Wanna scare yourself? Break into your own house.

[Stinky The Clown]

It is EASY.

I did the stupidest thing in the world today. I was about to leave. My house was locked, and I locked my keys into my **running** car. My neighbor has a key to my house. They were not home. Sparkly was away. There I was. The dogs inside, me outside.

After noodling on it for a few minutes, I crafted the following plan:

I broke a basement window with a rock, opened the window, and climbed into the house.

30 seconds, tops ..... and I am an amateur.

No one noticed.

[Deja Q]

1. The only thing missing from that story is a set of directions to your place.

:evilfrown:

[smoogatz]

2. Easy fix:

Install a deadbolt on your basement door. Next?

[Renew Deal]

4. Easier fix. Build a moat and fill it with alligators

Duh :dunce:

[smoogatz]

20. Radioactive alligators.

In a moat full of flaming sewage. But then, if you lock yourself out of your house, you're screwed...

[A HERETIC I AM]

26. With frickin' lasers on their heads. n/t

[parasim]

10. Not sure how much of a fix that is...

since the point-of-entry was the basement window. :shrug:

[smoogatz]

15. Um...

You'd install it on the outside of the basement door--the side facing the living area. So anyone in the basement would be, you know, locked in the basement.

[parasim]

29. Duh... ok, I'm an idiot, I wasn't thinking about the basement door inside the house...

I was thinking about an outside basement door. My bad.

It's kind of funny, too, because that's exactly the kind of configuration I have at my house, except it's the garage door not the basement door.

[Fumesucker]

14. Once someone is in the basement, they can break down the door at their leisure..

Most residential interior doors are made from reinforced cardboard anyway. Hell, going through interior *walls* isn't hard, half a dozen kicks and you have a hole big enough to crawl through. The door frames also will give way very easily from a few kicks, modern homes are built to be cheap, not tough.

When I used to work construction a lot of us would laugh at TV shows and movies where someone is locked in a room, you couldn't keep any of us locked in a normal room for over a minute, tops.

[smoogatz]

18. Yeah, but if you were in the house

you'd have time to arm yourself and call 911 before they got through. Cheaper than an alarm system, but you could install one of those, too.

Our house was built in 1901--you'd have to fight your way through a solid oak door latched on the outside, or give breaking through two layers of plaster and lath your best shot. Maybe you'd get through it in a half-hour or so, if you had a crow-bar handy. Maybe.

[Renew Deal]

27. I have visions of "The People Under the Stairs"

:hide:

[Fumesucker]

30. Eh, I have a battery operated sawzall, I can get through any wood door in under a minute..

Just cut around the lock(s).

I was talking about someone in *most* houses in the US today and doing it with no tools.

A pro will have tools, probably better than mine.

[bottomtheweaver]

23. Another easy fix: a couple of yards of rabbit cage mesh from Home Depot

Double it up and screw it to the outside of the window about every 8" or so. Use a power drill. That was my fix for window air conditioners before I got bars.

[Marr]

36. A car jack will fix that in about 2 minutes.

[tridim]

3. I live in a condo and every second level window in our complex is easily..

broken into. Everyone that lives here knows about the 2nd story window entry point. Pretty scary.

[sandnsea]

5. Most robberies are through unlocked doors

or unlocked windows. Read that somewhere.

Feel safer now?

[supernova]

6. Ha Ha. I've had to do that

My usual entry door is inside my glassed-in sunroom. The sunroom has sliding glass doors that work with a vertical lever. Up is open, down is locked shut. There is no way to unlock these things from the outside. Sometimes I have gone outside and closed the glass door so hard, the lever fell down and locked me out! :P

The only way back in was to break into the laundry room window, which I often leave up to vent the dryer.

Man, talk about feeling dumb!

[Vinca]

7. I've got keys hidden in a couple of different places and it's a good thing.

The only way to break into the house would involve crawling through a 200 year old crawl space that is filled with rocks, wires, pipes and heating ducts (and who knows what else). I only had to have this experience once to send me to the hardware store to get extra keys made.

[Lost in CT]

9. That sounds like a job for Nicholas Cage..... nt

[SheilaT]

8. Would you rather it had been completely

impossible to break in? So you could have watched your car run until it finally ran out of gas and the neighbor eventually came home?

I have been trying to figure out a place outside my apartment where I can hide a key just in case I accidentally lock myself outside. But it's so bare outside that I can't think of anyplace that wouldn't also be blindingly obvious to a potential thief. My main protection is that I live in a no more than okay neighborhood, and don't own a big-screen TV so maybe any thief that broke in wouldn't be that interested in my stuff.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Our security blanket was alluded to in my OP .....

The dogs. 160 lbs of them. With big teeth and a penchant for barking and growling up a storm when so much as a leaf blows by.

[SheilaT]

50. I have three cats.

Not sure how much of a home security system they would be in a pinch. :)

[K Gardner]

11. I locked myself outside of my main house with no clothes on one time. Had to exit the

laundry room (where there was conveniently NO laundry clean or otherwise) and run to the front door wrapped in newspaper when I was unable to break the chained folding door down. Long story. But newspaper and duct tape worked in a jam.

