On 2011-02-17, Frank J Warner wrote:

[ ... ]

Locks. Phhht! Who needs 'em?

I've lived my house for 22 years and have never once locked my front
door. I don't even know where the keys are. Not even after the major
remodel in 2004.

[ ... ]

It's location, actually. I live next door to a sheriff's substation.
Patrol cars coming and going at all hours of the day & night. They wave
& smile as they go by. Some of you might not be so lucky . . . .

Living next to the sheriff's substation is one contributing
factor.

What about where in the country you are living. The fact that
it is Sheriff's suggests rather rural or small town.

In the Washington DC vicinity -- things are not so good. We
used to not lock the car in our own parking (fairly far off the street).
but some kids opened the door and helped themselves to a flashlight and
a pair of sunglasses from the glove compartment. I suspect that the
sunglasses disappointed them. They were in a Ray-Ban case, but were
cheap plastic lenses instead.

In the suburbs, where I live, the closer you live to a Metro
stop (subway/aboveground mass transit), the more likely that someone
will take the Metro to be able to rob a more affluent population, and
then return to where they live using the same transport.

I don't have a serious lock system. Just the key in the
doorknob setup. But it is easy for someone to break the window right
beside it, reach in and turn the inside knob to get in. If I wanted to
protect against that, I would have to have a steel door (or at least
steel plate over wood -- say 14 Gauge or so bolted to both sides with
carriage bolts, then set up one of the "knuckle" locks, except with
another keyhole on the inside. I would have to use keys to lock and
unlock the door from either side.

But (I am far enough away from the Metro stop so I won't worry
that much. :-)

And I would sort of like seeing a couple of young thieves trying
to steel my 24" DiAcro brake. It is *not* a feather. :-) And most of
the stuff I have is weird enough so they would have difficulty knowing
what was worth anything and what was not. The Nichols mill would be
even more difficult to move. Same for the 12x24" Clausing lathe.

I'm pretty sure that my apartment years ago (before the Metro
even existed) was entered a few times while I was at work or elsewhere,
but nothing looked valuable to the typical thief. (And it was not a
high-income area, anyway. :-) The firearms were in a security file
cabinet which they would not be equipped to open, and since it was
mostly file cabinet, it did not look as though it had anything worth
stealing anyway.

Instead -- I just try to not look prosperous (because I am not).
I find myself wondering what effect putting the metalized tape on the
ground floor windows would have? Make it look protected by a fire
alarm, or make it look too prosperous?

Enjoy,
DoN.

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