a call to the landlord today to have him come over and take a look at the things I'd like to do.

[Hopyard]

Hoppy, good points all around. I'll see about the window alarms; the alarm system doesn't have glass-break sensors, just ones that go off if it opens. The door bars I'm going to guess I couldn't get approved.
.

No approval needed. I'm talking about the ones that go under your door handle, angle down, and stop at the floor.
They don't get nailed or screwed in place. It takes 3 seconds to put them on and 3 seconds to remove them, and they
make it difficult for someone who has "bumped" your lock to push the door inward.

[paaiyan]

Oh, I see what you're talking about now. When you said door bar I was picturing this:

door-bar-lock-134192.jpg

[Hopyard]

Oh, I see what you're talking about now. When you said door bar I was picturing this:

door-bar-lock-134192.jpg

Also, those driveway alerts don't go in the driveway. Use them to guard the interior of your garage. They aren't as annoying
as a full alarm, but they'll let you know if someone found their way in there.

IF you back up your existing alarm with some driveway alerts and the window glass alarms I told you about you'll have
a multi-layered system.

[paaiyan]

Yeah I've already looked up a couple window-glass alarms and will probably grab a few. I'll check into something I can use for the garage too, I hadn't thought about that. I have a couple coupons for Lowe's that I'll put to good use soon.

[ampre]

The Strikemaster II helps to prevent kick-ins, but (to my knowledge) does nothing for lock-bumping, so you might also consider putting bump-resistant locks, like the Quikset smart-key, on all your exterior doors (if you don't have them already). I also like this product Power Wedge.NET - Providing safe and secure floor mounted locking systems for exterior doors . Only problem is you can only use it when you're in the home.

[goldshellback]

Ret, Hop, and QK already posted what I would recomend.

I'll second getting a good dog if at all feesable.

[paaiyan]

Just got back from a week of vacation (which I did not announce to the world on the internet) and wanted to let you guys know I did get the front door sensor working. That means I have a sensor on every exterior door and window in the house. Good stuff. My wife was home while I was out, so she stuck a small alarm on the bedroom door. Just one of the ones that has a bar magnet and sensor that stick on the door/frame and makes a loud noise when it opens. Apparently the magnet part fell off at one point last week and set it off. She apparently had her gun in hand so fast she had to find the holster she keeps it in later. She checked it out and realized what happened.

So the quest to secure my home continues.