Maybe leave some targets with several holes near the bullseye on a bench near the front door...

Sue

Kinda like when you have a baby, you crawl around on the floor to see what hazards you can see from the baby's point of view.

Pretend you're trying to break in.

How would you get in? When is going to best time to do it and not be caught?

Pretend you want to get a hold of one of the family members to do harm.

How would you get to them? Where would you wait for an ambush? When would you attack?

I found the exercise scary as hell but I became aware of some weak spots in our defenses that I hadn't thought of.

The hardest is deciding which breach is most likely and focusing on that, and not turning the home into a prison.

1. Gate the entrance.
1a. Fence property if accessible by vehicle any other way, or block other entrances with other gates or road blocks.

2. Dogs scare off wanna-be crooks not real ones who do the damage, dogs are a good method to alert you that someone is coming or at / around your house... use the dog for nothing more than alert.

3. Home security system... to your cell #: http://www.alarmsystemstore.com/GE-Simon-XT-Wireless-Sensors-and-Remotes-s/67.htm is a good system, you get page you call authorities. You can also tie it into a monitoring service if you want too.... door, window, motion, glass, etc sensors, great stuff. Loud alarm too is good.

4. Video cameras. Good to check if you heard a sound and want to see if anyone is snooping around near your house, unless you have BIG $ not good for around property. Good if you have broadband and want to check-up from internet too while you are away. Also nice to have hooked up to a computer w/wireless router so you can connect to your *SECURE* network via your laptop and view cameras from anywhere in the house. (You hide, check cameras find out where the threat is coming from).

5. Flood lights around house that you can turn on when you are home and think you are threatened.. blinding light facing outward, and you can see most threads coming then.

6. Know your weak spots and make sure you can monitor them good.
6a. Know your strengths and an area you can `run to` and defend better than your other areas.

7. Learn your new area, the sounds, the vehicles, etc. don't be surprised by things that are common / repeated for that area.

8. Make sure you and the wife know how to use a fire arm.

9. Walkie-Talkies when you go out on the property to the wife back home... gotta stay in touch.


As I think of more I`ll let you know.

One of the better recommendations that I've heard over the years (and one that seems to make sense in my albeit limtied experience) is that it pays to put the most emphasis on "passive" protection - doors, windows, fences etc., basically everything that creates a physical barrier.

Alarms and detection systems have their place but they are not necessarily an effective deterrent. Also, they can be bypassed in many ways. But a thick solid wall is a real obstacle. A heavy door with a good lock can't be breached so easily. Windows may be especially vulnerable (should have some reliable means of keeping them closed, a lock if possible). Investing in solid shutters might not be a bad idea either.

Living in the age of plaster walls and cheapo construction methods has certain drawbacks. If you look at some of the older farmhouses they were a lot better - thick brick walls, heavy doors, relatively small windows with iron bars etc.

Modern apartments are especially vulnerable. Just the other day I helped a friend of mine install a new "burglar proof" door. We removed the old door complete with the frame in a matter of minutes with some power tools - the wall was so soft I think it could even be done with a big screwdriver if you had enough time.

This. A bunch of noisy, easily startled farm birds would help as well, in more ways than one.



You do realize sign fraud puts countless lives and properties around the world at risk, don't you? Just checking.

At least in a rural area your risk is lower, my parents still leave their doors unlocked.

Poeple go for the ourbuildings first, detached garages, sheds, etc where they can break into without being heard or seen and steal tools to pawn. Then it will be a back door or window away from roads where someone coming by could see them.

After our shed was broken into and I fixed the damage there I looked at the old wooden door on the back of our garage and went and bought a new door. i actually bought a new front door for the house and swapped them, putting the brand new door on the house and the existing door on the garage, both were steel doors.
I had to widen the opening to make the entry door fit the garage so while I had the wall open I made sure to put double 2x4's on each side of the door frame with 3.5" constuction screws hlding everything in place, then marked the spot for the deadbolt and drlled out a hole there and drove a piece of pipe theough so the deadbolt went into the pipe rather than just that thin metal plate that screws to the frame. Someone will break their leg on that door if they try to kick it open.
Next is windows, put those little clamps or just put in a screw or drill a hole for a downel pin so they can't be opened far enough to crawl through so they would just have to break the glass. You could put a steel pipe inside the opening to cut across the open hole preventing anyone from crawling through.

My geese outperform my dog as far as detection goes.
Noisier, too.

Never did what you suggest as an excercise, but many times as a kid I'd "break into" our old house after forgetting my keys on the way to school. And, once at my parent's new home after I drove cross country, and realized I didn't have keys to the house since I moved 3000 miles away. So, I've broken into both of my parents' houses before. All without breaking the windows! Imagine how easy it'd be for someone that made a job out of that sort of thing.

I hear that guineas sound a pretty good alarm, too, but I'm not sure about nighttime. Some birds are nightblind. But they are noisy without strangers around, so I wonder how you would tell the difference?

A "Beware of Dog" sign when you have a dog is an invitation to a lawsuit. It is advertising (rightly or wrongly) that you know you have a vicious dog. Better is a "No Tresspassing" sign, legally.

Don't leave your door unlocked. Just because you trust your neighbors doesn't mean you can trust any bunch of joyriding teenagers or meth heads looking to score something they can sell.

Sue

I picked up a couple of small signs a few years ago. They were too funny to pass up but I'll admit that I've yet to mount them anywhere. The sign has the silloute of a person standing in crosshairs. The text below the image states "If you can see this, I can see you."