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I think i'm being scouted.
Posts
When someone breaks into your house, it's not just the financial loss that affects you, it's the loss of sense of security.
Because he seems to have such a great sense of security now?
You can't prepare for every eventuality. That's why renters insurance IS the best idea.
The amount of people who actually think a gun is some kind of solution in this situation is simply staggering.
I'm not suggesting that renter's insurance is a bad idea. The way tsmvengy had said it, I thought he didn't think it mattered if someone broke in as long as it could all be replaced. I was trying to say that preventing the break in altogether would be better as there are other costs besides financial that occur when someone violates your home. I also never suggested he get a gun, though I feel it is a valid form of home-defense if you feel like you are in danger of bodily harm.
You are on a video game forum. Shooting badguys is instinct here.
At this point I'd say if anything happens again like a knock or you see someone actively looking then do a confrontation. Call somebody first just in case and have them on the line is also a safe idea. Just get out there that these guys can't be sneaky. Gets them second guessing.
And renters insurance.
My life is more important than my shit, and I'd rather be armed just in case.
That kind of stuff puts you in much more dangerous legal territory than buckshot would. It's like firing a warning shot: by virtue of the fact that you are using potentially deadly force in an attempt to be less deadly, you are implicitly admitting that the threat wasn't severe enough to use deadly force in the first place.
We ought to just stop talking about guns in this situation - the most likely thing to occur is that they will get stolen when he's not at home.
Went out today to my bank to see about a safety deposit box, but unfortunately they're all taken. There's a few open at another location, but it's enough of a distance from my place (I only have a bike as transport) that it's no more convenient to me than if I used my relative's safety deposit.
That said, there's a few banks closer to me that I can (and will) check out.
I'll also be taking today to look into insurance and some of the other options you guys have listed (thank god i'm taking the summer off from school!). I'm gonna hit up the local general stores for security stickers and fake having ADT or something. I was gonna do the beware of dog thing, but my place is small enough to figure out that I don't have a dog, and that's an obvious bluff.
I was also considering getting some type of trunk or foot locker for my closet that I could store stuff in. Is this as (or more) viable than a safe? I imagine it's pricey, but if it's cheap enough (at or below 200) I could pony up.
I also don't expect anyone else to come knocking, looking for someone who isn't here, but if they do, I'll have my camera ready :lol: . I'll also look into the bump proof locks, and see if my landlord won't give me a discount or something on it. And I'll contact him today about the situation and see what his advice is (I don't think he'll have any though)
Indeed! I live a few blocks south of UNM off of Yale.
Sucks about your dad's tools.
I had some rakes and stuff in my side yard recently, but brought them inside before the whole incident yesterday occurred, thankfully. I've got a small rickety wooden chair out there now. It's not enough to get on the roof or anything (only a 1 floor apartment), but even then I'm planning on storing it somewhere.
I considered this. I figured if you were smart enough to case someone, then you'd have more than one excuse to knock on someone's door. But yeah, better safe than sorry.
Thanks again guys. Appreciate it.
in many states this is considered "menacing"
http://www.lawinfoboulder.com/areas_criminal_litigation/menacing.html
Its probably a very bad idea to cock a shotgun if you aren't planning on using it.
One day my family came home to find curtains blowing out a window. We had been robbed. Our neighbors said that a couple of kids rang her doorbell and asked if <random name> was home. She said they had the wrong house, and watch them as they walked down their driveway, over to our house, and up our driveway.
They must've been doing that waiting for the first house they found that didn't answer the door.
Hope it ends up being nothing.
kpop appreciation station i also like to tweet some
The IRA is pretty much limited to Northern Ireland, whilst there are some Sinn Fein/IRA type people in Ireland from my understanding they're pretty disliked as they're the equivalent of the nationalist type parties (for example BNP in the UK).
Also, the IRA doesn't normally deal in break-ins.. they do things like protection rackets and extortion to make their money to buy guns on the black market. Also, the IRA was swiss cheesed (by that I mean thoroughly infiltrated) by MI5 a fair few years back so they stopped essentially being any real threat to the UK in terms of terrorist/gun activity.
