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Posted on 01/09/2012 3:23:41 PM PST by fightinJAG
If you missed this thread of a few days ago on a 14-year-old boy shooting an intruder in N.C., or if you didn't see all the responses, it's definitely worth checking out. The thread is also linked at the "read more" button below.
On that thread, I asked for freepers' thoughts on whether there were things that made some homes more vulnerable to home invasion than others. (It seems like it would be obvious that a more rural or remote home would be more vulnerable, but news reports in my area do not substantiate that assumption at all. Homes in crowded suburban neighbors get hit, too.)
Also, it's clear that, for various reasons, not every person in a household is going to be able to use a gun, even if one is available. I asked about ideas and discussion on ways that might deter invasions in the first place, although it goes without saying that nothing is foolproof and no one wants to live in a total fortress environment.
A poster suggested I make my questions into a stand-alone thread, and I decided to do so. Reading reports of several local home invasions in today's news, as well as a rash of "smash and grab" buglaries, had nothing to do with reminding me of the topic. Right.
So, yes, we know about guns and dogs (and tips regarding those are always still welcome). But what other things might be unobtrusively effective in deterring home invasions or allowing them to have a "happy" ending (dead perp)?
In the comments on our local crime stories, I saw that some people were using baby monitors to be alerted to noises around their back doors, etc. Thus, allowing them more time to investigate or prepare if a break-in developed.
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
I remember that one. That one and the one by Gahan Wilson with the guy carrying the elephant gun are some of my favorites. I recently sold a bunch of Barrett magazines. Never did buy one of the guns, but I got a great deal on the magazines long ago. A thirty pound rifle would be a PITA to carry around in the dark.
I hear you. That’s why I live where I do. This state has enough crazies living up hollows to populate the whole country. Did I mention we’re all related?
I forgot about that. I have a standing offer of paying $20 for a live undamaged black snake. That includes going and getting them. I hadn’t considered the effect on people. Quite a few people want nothing to do with them.
This spring I’m going to put a cheap ad in the local newspaper.
No need to get the snakes, just get the sign.
The battery won’t work. The voltage is far too low.
I recommend an electric fence energizer. They are about $65, which is less than most batteries.
Here’s some stuff to do “on the cheap”.
First take out those stupid 1 inch long screws in your door locks and dead bolts and replace them with 3 inch ones drilled deep into the door AND the jam. This step alone increases the strength of the door/lock interface by a factor of 5.
Have 1 inch HARDWOOD dowels cut to length to put in the tracks of sliding doors and windows so the can’t be easily opened. Put each one by the appropriate opening and then USE THEM.
Small motion alarms are available for very little money that will make a hell of a racket if a door or window is opened or broken. Jiggle one of them and a 110db alarm sounds. I’ve got them all over the house.
Buy some of those “Property Under Video Surveillance” signs and post them prominently even if you don’t have the cameras. Anything that gives a bad guy pause will help.
All this stuff cost me less than $50.
Best,
L
“Snakes are great! I always show off my wild-caught rat snakes, well, enough so the neighbors all know, “That guy keeps snakes around.””
####
Yes, the natural fear/disdain for snakes ought to be quite effective. However, they are largely invisible and silent.
I would think a large, loud, aggressive dog, say the highly intelligent and intimidating German Shepherd or Belgian Melanois, is most effective.
They understand the concept of private property rights better than most humans, are possessed of the gift of acting instantly and without second thoughts, and are magnificently politically incorrect.
Model? Source? Link?
Thanks.
Streamlight Litebox. EBay is the best place to buy. They come in an 8 or 20 watt version IIRC. They also make a mucho expensive HID version. Liteboxes are standard equipment on a lot of fire trucks.
Thanks.
That looks like a professional product.
Probably the best way to go.
I see those welding skills didn’t just come in handy to build a boat. Buired with a longer shaft they make punji sticks look tame.
Then, eight feet in from the buckthorn, I planted an inner perimeter line of Texas red cedars eight feet apart all around the line. Didn't cost me a cent, as I just dug out seedlings under the larger cedars already in the yard and went from yard to yard offering to dig up all of their little cedars. The seedlings varied in height from six inches or so to two feet tall.
