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Thread: Pre-SHTF Home Security/CCTV/Hardening

  1. #1
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    Pre-SHTF Home Security/CCTV/Hardening

    I wonder if we could get a sticky like the Comms thread?

    Just read this:
    http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/136...n_.html&page=2

    Makes me want to hurry the hell up and finish the window film.

    There are multiple things we can go over in here - alarm systems, doors, reinforcing, locks...the possibilities are endless, and I know we have some good experience here.

    Just to get things started - I took up locksport a while back. DAME/DASE has always been an area that interested me, since I was a kid and didn't even know what it meant. I am NOT "good" at it by any means, but I'm good enough to scare the hell out of myself. Go look at your doors and see what kind of locks you have. Go on, I'll wait.

    Kwikset, huh?

    After desultory ****ing around with a basic pick set, I can walk through a Kwikset in 15 seconds if I get lucky, and two minutes if I'm not...and I suck. The guy who is learning me on this is a former SMU member who can open these locks so fast it looks like he used a key. But regardless, what I'm getting at is that it doesn't take James Bond to open one of these things. And that doesn't even take into account bump keys.

    Watch this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVUjQh7dya8

    And this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8G63AUJTnY

    Want to talk about locks now?

  2. #2
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    Great thread idea, something I am very interested in. New home owner here, been considering an alarm system and security film (house has a lot of windows).

    SItuation:
    Pros-
    -Good neighborhood/neighbors
    -area is away from main roads, very quiet region
    -good visibility / lighting around the house exterior
    -three dogs, one of which is a 150 pound Rotty in a Jack Russell body
    -a few good safes throughout the house for firearms / important docs

    Cons-
    -large bay windows ALL over the house
    -no security system
    -neighborhood is still under development, which means a number of unfamiliar vehicles going in and out al the time

    I'm sure many others here have similar setups / problems.
    Has anyone here recently purchased a security system or new locks?

  3. #3
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    The alarm business is a ****ing racket. I know, because I worked in it for about 6 years. Run far, far away from ADT, Wells Fargo, or any of the well-known companies. So far I have found ONE alarm company that seems honest, doesn't lock you into a contract, and has great customer service. That would be alarm.com. I seldom evangelize for any company or product, but I've used them since they were a startup in 2005 and have turned a lot of people on to them.

    I could tell you horror stories about ADT that are never-ending.

    If you go with Alarm.com or FrontPoint (which I believe is the dealer that they use now), I can help you quite a bit with suggestions because I know their panel inside and out.

    As far as locks - depends on how secure you want to go. A mid-grade Schlage is better than a vanilla Kwikset, but for the SCAR of locks, you'd want an Abloy Protec or a Bilock brand cylinder. I have no personal experience with the Bilock but they are spoken highly of. Abloy is the ****ing bomb though, if you really want to be sure. Look here: https://securitysnobs.com/

    And if you REALLY want to be sure, add a Geminy Shield to the Abloy Protec. But before you put money into that, you need security doors and window protection, otherwise they'll just look at your high-zoot lock and say "Well, **** it then" and throw a chair through a window.

    Quote Originally Posted by ancient_serpent View Post
    Great thread idea, something I am very interested in. New home owner here, been considering an alarm system and security film (house has a lot of windows).

    SItuation:
    Pros-
    -Good neighborhood/neighbors
    -area is away from main roads, very quiet region
    -good visibility / lighting around the house exterior
    -three dogs, one of which is a 150 pound Rotty in a Jack Russell body
    -a few good safes throughout the house for firearms / important docs

    Cons-
    -large bay windows ALL over the house
    -no security system
    -neighborhood is still under development, which means a number of unfamiliar vehicles going in and out al the time

    I'm sure many others here have similar setups / problems.
    Has anyone here recently purchased a security system or new locks?
    Last edited by QuietShootr; 09-21-12 at 14:34.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by QuietShootr View Post
    The alarm business is a ****ing racket.
    The BUSINESS is a racket, alarms in general, not so much. Paying some company to monitor it for you on a monthly contract may not be the best idea, but if you have a system designed for you by a custom designer, it's a little different. It can get as complex and automated as you want, or as simple as you want.

    Pretty cool to have glass break sensors, motion sensors, contact sensors all connected to cameras. Say for instance you have a motion detector go off on the front gate. The system can be designed to automatically feed the video from the nearest camera directly to a device such as an iPad or a dedicated monitor. So, alarm goes off on the ipad, you roll over, pick it up and it's showing you what set off the motion detector. Have this set up to activate external audible alarm on the property and flood lights or not. Add IR cameras if you wanna be the best on the block. Substitute break sensor or contact point and you can see immediately what's happening anywhere you have sensors and cameras. Tie the system into an automatic generator if the power is cut. Some of the high end ones power on within a second or two of power loss, even standard auto gens bring power back up within 10 seconds.

    That is probably above what the average person would want, but it's still pretty cool. The wiring, controls and equipment can get pretty complicated and expensive though.

    Even on a relatively small budget, you can still have a self contained system that doesn't require you have monitoring service like ADT or Pinnacle or all of the others require. Most of them give you basic equipment and installation for free if you sign the monthly service contract. If all you want is a couple of cameras and door sensors, to either alert you or scare off an intruder, its pretty painless.

  5. #5
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    Lightbulb

    Quote Originally Posted by QuietShootr View Post
    Aside from the physical security aspects, what have you done to catalog and itemize your possessions? When you call your local LE, ATF branch, and insurance company to report the thefts do you have the stolen items model numbers, serial numbers, descriptions, et al. recorded somewhere in a safe place? A safe place being another physical location in case your home is completely destroyed by a fire or some natural disaster.

