Home Security systems....

Yeah my next house will have a 3 car garage despite only owning 2 cars. It gives a more logical space to store crap in the garage that doesn't interfere with the parking arrangement.

Those are neat for stuff you nearly never use. Decorations and things like that you only need once a year.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Garages that are barely wide enough for the cars are a pet peeve of mine because even when there is no room people still try to store shit in them. I know so many people that have shit piled all down the center of their 2-car garage with zero extra space in it so you have to walk sideways to get to the door and then it will barely open wide enough to get in. I don't have a garage but if I build one I guarantee that shit will be at least 20 feet wider and longer than the space it takes to park the cars.

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Yea I bought a 2 car garage... my GF was excited until I parked my Mustang in there and she goes 'so yea, this is really only a 1 car garage if you want to get in and out huh?' I guess the median dimensions for cars in the 1980s was 4x8 or something.

My sister works/worked for a company that monitored and installed security systems with about 3/4 business and 1/4 residental, they're all over parts of the south now. Somehow she wound up with some equity in the company anyway.. She just built a new house. She didn't have a system installed because she thought it was a waste. Told me what I really needed to know when she didn't even have it put it while building at what I assume was a big discount.

The only thing I have done in the past is upgrade the actual door. If someone wants in they won't mess with the lock, they'll just kick the door in. So I have upgraded the jambs so the jamb doesn't bust when someone kicks it. But I am away from home a decent amount and one location is pretty rural.

A friend of mine lived in the suburbs, houses everywhere etc..They backed a truck up to his house and parked in the driveway. It had a plasma cutter, generator, compressor etc...on it and I assume people thought it was a worker doing something. They went right thru a window and cut the top off his gun safe. Apparently people saw it and didn't think anything of it.

Tenks_sl said:

Every home in my neighborhood has a 2 car garage yet the street is still littered with cars. I also don't get it.

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Here they are big on 2 car garages attached to houses with 6 bedrooms. Then people park in the street cause they have 2 kids that also drive. Annoys the shit out of me.

Nosy neighbors are a good thing I guess. The truck mentioned I think looked a lot like a service truck doing something.

Even a door hinge screwed in with lag screws it's not that hard to break the jam down considering it's nothing more than a pair of 2x4's sideways and attached to a giant flat surface. Of couse this only applies to someone who REALLY wants in.


The one house I lived at that I "uparmored" wasn't visible from the road. Not a big crime area but you do have someone who will rip off a tractor or other easily moved piece of equipment and didn't want them getting adveturesome if they tried.

Anything of value I don't want stolen and not easily replaced sits in my gun safe. Possibly not an option for a lot of people.

Upgrades front door.

Has 8 foot french door around back. Can't explain that!

Anyway, on a more serious note it really depends where you live. Also, with bump keys and similar tools meant to open a door without forced entry, I wonder how hard it would be to convince police and your insurance company that a bunch of valuable shit was walked out of your home without some sort of security system and/or camera footage? I hadn't really thought about it before but how would you prove it?

Just get an attack dog and train it to attack groins.

Palum_sl said:

Upgrades front door.

Has 8 foot french door around back. Can't explain that!

Anyway, on a more serious note it really depends where you live. Also, with bump keys and similar tools meant to open a door without forced entry, I wonder how hard it would be to convince police and your insurance company that a bunch of valuable shit was walked out of your home without some sort of security system and/or camera footage? I hadn't really thought about it before but how would you prove it?

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They'll mostly take your word. Thing is the score on stuff like that is pretty low unless they clean out your house and for that you need a moving truck and hours of time. Which people are going to notice.

The penalties for insurance fraud are also severe so when you go down that road it needs to be worth the risk. Then you go back to the issue of it not being easy to steal so much.

The best way to do it would be jewlery. Its on a separate policy though or rider and yeah you could get that "stolen" and get the police report to get paid. Then again when the 30k runs out and you try it again, well, that is how people get caught. Degenerate fucks that try that stuff tend to either be dumb and get caught or do it again which is when they start to get caught.

All it takes is one mistake from someone (you, neighbor, witness, friend, wife, kid etc) involved when talking to the cops for the 10th time answering the same questions over and over to draw suspicion.

I have a separate policy on firearms. They required an appraisal obviously, but they send someone to make sure they are actually on the premises every other year and do a quick random spot inventory. If not, firearms would be increadibly easy to make a false claim. They were here, now they're gone. It's not like if you comitted fraud you would be pawning them at the pawn shop. You could do all sorts of stuff, keep them at another location, do a face to face private sale (no paperwork, obviously not an entire collection at once) etc...Not that I have ever considered it, but I live alone and the guns are kept at a house that's not even visible from the road/public. I could load them into one of my trailers and nobody would see or know the difference than me loading up my rc airplanes in a trailer.

My brain works like that for some odd reason. At a recent project kick off when they announced the final contract price I mentioned how nice I could live if I only siphoned off 1% of the total. Got some odd looks.

Palum_sl said:

Yea I bought a 2 car garage... my GF was excited until I parked my Mustang in there and she goes 'so yea, this is really only a 1 car garage if you want to get in and out huh?' I guess the median dimensions for cars in the 1980s was 4x8 or something.

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Our "2 car" garage is adequate for decent size work benches around the side, some storage and washer and dryer and folding station and 1 car parked with easy entry/exit etc. I suppose if I took all the work bench stuff out and any storage items up to the attic I may be able to stick my van and suv in there.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Unless you have bars on your windows upgrading either your locks or your doors seems like a waste. 90% of houses are no harder to open than breaking a piece of glass. In my neighborhood most people don't even have locks on their doors and if you locked the door on my house I would have to break in because the only key is inside the house.

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The stuff I'm worried about being stolen would be nearly impossible to get out of a window. The reason I upgraded the door jamb to keep someone from kicking the door in/down is to keep them from rolling out the gun safes which would require a lot of work but it's happend. The odds of someone liting a 750 lb. safe thru a window is pretty low, if they manage it they can have it lol.

The everyday furnishings and whatever else I'm not worried about. But the double bonus if you look at the increase in home invasions in some areas (not the ghetto) they normally just kick the door down. The odds of that are incredibly rare in a rural area but you never know.

Obviously it's not for everyone. It wasn't a huge deal. I'm in the steel fab business we just made a frame when I built the house and anchored it to the concrete slab, just like the safes are anchored.

Borzak_sl said:

The stuff I'm worried about being stolen would be nearly impossible to get out of a window. The reason I upgraded the door jamb to keep someone from kicking the door in/down is to keep them from rolling out the gun safes which would require a lot of work but it's happend. The odds of someone liting a 750 lb. safe thru a window is pretty low, if they manage it they can have it lol.

The everyday furnishings and whatever else I'm not worried about. But the double bonus if you look at the increase in home invasions in some areas (not the ghetto) they normally just kick the door down. The odds of that are incredibly rare in a rural area but you never know.

Obviously it's not for everyone. It wasn't a huge deal. I'm in the steel fab business we just made a frame when I built the house and anchored it to the concrete slab, just like the safes are anchored.

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So, uh, what's to stop them from unlocking the door after they go through the window?