And to be clear the IRA's favoured method was bombs not guns, essentially whilst not impossible it's much harder to get guns in the UK and Ireland than it is to make a fertiliser based bomb. There's also less risk involved in buying fertiliser than trying to get illegal arms.
</slight derail>
As to security, I'd get some motion sensing cameras that record to jpegs and have them auto-upload to say a gmail account.
Having guns is such a monumentally bad idea, ultimately your home just contains things.. your life isn't in danger here. What happens if you have a gun and confront this person with it and they then manage to take the gun from you in a struggle and you end up shot with your own gun?
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Cool! I work right around that area, literally across the street from the Isotopes stadium. It seems we get a lot of walkers/bikers around here (mostly from the colleges). Aside from all the advice here, it looks like it's under control. Here's hoping that it turns into nothing!
*imaginary wild guess*
I've heard that installing your locksets inverted or spraying lubricant in the lockset can make it more diffcult to bump/pick. Though spraying lube into it is going to make the cylinder a magnet for dust and gunk so it's probably not a good idea.
None of these measures is going to prevent a master lockpicker from gaining access to your stuff (there's always the window), but chances are a master lock picker isn't wasting his time breaking into apartments.
You might want to get to know your neighbors and give a description of the person who was bugging you, so there are more eyes on the lookout.
I got broken into and it took over a year before I could rebuild the illusion of security that allows me to go to work and not constantly think about whether my shit's getting jacked.
Edit: I guess what I'm saying is there's no way to ensure the outcome that your place won't get burgled. You do what you can to protect yourself or insure that you can be made materially whole should it happen, and then move on with your life; don't get stuck turning your place into Ft. Knox, cause it's expensive and it's no guarantee that bad stuff won't happen.
I don't remember a 12 year old girl bumping the "bump-proof" lock. But I do know that people have managed to do it, http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/31/profile-of-the-lock-.html
Get a cheap footlocker with a big padlock on it, fill it with bricks and leave it by the front door. Maybe stencil FRAGILE ELECTRONICS, USE CARE on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1LH7lrftKA
now we're getting into the semantics of "bump-proof"
Ah yeah I remember that now. I knew it sounded familiar but didn't see anything on a quick search. I should of known though considering I was at Defcon for the past 4 years.
You may want to photoshop in "HCN1" or "Swine Flu" for added legitimacy.
1) Shotgun. You can buy a Maverick 88 (built by Mossberg) for about $100 new. Get some 00 shot and go to the range a few times to get used to handling the weapon. Load it and sick it under the bed... as long as you don't have kids or anyone else who would get a hold of it and hurt themselves.
2) Fake security cameras around the perimeter of the property. This is a great deterrent.
3) I know you said you couldn't get one, but a big dog is about the best deterrent you can possibly have in this situation. My dog (a 75lbs Weimaraner) goes bat shit when things go bump in the dark. I wouldn't want to face off with him.
careful on the security cameras.
I've heard horror stories of people having law suits filed against them because something happened to them in view of your "security" camera and the potential upset/loss that results when they cannot acquire a video tape of what happened to them.
And not to be a dick, but the issue has been repeatedly noted that the suspected 'scouts' seem to be casing the place for a time when he isn't home, in which case a gun is worse than useless, as a criminal may now have access to said shotgun, which even worse, is presumably registered under his name. The issue at hand is prevention of a robbery while out of the house, not a home invasion.
No they are not a great deterrent. They aren't a good deterrent. They aren't a poor deterrent. They aren't a deterrent at all. There are times when you can get a deterrence effect from CCTV. You will never get one of those times when deploying it for home security.
and when you are home don't confront them with weapons, slip on your own ski mask and make like you're one of them or you got there first and this is your turf
Court cases based on having fake security cameras? I might be able to believe this if a business were involved and that business lead a customer to believe that they were "safe" because the area was being "monitored". In the case of a private residence, there would be no legal ground for a "victim" to stand on what-so-ever. They might be upset, but, well, who cares?
I'm sorry, but I'm really not following the point you are trying to convey. Are you saying that a fake security camera located on private property is not going to be an effective mechanism of deterring potential criminal activity?
