Yeah, I guess it does. It’s pretty common around here, mainly due to fires.
I think some of it comes from my time in Iraq. I was artillery but did a fair amount of door kicking when we needed to secure an area.
Simple things like a light barred security door (that opened out and had a deadbolt) really upped the level of hassle for a forced entry. They’re all of $200 at Lowe’s— and are great for air if they also have a screen to keep out bugs.
Windows on a second floor only = need a ladder.
Heck a glass storm door outside of a regular door even changes the math.
I basically did all the things that made me think “let’s go to the next location”.
Reminds me of a joke: Two guys camping. They'd heard rumors of a man eating bear in the area. Didn't think much of it. One night they hear a bear outside. One guy starts putting on his running shoes. Other guy says why bother, you can't outrun a bear. First guy answers, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you!"
Kind of reminds me some of the 800 year old villas over in Italy that have survived to this day.
The reason that Tuscan villa is still there is because it was built like a fortress. Walls were made out of stone 2-3 feet thick. Windows were small with bars on the outside and shutters to close and lock from the inside.
Doors that were made with large iron strap hinges. 3” thick OAK doors. They didn’t have steel back then.
Many years ago I was working in a studio and one of the projects they had me on was a set of videos made by a professional cat burglar. He was in prison and this was part of his sentence, community service. One of the tapes was for Law Enforcement, one was for businesses, and one was for homeowners.
This guy was not only extremely intelligent, but also funny as hell. I will say though that I learned a ton from them, and I wish I kept copies, but I was young and dumb, and have never been able to find them since. The most interesting to me was the homeowner one. He showed just how easily he used to completely bypass locks, gates, parameter alarms, and even motion detection systems. He described how he would case places, and also once inside, the first places he would look for valuables—he mostly worked wealthy neighborhoods & concentrated on jewelry, coins, and cash.
At the end of the video, he did a question and answer with a bunch of other inmates who were also doing time for burglary. The key things they all agreed on, large dog dishes and bones in the yard were a major deterrent, timers on lights were a dead giveaway no-one was home, don’t advertise your alarm system make/model/provider (you basically tell them all they need to know to defeat it). For the most part, they said to make your house look like enough pain in the ass or dangerous that they move on to another house.