Being probed for a break in

[Norton]

We've just moved in to our new home and are renovating the main level of this house which is a rancher, so we're living in the finished basement while we finish work upstairs.

A series of ocurrences leads me to believe that we are being probed for a break in. In the last 48 hours we've had numerous hang up and wrong number phone calls. I've seen a car driving very slowly past the house.

I didn't give much thought to either event until I mentioned it to my wife tonight and she said that she'd had several hang ups and that when she went upstairs to use the bathroom at 4:30am, there was a truck outside with its lights off.

From the BG's standpoint it makes sense....couple in transition, working on house....not focused on the day to day routine of the house yet......

I took the precautions up a little tonight....screwed the windows shut upstairs (we're having them replaced in a couple of weeks and the locks were broken), double checked the doors and remaining windows. Turned all of the outside lights on too.

A glaring hole in the entrance the house (excluding breaking the picture window) seems to be the basement door. It's one of those "bulkhead" type doors where you lift up the two metal doors and then walk down the stairs. The handle twists a quarter turn and latches against the other door inside, but I could see a couple of good shakes on the doors rattling this undone. Anyone come up with a clever way to secure these kind of doors?

I'm off to the police station tomorrow to make a report just to get this on paper.

The HK just got a new menu of Speer Gold Dots tonight as well

 

[BZ422]

If it weren't so darn illegal, I'd say booby-trap the doors!

 

[HBK]

Thought of having your number changed to an unlisted number?

 

[CB900F]

Norton;

Cheap & easy. Any decent hardware store has pipe hangers. You want the ones that look like -o- & take the upper half of the o off. Size it for 1" pipe. That kind has a screw hole on either side. Also buy a 2 foot length of 3/4"pipe. The 3/4" will slide easily through the hangers. Screw the hangers to the inside of the doors. I'd use at least 4 hangers. If you are not going to use the doors, Go to 1" schedule 80 pipe. Pain in the butt to use the doors, but very hard to bend the pipe. If the doors have an open crack that the pipe crosses, they may try to use a Sawzall. But that makes noise. In any case then go to the nearest machine shop & get a length of the hardest bar steel they have in the length you need. This is a temporary solution, right?

900F

 

[blades67]

Get a dog. As for the door, put a couple of brackets on each door and slide a bar through them. The doors will have to be pulled off to get them open.

 

[Penforhire]

If you have power I'd put up a bunch of cheap outdoor motion sensor lights. Maybe a wireless remote camera too (to a VCR where you sleep) if you want to identify intruders for the cops later.

 

[nextjoe]

Lots of good ideas here.

One I'd consider is sleeping in shifts with someone keeping watch. It's not something you'd want to do forever, but a few nights won't hurt.

Best,
Joe

 

[Mike Irwin]

Those bulkhead doors are a real pain in the butt to secure because they open at an angle, and they open out.

One way is to simply weld them shut temporarily with a plate tack welded or brazed on the inside.

If you need to use the door as an emergency exit, check with the local home stores in your area to see if they sell security kits for these units. Some do.

Perhaps the best security for these, though, is a second door at the bottom of the steps in the basement, that can be secured the way CB mentions.

That's probably going to be the quickest and easiest.

You could even use a sheet of 1" 5 or 7 layer plywood.


Also, be sure to get a list of the serial numbers on all of your tools and appliances, and get an electric pencil to scratch an identifying number on an inconspicuous place inside the cabinet and on your tools.

 

[Arcli9ht]

All good ideas here, I might take it a step further. If vehicles are making a habit of driving by slowly with their lights off, try staying up and writing down plate numbers, if you can see them. (maybe try shining a flashlight at the bumper as it passes by? you mentioned an HK so youre protected )

I agree with securing the basement doors with a nice piece of steel across it. Make it so you can lift it out from the inside tho, thats the setup I have here. You cant get in from the outside, but hey, its secure.

Second the dog as well.

Lastly, for me at least, motion sensors that trip an alarm in your bedroom. Lights and stuff are good, but you want to be awake if anything happens.

/Arcli9ht

 

[Jeff]

I second the dog suggestion. You, or others, are not always going to be occupying the house to protect it.

A good watch dog can do wonders, and a few breeds in particular are real man-stoppers:

Tosa
Canary Dog (Presa Canario)
Komondor
Fila Brasiliero
Tibetan Mastiff
Anatolian Shepherd Dog
Bouvier des Flandres

 

[Crimper-D]

How about a roll of Razor Wire?

Outside the door and on the basement steps inside
Booby Trap? I don't think so, but that way, if someone hooks up a towchain between the door and the back of that pickup and jerks the door out, secured or not, the BG's will still have a _nasty_ surprise if they come barreling down those steps!
Got Shotgun???

 

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

an infrared video security camera isn't appreciably more expensive than a regular surveillance camera. They're popular around my area. Can be connected to a VCR or computer with a little doing. Of course, that spoils the whole 'gotcha' concept of several thousand watts of quartz halogen retina burners which is good entertainment value in and of itself.

Once you know someone's out there you can use that stealthy knowledge to get that plate number and respond accordingly. I love night vision.

Booby traps are definitely not the way to go as far as DD's. Kleig lights can inspire terror in a suspect with comical results. Trying to kaboom someone gets you a roommate named Big Earl in a small dorm room with bars...and I don't mean the bars with pretzels.

