got locked out of house, thoughts.

[TMM]

so i came home the other day, dropped off by my grampa. he noticed no one was home and asked if i had a key. i said there was one hidden. he leaves, and then i find that there is no key. a few days after, i still don't know where it is [it is NOT in a place where a crook could find it, like a fake rock]. after first being like: and then , i took it as a challenge to get in without breaking somthing. i finally found a basement window, with one pane made from plywood so the sump pump tube can go out. using my Leatherman [glad i had that!] i undid the screws and wriggled in [if i was any bigger i'd've gotten stuck! must've been a 12" square hole].

so anyway, this got me to thinking a few different things:

do you hide away keys, if so, how many? do you check periodically to make sure they're there and operational?

do you inspect every bit of the outside of your house for weaknesses? do you think like a theif and perhaps try to break in?

do you know what my third question was? it was really good and i forgot it.

what would you have done if you couldn't get in? i could easily have gone to the police or a neighbor, but perhaps if you were in the sticks? do you know how to pick a lock? or would you just smash a window and fix it later?

comments/criticism...?

~tmm

 

[TFin04]

I hide a key in the garage, which is not connected to the house and needs a keypad code (or the pushbutton from one of our vehicles) to get in.

Downside is when the power is out we cannot get into the garage. The side door is locked and we dont have a key to it (old garage, previous owners had no keys). The door is flimsy and I could get in if I had to, so its not a huge deal.

I do try to check the house every now and then when I'm doing yard work for weakness. Most windows are pretty high and always locked. In the summer we only crack them a few inches with dowel rods in the base to keep them secure. The home is built on a crawl space so there are no basement windows. Crawl door is locked and there is nothing down there anyway.

Back door has a lock that is mounted to the door frame, and one needs to be inside to operate it. We have the same lock on the front, but obviously it can only be locked from the inside.

My biggest concern is bump keys. I made one from a spare and was easily able to gain access to my front door. I'm looking at some of those electronic/key combo deadbolts now.

If I were you I'd be worried about how easily (and probably undetected) you gained access to your own home. Did any neighbors call to say they saw somebody break in?

 

[Bruce333]

I have never locked myself out, but my GF has. I got tired of coming home from work in the middle of the day to let her in, so I bought one of these. I mounted it next to the door of the shed in the backyard.

At least I know that she is good about locking up the house.

 

[sm]

I took steps to beef up Mom's security and safety. She has a one car garage that was not automated.

So I had it automated with remote and exterior key pad. Main reasons were
1. Risk for Falls at her age manually operating garage door. (other health concerns.
2.Security - being outside and getting caught getting into house parking in driveway using front door / opening garage entering kitchen through garage access.

Now she can drive directly into garage into safety.
She goofed up one day, outside and locked her keys in car.
Panic , went to neighbors to call me.

She forgot all about the exterior keypad that opens garage. She punched in the code, garage opened, and then used the set of key I had put in a secure area just in case such a situation happened.

Includes spare keys to vehicle, house. She was still rattled , got in the house and used spare vehicle keys in house...
She had spare keys to vehicle on the key ring that she used to get into house.

You have older persons in the family? Have plans, and backup plans for them.

Exterior Key pads are one thing I use / suggest. Also works for other members in the house and kids.

On kids - be sure of maturity and level of understanding and development.

This means - the kid is not to blab to everyone the set up - much less the code.

Kids that are too young - explain it is for THEIR safety at this time they are not to know code. One can do this effectively and not upset the kid.

This is where a trusted neighbor comes in handy to have a key for a younger one, or any kids with special physical limits.

 

[LoveMyCountry]

I agree with bru333 on using a locking hide a key like this one:

I have mine mounted to the house in my back yard. Not only do you need to know the combination but you need to know the dogs!

LoveMyCountry

 

[TheSunDanceKid]

hiding a key is no worries where it is you could duct tape it to the front door it wouldnt matter if a theif is going to break in he kicks in a window and bam hes in shiot using the door takes longer and you have to be at the front door where people can see you if you go in the backyard kick out a window way easyer and less noticable to the neighbors eh ah but any who id just burrie it in the corner of your back yard in a small bag or like a film canister so it doesnt get weathered
also with the lock on the door frame the frame better be metal if its a standard door frame try poking it with a metal object like a screw driver the standard door frame is pretty soft wood and just dents in and chips away quite easly

 

[SIRVEYR666]

My wife locked herself out of the house yesterday morning.:banghead: What a PITA for both of us. I had to drive an hour back home to let her in. She was a trooper though. I'm glad I didn't have to stand outside in a skirt...in 20 degree weather!