After they were all planted, I went out to the open range on Fort Hood after a major field exercise and policed up about 50 rolls of concertina wire. I unrolled the concertina wire over the seedlings and carefully monitored their growth over the next five years.
Now, the buckthorn is growing along the inside of the fenceline, backed up by some very nasty 20-foot tall red cedars, with their branches interlaced through growth. Inside that cedar hedge, at a varying height of between two and five feet, is a coil of very sharp, very rusty concertina razor wire.
My late wife wanted bunkers and machine gun nests, but I had to draw the line somewhere. [smile] We do have six floodlights surrounding the house and, additionally, one apiece in the large carport and immediately next to the front patio and the back porch.
When the doorbell rings, either my present wife or I will look out the small kitchen window that flanks the front door and porch. If it's someone we don't recognize, we retrieve the pistol (for me) and the shotgun (for her) and open up the window to ask them their business.
Should they try to break in the steel door, they're going to have a little problem because, whenever one of us is in the house, the two deadbolts are thrown (2.5 inches of deadbolt into the doorframe which is a treated 4x4) and the bar is across the middle of the door (a 2x4 in the manner somewhat akin to what you see on movies for castle gates, held in steel braces with 2-inch bolts securing it to the 4x4 door frame).
The windows are all covered with painted treated wooden lattice .. easy enough to kick out if you have to escape a fire, but delaying and noisy enough to discourage break-ins .. and, underneath the paneling below the kitchen window is a 4'x4' piece of 3/8-inch steel plating from a salvage yard, in case of gunfire into the kitchen when we're asking them their business.
We live well out in the sticks, away from the main road .. a lot of privacy, but we're pretty much on our own. My wife, who is from England, took to the property and the Texas way of life with guns like a duck to water
A very cheap, yet extremely effective, device is a driveway sensor, sold at places like Radio Shack for $12. It is a simple IR laser reflected off a reflector. Run the wires underground to your house (low voltage so no conduit needed or deep burial) for a simple detector when something crosses its path. As you said, a few false alarms simply help to train you to respond to them and are not annoying.
With that, you can get creative and run lights that come on in that area. Even video cameras have gotten fairly cheap these days. Run a camera to that area and see what’s there. Toss in a speaker and microphone and talk to the idiot; that’ll scare the snot out of him. “Hi! Welcome to Matt’s shooting gallery. There is an apple next to your left foot. Please place it on top of your head and stand still. If I hit the apple you are free to leave, otherwise, we’ll just scoop what’s left of you into the crock pit.”
I think you live next door to me. ;)
I live next door to a grain elevator served by railroad tracks, so mostly when I touch off a round, it's a .22 at a grain-stealing mouse, sometimes a rat. Occasionally, I have to make do with the handgun I carry, so other nearby neighbors are used to that.
However one evening last year we had a whitetail dear- in season- wandering down the RR tracks between the light of the full moon reflected atop the shiny steel rails. I had the choice of a couple of my rifles out the back door, but happened to use my son's .303 SMLE. Worked fine.
Only shot so far this year: a .22 through three paint cans in a row so I could blow the pressure out of them, recover the agitator balls [slingshot ammo for stray neighbor dogs, coons and possums] and then pitch the empty cans in the burn barrel prior to recycling. But the year is young.
I think you live next door to me. ;)
I live next door to a grain elevator served by railroad tracks, so mostly when I touch off a round, it's a .22 at a grain-stealing mouse, sometimes a rat. Occasionally, I have to make do with the handgun I carry, so other nearby neighbors are used to that.
However one evening last year we had a whitetail dear- in season- wandering down the RR tracks between the light of the full moon reflected atop the shiny steel rails. I had the choice of a couple of my rifles out the back door, but happened to use my son's .303 SMLE. Worked fine.
Only shot so far this year: a .22 through three paint cans in a row so I could blow the pressure out of them, recover the agitator balls [slingshot ammo for stray neighbor dogs, coons and possums] and then pitch the empty cans in the burn barrel prior to recycling. But the year is young.
Barbed wire both concertina & tanglefoot around the perimeter backed up by toe poppers & bouncing betty’s . Steel fire doors with deadbolt locks, ground floor windows have burglar bars at the least,cctv , everyone in the house trained with firearms. I’ll get back to folks after I give it some more thought.
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