Dog- loud- doesn't have to be big, just sound big. Motion sensor tape player device would even work. Don't have to clean up after it or feed it. Think 'varmint caller' in reverse. Shotgun for the possibility of breaching the house if it came to that...or holding multiple bad guys for the sheriff.


Regards,
Rabbit.

 

[Pendragon]

This is probably right up to the line and maybe excessive in your case.

I always thought - after seeing too many movies - that if anyone was looking to hit me (and by hit, I mean seriously assault/kill) that showing that my home is overly secure would just make them move the confrontation to a different venue.

So I though that feining passivity, weakness and unpreparedness would be the best way to tempt them to move on me on my turf.

Dont light it up. Use night vision. Do other things to make it irresistable. Woa - look, the line is coming right up!. The ethical discussion could be a whole thread in its self and maybe this is too extreme for burglars who appear to be waiting for you to be gone.

Anyway - its the whole velvet hammer idea - look soft, but pack a wallop. Booby traps are illegal because they kill without discriminating burglars from a neighbor trying to wake you when your house is on fire, etc.

However, setting your own trap where YOU make the IFF call - different game.

 

[TheeBadOne]

The Door/Yard Greeter

 

[David]

Our stranger greeter:

 

[David]

attempt #2 to post a photo...



Our stranger greeter:

 

[Norton]

Some good ideas one and all, as usual

I really like the pipe hanger trick thar 900F mentioned.....inexpensive and easy to do. These doors are actually high quality steel. They were put in as part of waterproofing the basement to keep rain from getting into the stairwell at the basement door, so they do not have the crack between them....they overlap....so the good news is that they couldn't saw through the pipe easily.

There IS a standard entry door at bottom of stairs....usual wooden fare that will eventually be replaced, but we did have a double cylinder lock installed when the locksmith re-keyed the locks.

Dog is also a good idea, but I'm not sure with our schedule that it would be fair to the animal....gone too much to really take care of one properly. We do have dood alarm gogs on either side of us however.

Anyway, we do have the tactical kitty: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13322

 

[Moparmike]

Not negating the possibility of being probed, but telemarketers also use calls that hang up when you answer to see when the best time to annoy you is. Its all done by computer. I feel odd saying this, but I hope it is telemarketers if I had to choose from the two.

On the other hand, you can shoot burglars... .

Later,

 

[foghornl]

Norton:

Lots of sage advice. Let me add a couple of things...

Is the door & doorway from basement to "living level" reinforced? I have a buddy with a similar situation..walk-in basement, etc. He 'doubled up' on the 2x4's around the doorway, and replaced the $2.50 interior wood door with a steel exterior door & frame and a keyed to basement side deadbolt. He added some X-10 type motion detectors in the basement to sound a chime in the Master BR & living room. Also added a motion detector so that when the basement/living level door is opened, a second louder chime sounds in MBR, and a 150-watt halogen floodlight turns on shining down the stairwell.

 

[BerettaNut92]

ThreeBadOne, that's a beautiful dog.

My EWS (early warning skunk)...I caught the @#$@# drunk as a skunk on duty...again!!

 

[Penforhire]

If you really want to bait your house (get it over with?) the easiest way would be some empty appliance boxes stacked up by your garbage on the road. That's a nice invitation that only applies to scum and won't, in itself, be illegal.

I really like the idea, mentioned above, of getting the license plate numbers of these suspicious vehicles.

 

[Thumper]

The phone call/hang up tactic was a part of my Grandparents' home in Arkansas being robbed awhile back.

Bad guys (local hoods) "cased the joint" by getting my softhearted Grandmother to let them mow and do yardwork, then asking to use the phone. Mammaw, of course, sat them down and gave 'em some Kool Aid.

Naturally, this being the Old South, most of Pappaw's guns were on prominent display in the glassed in gun case in the living room.

They came back the next day and took everything, including a number of heirlooms.

Local police couldn't (wouldn't) do anything.

[Happy ending] A few of my rough and ready cousins armed themselves, snuck over to the crack house the hoods call home, and went to work. End result: No shots fired, 3 gang members hospitalized, 1 cousin with a stab wound to the thigh (ouch) and all guns recovered. [/Happy ending]

It's easy to discount the method there, but hard to argue with the result.

I'm proud of 'em.

 

[another okie]

Getting license numbers is an excellent idea, though you might want some bincoculars rather than running up behind the car.

Another reason for hangups is that telemarketers use computers that dial several numbers at once. When you pick up the computer directs them to that call. If more than one number picks up the computer picks one and the others are left hanging, so you get dead air. Sometimes there is a slight delay after you say hello. If you will immediately hang up after saying hello and not getting a response the computer normally records that as a completed call and doesn't call you back.

 

[pytron]

For a temporary solution perhaps you could change the message on your answering machine to indicate that you are screening calls. That way the BG won't know if you are home or not.

Timers for TV, radio, and lights might also help and they are pretty cheap.

-Pytron

 

[Alan Smithiee]

quick and dirty alarm. Big Mouth Billy Bass.. (or sammy Salmon), any of those fish with a motion sensor that sings.

cheap, and they do make a fair amount of noise

also good for scareying deer out of your garden

a temporary solution, but a fast and cheap one.