I had just given our spare key to the neighbor the night before, so he could let our dog out that night. He was at work, so he couldn't help.

I need to get a few extra keys made and place them around the "compound". I like the link from bru333. Thanks.

 

[gezzer]

Here's a real easy solution Break a window, 25 years of fire service glass never kept me out of a building. Fireman = trained B&E artist.

Seriously how hard to break a window? $50 bucks or so fixes it, even if tripled it is cheaper than getting a locksmith out.

 

[JWarren]

Last week *I* locked myself out of my house.

But this is the funny part: I was on my way to my office and I had turned the handle lock on my door by habit. I took my laptop and a cup of coffee down my steps to my jeep with the front door still open. As I was going back upstairs to get something else, one of my ***adorable*** Jack Russell Terriers jump up on the door AS I WAS TWO STEPS from the door. Yep, you guessed it: The door slammed shut... with my house keys AND Jeep keys inside.

I have NO close neighbors to help me out. Because I had to have my locks replaced recently, my hidden spare was wrong.

Long story short: I walked 4 miles to my fathers house, got HIS hidden key to HIS house, went in and got HIS spare key to MY house, took his jeep and drove back home.

What a pain in the butt!

Lesson learned: Stop procrastinating on things you know you need to do. I didn't come home that day without a spare key cut to my house to hide outside, AND a spare key to my Jeep to hid outside the cab of the jeep.

Life has a way of pointing out to us when we are being idiots, it seems.


All the best!

John

 

[Bob M.]

I always carry spares in my wallet. house and car.

 

[VWTim]

I don't have any spares hidden around. Also the only way into my house is breaking a window. I do keep a spare key at my sister and Bro-in-law's parents who are all in town within miles.

 

[bruss01]

agree with bru333 on using a locking hide a key like this one:

I have mine mounted to the house in my back yard. Not only do you need to know the combination but you need to know the dogs!
LoveMyCountry

I've actually got one of those on my vehicle. It's bolted to an aluminum bar that is secured across the mounting lug bolts on the rear mounted spare with locking lug nuts - it's kept hidden by the spare cover. It contains a car key and $20 emergency cash. I have had to use it twice in 5 years... just wasn't paying attention and locked the keys inside. Never in a life-threatening circumstance, but circumstances that would have been annoying and/or embarassing if I had not made provision for such an eventuality.

It pays to anticipate the day that you may have other things on your mind and make a simple but painful mistake.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Live on an upper floor apartment.
B&E from outside is extremely unlikely
Door is heavy metal in a heavy metal frame mounted in a thick concrete wall.

Got permission from my landlord to attach one of those "real estate keyboxes" on the welded steel railing in the back of our parking garage.

I figure even if someone notices it and eventually gets it open, they'll have to try 80+ apartments to figure out it's ours.

 

[Eyesac]

We have river rock in our backyard, so I just picked a key spot 1' out 1' over from a certain spot, and I can find it every time...

I've picked locks with paperclips before but was never able to do door locks (just padlocks), however a couple months ago a friend of mine bought a lock pick set and I tried my front door and INSIDE 5 SECONDS I had it... never touched a lock pick set before in my life. Pretty exciting, but I wouldn't recommend carring one around in your car.

 

[anotherKevin]

Testing is good

I use the exact same key lockbox, and have also done some testing to see how easy it would be to get in. First time I tried it I found most of the windows had not been adjusted after installation to prevent them from simply being lifted out of the frame. It was eye opening.

 

[DogBonz]

I hide keys

In sequences, so if someone finds one, they probably won’t get too far… Its kinda like a treasure hunt, where one key will unlock something that is locked, which has a key to a different lock in side… So you need to know where to look next, other wise, you are not getting in, other than smashing a window or door or something that attracts a lot of attention.

 

[flynnguy]

I was staying at my grandparents one summer and worked a summer job at pool as a lifeguard and one of my responsibilities was to teach kids swimming and such. Well Fridays we took them to the beach. Lunch time came so I decided to head home to grab a bit only my keys were at the pool and grandparents were out at the time. Fortunately the door to the porch on the second floor was unlocked. I was actually surprised at how easy it was to get up there.

If I ever got locked out of my house, I could go to my inlaws house (probably about a mile or two away) to get a spare key. (They have keypad locks on their house so unless the battery is dead I can get in) I've thought about hiding a spare key somewhere but I haven't thought of a good spot yet. I like the locking keypad option. Of course as it's been mentioned above, breaking a window is always an option.