CCTV cameras, real or fake will not prevent home break in. They are not a deterrent for home break in. Video systems are not intended to be a deterrent to break ins. That goes against their basic design principles which is to record events. Fake cameras do not have a magical aura that changes this.
The goal of our founding fathers was freedom. The goal of our current politicians is control.
Why would you use wireless webcams? You're still going to need to power them.
Get insurance
Get fucking insurance
If you have insurance, yeah, photograph your shit, and then store a copy of those photos on a CD in your desk drawer at work. Not at the apartment.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Agreed, 100%.
Any money spent on a video camera, wireless, wired, fake, real, frosted with icing and a cherry on top, will be wasted.
Unless the frosting and cherry are particularly delicious. They have no value at all to you and serve no purpose and will only cost you time and money. You will be worse off for having purchased and installed one.
Also, you won't need a fucking video camera if you've got up to date insurance, an accurate log of your possessions (with photo evidence ideally), and locks on the door that do not match the keys you lost. If your door is kicked in and the shit is gone, you are not going to be expected to furnish the police with surveillance footage of the crime in order to get them to agree that a crime was committed.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I don't follow statistics but years ago in college we had an ethics debate about gun ownership and I remember finding out that there's sort of a give and take with owning a gun. Years ago I think it was said that if you have a gun you're about a third less likely to come to harm in an assault/theft scenario. However you're equally as likely to hurt yourself with it or someone who is not an assailant or thief. Just recently I recall there was a boy shot and killed by a couple in Texas because he wandered onto their property.
Never assume that the law will be on your side in a self-defense shooting scenario, we live in a country that still has quite a bit of emphasis not on victims rights but criminals rights, some would argue this is unfortunate but this isn't the forum for such things. Even if you eventually win any legal cases that result from shooting an intruder which can range from justifiable homicide to civil damages, there's a lot of time, effort, publicity and other things that make that TV and 360 seem like small potatoes.
Precautions are really the best way to go. Insurance, neighborhood watches, cameras, police patrols (if you can get them) and dogs are the best way to go I think. The idea of substituting a bat for a gun is dicey, especially if you're not a physically strong person. 3 v 1 with the 1 having a bat, I'd still lay odds on the 3.
If the OP has to shoot a dude, I doubt it's because the guy was making a false move towards his Xbox.
To say they are without value isn't quite true either. If set up properly they can be useful for identifying thieves, which sometimes can make it easier to get back some of your items. It's not a replacement for insurance, but sometimes being able to retrieve your things can prevent the loss of items with sentimental value. The biggest problem for homeowners is setting up a system correctly is expensive and time consuming. You get a lot of people who attempt half-assed solutions like webcams, or don't take the time to look at things like how lighting will affect your image.
It's not the first place to spend money for home security, in fact it's well toward the bottom of the list.
1. Get insurance. No matter what precautions you take, you still might get robbed. You can't be around 24/7, and it's probably better that you get robbed while you aren't home anyways. Let's face it, you don't know who they are, or how dangerous they are. If you do get robbed while you're not at home, be happy you weren't at home.
2. Make it very apparent that robbing you isn't worth it. We own multiple television sets and video game systems. The only TV visible from outside is obviously a piece of crap, and it has a strawberry short cake DVD player hooked up to it. People are giving away old TV's all the time, owning a shitty one is worth it. The more security you have around your house, the more obvious it is to a thief that you have something worth stealing.
then use a gun to shoot anyone who takes it
I'm sorry, but what you state above simply isn't true. Are you actively working in the security industry or is this something you are simply speculating about? I implement and manage security measures at nuclear facilities, just so you know where I'm coming from. Cameras, real or fake, are incredibly effective as deterrents for criminal activity. You seem to be confused about what is a preventative measure and what is a deterrent. A camera is not a preventative measure; it is not going to prevent a break-in from happening. It is, however, an exceedingly effective deterrent by making those looking to commit criminal activity feel as if they are being watched (whether they actually are or not). Much like a six foot high fence isn't a preventative measure, it's a deterrent; it's not going to prevent someone from crossing a certain point, but it's going to slow their progress or be a hindrance. An eight foot high fence with razor wire top and bottom is a preventative measure. It is going to prevent someone from crossing a certain point. Do you see the difference?