    I've gone as far as to engrave my DL # on my electronics so in the event they are stolen and recovered by LE it would aid in the investigation and recovery time of my goods.

    One must have photos as well, nothing fancy just clear pics of the item and it’s serial number. I have a buddy who walked through his home with a video camera filming everything and giving a verbal description of all the info I listed above. If you create something as simple as a word document with an itemized list of your possessions and digital photos of the items you can simply upload the info to several different flash drives that you can keep at several off site locations such as a trusted relative's or friend's home and or a safety deposit box.
    Last edited by Moose-Knuckle; 09-21-12 at 17:42.
    "In a nut shell, if it ever goes to Civil War, I'm afraid I'll be in the middle 70%, shooting at both sides" — 26 Inf


    "We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them." — CNN's Don Lemon 10/30/18

  6. #6
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    I have always been fascinated with this stuff since I was a kid. My father was a foreman at a large construction company and rather than have master keys for small locks they would make a key.

    Those master bicycle locks where you file off the rear parts. or some small Yale locks which you can do similar. The "school locker" combos, and "bike chain" combos.

    I can also bypass some "lock-boxes" that are used to store keys.


    Of course when I lock myself out of the house, I never seem to have what I need to get back in.

    I guess I'll be the dummy again... what is DAME DASE?

    ==============

    I guess you have considered that with those fancy locks you mentioned that someone can still open your home with a battery powered saw. Provided it's not built of brick.

    I -thought- a lot of lock companies installed some anti-bump measures a couple of years ago when the "bump craze" went around the news.

    But again,,, if you are in a Kwikset type house,,, you can probably get in faster with a swiss army knife.

    ===============

    -Good neighborhood/neighbors
    -area is away from main roads, very quiet region
    -good visibility / lighting around the house exterior
    Don't let those fool you. This past year we have seen many day time break ins in very nice communities. In fact they were singled out for that fact. Door usually bashed in or in the case of cars, doors unlocked.

    A couple of weekends ago we had a shooting. these are business owners, doctors, executives, police, management type families. One family goes away for the weekend. Kid has party. Some "un-invited" get's accused of shooting a girl in the head. This case is still on-going.

    This type activity is what most would refer to as "unheard of" for this region.

  7. #7
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    I must admit that I have fallen victim to the "business" of home alarms. I am stuck in a 3 year contract, with an alarm that I feel is not of the best quality. $45 a month for monitored service. It does provide a bit of piece of mind when I am away on TDY and the family is home. One of the biggest complaints I have is that it is linked to the telephone, which if that is cut, there isn't a way for it to transmit to the monitoring company. Also, there is only an alarm on the keypad, which is annoying inside, but it can't be heard from outside.

    Currently trying to figure a way out of the contract so I can invest in one of the more custom setups like mentioned above.

  8. #8
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    Alarms mean nothing more then limiting the time inside the home a burglar has if your not at home.

    I have seen this play out numerous time and the game is simple.

    Internal sounding alarm only,
    Bad guy waits until the alarm company calls the home to verify if the alarm was tripped by the owner and if there is no response the police are contacted.The bad guy knows once the call comes its now time to hurry up and grab what ever he can and leave before the police respond. Always have the alarm company call the police directly as soon as they receive the alarm and not call to the home.

    External sounding alarm,
    The bad guy will only hit the sweet spots such as the master bedroom and any bedroom which appears to have a female in it. They are in and out in less then 3 minutes with mostly unsecured small items.

    Also bad guys will remove the meter head to cut the power then cut the phone and cable lines to knock out the phone service before entering the home. Most alarm companies delay contacting the police on power failures or phone outages and will most likely try secondary contact numbers or key holders allowing time for the bad guy to shop inside your home.

    Door locks don't really deter entry so much on a weak wood jam frame or a cheap hollow core entry door were a simple shoulder or kick will defeat both easily. People never think to close ventilation windows especially if they have pets or at night while sleeping which allows access inside the home. Bad guys will also push in a window mounted A/C unit or remove the vertical slats of a crank open door or window for simple entry.

    Physical deterrents such as steel doors on steel frames with the excellent Schlage Primus High Security Cylinder System stops kick ins and lock pick attempts. Closing and locking windows with inside mounted half window grates stop these easy entry locations and the correct security gates or folding scissor grates for sliding doors protect those areas.

    Don't forget second floor windows as bad guys will climb onto porch roofs or even use a ladder you left laying unsecured on the property to gain entry.

    Your best bet is lots of lights, no hidden windows do to bushes or small trees and front and rear external sounding alarms (Min 140 DB) and a alarm system which has a long term battery back up and a cell line dialer to call out if the phone line is cut. Just a little work and common sense can make your home a hard target and as difficult as possible for the bad guy to make a easy score.

    Most people make it easy for them selfs to become victims and with just a little work the bad guy will look for a softer target.
    We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

  9. #9
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    ... and leaving attached garage doors open! Man I see that all the time.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by tb-av View Post
    ... and leaving attached garage doors open! Man I see that all the time.
    In a small town near where I grew up there was a serial rapist who would gain access to his victim's homes via this route once the husbands left for work in the mornings.

    As my father taught me at an early age, some people are just born victims.
    "In a nut shell, if it ever goes to Civil War, I'm afraid I'll be in the middle 70%, shooting at both sides" — 26 Inf


    "We have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them." — CNN's Don Lemon 10/30/18

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