 

[tegemu]

I hide a spare key in a very obscure location on a trusted neighbors property (with the neighbors permission.) If someone should find it, they would most likely think it was for my neighbors house - too bad. I also like the thought that in an emergency they can get in my house since I am a solitary Senior Citizen.

 

[TMM]

If I were you I'd be worried about how easily (and probably undetected) you gained access to your own home. Did any neighbors call to say they saw somebody break in?

Haha! neighbors:
police, who are shielded by a fence, trees, bushes, and bamboo.
really old guy who probably can't make out a suspicious figure at our house
middle aged guy who is behind a hill and can't see us
a vacant house
a house where the dead woman used to live

we're on our own. on that note, my grampa locked himself out of a house in bridgeport [an aweful place with lots of crime] and he broke a window to get in. neighbors are 10 feet away and no one cared.

i like the idea of hiding the keys in series but we don't have enough locked buildings to do so.

i'll probably fix the window and hide another key or two, maybe in a lockbox.

~tmm

 

[MillCreek]

I use one of the locking key boxes shown above, but it has a loop shackle. I lock it to the natural gas meter outside. I think that anyone stupid enough to try to cut a metal shackle off of a natural gas pipe qualifies for a Darwin award.

 

[Wing Nut]

I do pool work in the summer, and one job we had last year was at a repo house, well they had one of those real-estate boxes on the front door, but I guess the company changed the combo every week or something and forgot to tell us. Anyways, the "pool area" had two gates, both with padlocks installed by the company, these were simply screwed in with wood screws and within reach from outside the fence.(the locks were on the inside) The back doors(2) to this house were both unlocked, so it wouldn't (didn't) take much to get in. I had to "break in" this way at least 5 times, and this was in a somewhat "upscale" neighborhood within plain veiw of the road and house next door. It made me nervous, but then I was kinda surprised nobody came to investigate(my truck was unmarked at the time). Due to landscaping, someone not very concerned about bodily injury could have got in with no tools at all.

 

[Froggy]

do you inspect every bit of the outside of your house for weaknesses? do you think like a theif and perhaps try to break in?

If you have the time, tune into the Discovery Channel's show, It Takes a Thief. You don't need to watch the whole show -- the first 10 minutes will do. Never takes that guy more than about 5 minutes to get into a house.

He doesn't worry about breaking a piece of glass, of course, or ruining a side door -- he is not the one who has to repair it! None of that is surprising. What is suprising is the way the neighbors never notice, or care about, the truck backed up to the garage, or the delivery van that pulls around back, or the guy they don't recognize that is roaming around in the side yard.

Saw one episode where the UPS guy made a delivery while the thieves were in the house. They had gained entry by breaking out a window beside the door. UPS guy either didn't notice or didn't care, dropped the package and left.

In the same episode (I think), a neighbor came over to see what was going on. The woman on lookout gave her some BS story about being visiting relatives. It worked well enough to put the neighbor's suspicions to rest; she left and did not call the police. In another episode, the owners of the house met the guy as he was pulling out of their driveway -- they just assumed he was the pool guy, or the lawn guy, or anyone of their various "service providers." While they were in the house, spellbound as they surveyed the damage, he returned to the driveway and stole their Jaguar (he had picked up the spare keys while he was in the house).

In a different episode, to make a point, the thief took the dog with him when he drove away after looting the house. In other episodes he has done much the same thing by stealing the monitor and recording devices hooked up to video surveillance systems.

Lessons learned -- it is easier to get into your house than you think (unless you've seriously hardened it); don't count on watchful neighbors or being in a good neighborhood to deter break-ins. Putting stuff "on display" is liking putting a sign on it that says "steal me." It pays to look at your house like a thief does -- remember to not care about the damage you would do while getting in.

 

[flynnguy]

I tend to agree that most people tend to mind their own business so to speak. I mean, get a truck or a van and you'll look like every other plumber, HVAC, electrician, etc... I mean do you frequently tell your neighbors who you are having over? Would they even notice if it happened while they and you are at work?

In one episode of it takes a thief they even broke into a police station with an on-duty dispatcher. (It was actually the town next to me) They eventually got caught but them being caught looked staged a bit like they were supposed to get caught. (Possibly to deter someone from thinking they could get away with it?)

I really don't think any house is immune to being broken into unless you have 24/7 monitored security and even then, if it's not done right, you can still be vulnerable. The thing to do is to make it more difficult than those around you so the potential thief will go and choose the easier mark.

 

[nfl1990]

Unless you are willing to spend many thousands of dollars any determined thief can get in. What you can however do is make it difficult so that he will decide to find an easier mark.

 

[Axman]

What's that old saying? Locks are designed to keep the honest people honest. Or something like that!