Home Security

Yesterday around 6:30p or so, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find a skinny black guy, around 5'11" maybe. One of the first things I noticed was it looked like he had a blood vessel broken in his eye, it was red around his right pupil. He was also wearing a laminated name tag on a string around his neck that said Dispatch. Anyways, he told me he was part of the Dispatch and they were handing out newspapers to potential customers and handed me a very old looking newspaper. I wish I would have, but I didn't look to see the date on the paper, but I'm sure it was more than a week old based on it's condition. Instead I told him that we already received the Dispatch, to which he appeared surprised and asked if I got it at home or at work. I told him I receive it at home, handed back the paper, he apologized, and I didn't think much of it at the moment. After some more time to think about it, I'm fairly certain that he wasn't actually from the Dispatch. I think he was probably casing our house, to see if he or someone else might want to rob us.

Since I've been in Columbus I've been the victim of home invasion twice. The first time I was robbed it was a pretty jarring experience. At the time I was living with a group of 4 other people, and we had all gone out to Oktoberfest together. The robbers broke a window in the basement, climbed in, came up the stairs, and had free reign on the house. We came home to find doors left open and a lot of our stuff missing. I was very upset with myself about it because the window in the basement was a security flaw I had thought about but dismissed it. I believe the thieves target our house for three reasons. One, we were five college-aged students, probably all with our own laptops/game consoles/cameras/dvds - our house was a gold mine. Secondly, we all left together before it was dark out, and left no lights on. What a foolish mistake, one that I try not to repeat these days. Thirdly, our house was next to an unrented house on the street. This meant it was easy to break the window and not have anyone in an adjacent lot get suspicious. It was the perfect crime - low risk, high reward.

The second time I was robbed really shocked me because it was the middle of the day when it happened. I lived with 3 other guys in a 4 bedroom house in Victorian Village. The thieves came onto our back porch, smashed the window with a golf club, and climbed in. Luckily, one of my roommates was home and the thief didn't have a lot of time inside. He did manage to make off with my bike though, the bastard. The thief had motivation to rob our house for the following reasons. One, we're four guys, so again lots of high tech stuff - laptops, cameras, video game consoles. Two, it was relatively secluded with a fence blocking the view next to the window that was broken. Three, the window didn't have a blind on it so it was easy to see into it, it didn't have a screen, and it was single pane. Talk about inviting! Finally, fourth, we had left the perfect window-breaking object right out on the porch for them. We had parties now and then, and at one of them someone thought it was funny to swing a driver at a stick of butter in the backyard. I don't blame them, it probably was pretty funny at the time, but we really should have taken the driver in the next morning.

So where does that leave me in my current apartment? There are two major security flaws in our apartment. One is the basement windows. Much like the first robbery, someone could easily break one of them, crawl through, and come up the stairs.
Even though we have a lock on the basement door at this place, there is that small door that leads into the kitchen that does not lock. I will attempt to get that sealed today with either a couple of screws or some kind of locking mechanism (so we could still maintain use of that space for storage). That means the potential thieves would have access to the basement but nothing else, and we don't keep much of value down there anyways.

The second security flaw in our apartment is the back door. It has 9 glass panels, which are a thief's dream come true. Break the one nearest to the handle, reach in, and unlock the door. To remedy this we could do one of two things. One, we lock the screen door. This adds another layer for the thief to break through, and it's pretty sturdy glass. The problem with this, is it can't be locked from the outside, only while we are still in the house. This makes it good for nighttime, but my experience shows that thieves attempt to rob you when you're NOT there. So the solution would be to keep it locked and use the front door when we're leaving. This
presents a huge inconvenience, but it's the fastest and easiest solution. The other option for the back door is to cover the glass panels with wood or some other non-breakable material. The issue here is that we'd probably have to cover at least the bottom four panels, and possibly more to prevent the reach-in. Also it would block the light coming in, which I realize is not a huge deal but it's something to take into account.

It's getting to be warm weather again, so it's time for everyone to take a look around their apartment/house and evaluate any potential risks. Try to take a robber's point of view and look for easy entrances to your house. Cut off the easiest ones and suddenly your house looks a lot less appealing to a potential thief. Both of my experiences with break-ins have involved breaking glass, but also be wary of keeping your doors and windows locked. It's a sad truth that there are people out there who would rather steal for a living than work, but it's the world we live in. Once you've had your house broken into you'll never feel the same sense of security you once did, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It will make you more alert of your surroundings and any strange people you see wandering your neighborhood. Don't put it off or dismiss thoughts of how to safeguard your house/apartment like I did. Take steps NOW to protect yourself and those you care about!