Defending your home.

[Scythe13]

Hello Everyone.

This is something that's become a subject of great consideration recently.

Well, I've got a couple of pennies, and this is a small 2 pence worth of them.

During some conversation with BP about various posts and phrasing, he reminded me of something that I'd considered a while ago. as a way to defend a BOL. I remembered a thread (MNM, I think it was yours mate) and it got me thinking of ways of guarding our home that I still have to set into place and some that I've already done.

Right, time for the fun.

Doors, handles, windows and the tops of fences.
This is where our lovely friend Gillette comes in handy. Those old fashioned razor blades are very easy to screw into a position that allows only a tiny bit of the blade to protrude above the top of the fence, or under the door handle. Why use razors? Because they're damn sharp, hurt like a beast, and are cheap and readily available. Rusty ones still cut well, but the added tetanus potential cannot be ignored. Turns out you can coat them pretty well with poisons too...so I've heard.

Metal bars for windows...although pretty good at stopping people entering, it is going to make your home feel like a prison. Not a fan of that. Better to board up the windows from the outside with drilled iron sheets, to make it look like it's been left derelict. At the least it will buy time. Sheets can be easily 'acquired' from places...that may be using them for their expected purposes haha. A derelict house will be suspected of being empty. With this, you might also want to consider a big felt set of curtains for each window. The drilled iron will mean you can open the windows to let in air, but you want to keep light in so that people do suspect the home is empty. Thus the curtains.

The same sheet iron thing for the front door and the back. The only difference would be that you could fix hinges internally, so that you have a pretty quick route out of the home. Accessible from the inside alone.


Roof work.

This is something hugely underestimated, because....who robs you through your own roof? Santa is the only person that comes in through the roof. Turns out, that's a lie...there is no Santa. But accessing a home through a roof is pretty simple. 1 screw driver, a hammer, and a ladder and you're in. To protect against this...you can't do much. Best thing to do is rig a system so that you can buy time or ruin their entry.

First up, chain link fencing and chicken wire. Use this as a barrier once the looters get through your tiles. Which is almost inevitable. You can make it harder for someone to enter by making the tiles slippy and hard to manoeuvre on. Grease, anti-vandalism paint, and the alike will do that. Again, you might want to check places you can place more razor blades.

It is pretty simple to make your loft into a bit of an obstacle course for anyone entering. A loft conversion and board would also help with security. But, one of the main things is to have a way to secure your loft hatch from inside the home. One major problem with loft hatches is that they are attached from inside the loft, e.g. lifting bits of wood, or a hinge. The trick here is to get screws that are unable to be unscrewed once in place, or to change from a simple hatch. One other thought is to adapt the hatch with a securing system like padlocks attached on the home side of the door.

One of the ways to get to your house is going to be through your garden. Trip wires at ankle height or neck height, can work a treat. Better than that, why not place a couple of trip wires close together, to catch a person's lead foot, and then their stumbling foot? Better still would be the addition of another wire to catch their forward hand to stop them smashing into the floor! You could even place a wire at shoulder height to help break their fall by catching their falling body just above their shoulders. Just be careful how many wires you have. More wires gives more chance of being caught.

Other garden security systems worth considering. Lights! Okay, they won't chop a head off, but they'll not only freak out whoever is coming your way, but you'll also be able to make a cleaner shot at them ;-) I mean a camera shot, of course haha. Speaking of Cameras, CCTV is cheap enough and easy enough to set up. Well worth getting. Motion detectors can be used to get the cameras to start recording or to alert you of movement.

I know this is only a short post for me, as opposed to the usual 5 page essay, but I thought I'd leave off a lot of things, not for legal reasons, but for reasons of allowing conversation and other ideas to emerge. I don't think people want to hear about shotgun shells on a nail, sat on a piece of wood, buried under ground with just the top of the shell above ground level, covered with a small stone, would make awesome land mines. Works with normal bullets too. Also, you can use them under doormats too.