[hobbit709]

13. Somebody once saw me get into my garage

when I locked my keys inside. Takes about 5 minutes to work the latch loose and get the door open. Their comment was that looked easy. I said try it. My dogs stayed quiet because they knew it was me. They didn't stay quiet for him. All 8 of them at the time-the smallest weighed 40 lbs. The people in my neighborhood know what the "CAVE CANEM" sign means.

[onethatcares]

16. easy solution

get a hide a key case and put your house key and one of your car keys in it. Put it on the frame or metal bumper of your car (change it around when you feel the need), or use the brake backing plate to hold it. Trust me, it is worth the cost.

[TahitiNut]

17. Lockbox. Emergency services knows combination. Family knows.

It'd take 1,000 times more effort to break open the lock box than to disassemble/destroy part of the house to get in.

[NMDemDist2]

19. hell dude, I climbed half way through my dog door and unlocked the back door

it was ridiculously easy

:rofl:

[cali]

21. Seeing as I never lock my house, it truly would be easy to break in

Hell, I was just away for a month and left it unlocked.

[smoogatz]

22. I've climbed in my own unlocked windows, etc., a bunch of times.

I've lived in houses with old-fashioned door-locks that could be slipped with a credit card, too. Nobody notices, generally speaking--although my brother called the cops awhile back when he saw a kid climbing through his neighbor's window in the middle of the night. Their daughter's boyfriend, turned out. D'oh!

[DesertRat]

24. I locked myself out once and got in through the doggy door

I put my arm (not my whole body LOL) through the doggy door and stretched up to unlock the door. I remembered to use the deadbolt after that.

[fizzgig]

25. no one noticed when i used a ladder to climb into an upstairs window at my dad's

i locked my car and house keys inside and he keeps all the basement windows locked, so i grabbed the ladder from the garage and climbed right in.

most burglaries are crimes of opportunity due to an unlocked door or window. if someone really wants to get into my house, i'm sure they will find a way.

[GentryDixon]

28. I crawled through a kitchen window

in North Carolina many years ago. I had a fly strip over the sink, which promptly got stuck in my hair, flies and all. Disgusting.

Until I moved to NC, I have never even heard of a fly strip. Yuck.

[SoCalDem]

31. I used to keep a brick by the garage side door

My husband used to get very tired of repairing the glass panel in the door:)

[endarkenment]

32. Generally you don't have to break anything.

I am lucky enough to live in an area where locking up, silly as it is, is not needed. Unless you go for gates bars reinforced doors alarm systems from hell and really mean critters, just don't worry so much.

[WillieW]

33. I done broke into my house through a window. Neighbor called the cops.

[Marr]

34. You... broke the window...?

I've broken into my house in minutes without breaking anything. Bathroom windows are usually unlocked, and even if it isn't, there's usually at least one window that isn't locked. Screens can be lifted out of the frame easily enough.

[islandmkl]

35. sorry to veer off-topic, but...i am compiling a 'consumer spending' database...

you could provide a detailed list of any of the following items you have purchased in the past 5 years that are still in your possession:

*high-tech electronic items (TVs, computers, audio/video equipment, etc.)

*jewelry, watches, antiques, etc. - items of personal value

*weaponry of any kind

*'second' or 'third' vehicles

*surveillance/security equipment

one last series of questions:

*do you have a pet dog?

*if so, what breed and size?

*what brand of dog feed and dog treats do you purchase?

--once again, sorry to go off-topic, but i just thought this was a good time to conduct a survey...

[Stinky The Clown]

42. Survey answers:

Big (95 lbs):






Little (65 lbs):

[islandmkl]

44. those are some great looking dogs...does the 'little' one like to herd things?

[Stinky The Clown]

46. She does .... but more than that, she likes to protect things.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x38682

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

37. Were you under the impression that windows were hard to break?

I don't get the scary part.

[flvegan]

38. You're lucky you didn't encounter an armed you when you broke in!

Oh...wait a minute...

[KansDem]

41. LOL!!!

Hey, Me! Stop right there. I got me covered. Hello, police? I'd like to report a burglar. What? Description? Oh, wait a minute and let me get a mirror...

[Stinky The Clown]

47. I worried about that.

I've kicked my own ass more than once. I'm tough and can easily beat myself into a pulp.

[EFerrari]

39. It was easy. That's one reason I got a big dog. n/t

[malaise]

40. This happened to me over 30 years ago

My friend was heading home and I opened the door to let him out. He started chatting and before long we were sitting on a wall chatting outside my apartment and then we heard the door slam. Of course I never took the keys outside with me. Then boyfriend, now hubby, was able to break in so easily that he insisted that I move the next day.

That was a good lesson - from that day I have never been outside without keys.

[SmileyRose]

43. Do you have a garage opener with a keypad?

We don't have a garage at my house but someone I know has a detached garage with a keypad access, they can open the garage with the keypad and in a location inside that garage a housekey is hidden where no thief on earth would ever think of looking.

[annabanana]

45. (spare key, well hidden). . . . n/t

[cobalt1999]

48. Breaking a window to get in isn't hard.

The problem someone else would have at my house is dealing with the German Shepard that would meet them.

[hunter]

49. No need to break into my house.

You can buy stuff like that at any thrift store for cheap withot having to fight off stinky dogs who want to knock you down and lick your face.

Sometimes it takes me an hour to find my own misplaced "valuables." Where the hell did I leave my wallet this time?