By Robert Jones
The best security strategy is that of an onion. Each time you peel the skin off of an onion, you find another layer below it. Security should be the same way.
Last time we talked about protecting the perimeter of your property line. Today we’re going to move in to the second layer of your home defense – your yard.
If you have the proper wall/fence/gate combination, you can let your family dog have the run of your yard. A properly trained dog will bark at strangers, but not get aggressive until they try to enter his yard.
This is sufficient to deter the average criminal. HOWEVER, DO NOT BUY A DOG, STICK HIM IN THE YARD AND IGNORE HIM!!! Each year, countless people do this. They end up with an animal that eats, poops, and grows to hate their owners. These dogs are as likely to bite their owners as they are an intruder.
IF, you buy a dog, you must make him a member of your family. You must bond with the dog, and the dog must bond with you. The dog must have an emotional attachment to a person, before it will risk endangering its self to protect that person.
After you bond, then you and your dog go to obedience school and get trained. This is extremely important. Like a child, you have to teach your dog what behavior is acceptable and discourage behavior that isn’t. Most of us aren’t professional dog trainers, so find a good obedience school with an instructor that truly cares about animals.
There is one additional component you should add to your yard: signs indicating that you have a home security system. Even if you don’t buy some fake ones inexpensively and put them up. At the bare minimum it’s one more psychological barrier between the criminal and your home.
By Robert Jones
The best security strategy is that of an onion. Each time you peel the skin off of an onion, you find another layer below it. Security should be the same way. If a criminal penetrates the first layer of security, he finds another layer. When he penetrates the second layer, he finds a third, and then a fourth, and so on.
It takes time for the criminal to penetrate each layer and this gives you time to react. You do not want your security to be like a balloon. A balloon has only one thin layer. If it is penetrated, the balloon instantly pops, and whatever was inside is lost.
Let’s start looking at the layers of onion (security) at your home. Since most people do not live in gated communities we will start at the sidewalk in front of your house.
Before a criminal can break into your house, he must first cross your yard. What do you have in place to keep him out of your yard? I prefer a stone wall with locking gates. My second choice is a high fence. (I prefer iron-work style fences rather than chain-link fences because they are harder to climb. Plus, they look nicer).
Unfortunately, personal finances and the local zoning board often make it difficult, if not impossible, to put up these kinds of barriers. All is not lost. With a little imaginative design, a similar effect can be created by using flower beds.
Yes, I said flower beds. You are probably now thinking: “How is a bed of petunias going to protect my home from criminals?” The answer is: not petunias, but large thorny bushes.
No one complains about a row of rose bushes along the sidewalk, and no one who has ever gotten tangled up in a rose bush ever willingly tries to do it again. It is both a psychological deterrent and a physical barrier. You have to go through the thorns; you can’t just climb over them.
A former neighbor of mine lived on a corner lot. People were constantly taking shortcuts through his yard. The local zoning board would not let him put up a fence. So, he planted a row of “closely spaced” rose bushes along the entire length of his property line.
Some people still tried to cut across the property line, but quickly discovered it was a bad idea. The trespassing problem quickly ended. There are other thorny plants besides roses that you can use, such as Poncirus Trifoliata (an ornamental citrus plant that handles cold weather well). You need to contact your local nursery or landscaping company to see what grows well in your local area.
Besides the climate, you need to check on the type of soil you have. You are looking for plants with numerous large thorns that are hardy and require as little attention as possible. For example, if I lived in someplace like Arizona, I would seriously consider using cactus.
Another benefit of using bushes is the cost. You can plant a protective hedge around your home one bush at a time as your finances permit and no one will consider it strange. Try to put up a wall or fence, one three foot section at a time, over a period of months or years and you will become the talk of the neighborhood.
Just because you can’t do everything at once doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing every little thing you can to protect your home and loved ones. You start at the area that has the most foot traffic (normally this will be the sidewalk in front of your house) and work your way around your property line.
Now, you can’t plant rose bushes in your driveway. If you have secured your entire property line with thorny bushes the criminal has no choice, but to walk straight-up your driveway to reach your house. This has severely limited his ability to approach your home without being seen.
I have noticed a bizarre phenomenon. The same zoning boards that will not let people put up walls or fences to protect their homes from criminals seldom have a problem with people putting-up “decorative” gates on their driveways and walkways. The addition of a simple driveway alarm (motion detector type) will give you an early warning of uninvited guests.
By Robert Jones
We’ve been talking about the three methods of protecting yourself from the two kinds of criminals: Vultures and Wolves. The three basic elements are Deter. Delay. Stop!
Last time we talked about “Delay”. Today we’re discussing the last item: “Stop!”.
“STOP!” is used when every other means have failed. It is the last resort. The police will use “STOP” when they confront the criminal who is trying to murder you and your family.
“STOP” as in “STOP OR I’LL SHOOT!” It is the same action you will take should the police fail to arrive in time. You are the only thing left standing between your loved ones and the criminal intent on killing them. You have armed yourself with the most effective weapon available to you, and you use it.
I personally prefer a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot. What you chose will depend on your personal preferences, finances, training, physical capabilities, and the laws of your city and state.
You do not want to be like a former neighbor of mine. He decided to check-out a “bump in the night”, and armed himself with the most lethal weapon he had: a tennis racket. Unfortunately, tennis rackets do not inspire fear in the hearts of criminals.
It is also unfortunate that the higher the crime rate and the more likely it is that you will need a firearm to protect yourself and your loved ones, the more difficult our government makes it for an honest citizen to obtain a firearm.
If you cannot obtain a firearm, you must find another type of weapon. A few examples are: a crossbow, an ax, a sword, a baseball bat, or a spear. The most important thing is to find the most effective weapon you can, practice with it, and prepare for the day you might have to use it.
By Robert Jones
We’ve been talking about the three methods of protecting yourself from the two kinds of criminals: Vultures and Wolves. The three basic elements are Deter. Delay. Stop!
Last time we talked about “Deter”. Today we’re discussing the second item: “Delay”.
“Delay” is put in place to protect you from the wolves. It consists of the physical barriers you set up to slow down the wolf. These physical barriers are in addition to all of the things you did in the “Deter” phase of you security set-up. You are trying to slow-down the wolf to give you time to effectively react to his attack.
The greater the number of physical barriers the wolf must over-come, the more time you have to call for help, and to prepare to defend yourself and your loved ones. Examples of physical barriers are:
- A wall or fence around your yard, with locked gates.
- A heavy steel entrance door mounted in a steel frame.
- Good quality door locks and a deadbolt.
Windows should be covered by bars (which can be opened from the inside, so you can escape the house in case of fire). An alternative to bars on the windows is to have a plastic coating (made by the 3M Company) installed on the window glass that makes the glass shatter resistant. The coating is a very tough, clear material that holds the shattered glass in place. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that you can beat on this protected glass for several minutes with a baseball bat and not gain entry.
A REAL alarm system should be set-up to cover every door and window in your home. The alarm system should be set-up so that you can turn it on while at home and move freely around in your house. The alarm would sound when an exterior door or window is opened or broken. The alarm should transmit a signal to a local security company or the police department. Your alarm system should have a panic button you can press to immediately summon help.
You should also select a safe-room to retreat to, until the situation is resolved. In most cases, the master bedroom is the room chosen to be the safe-room. Should a criminal try to break into your home, you press the panic button on your alarm system, and herd everyone into the safe-room.
As a minimum, the safe-room should have a heavy steel door mounted in a steel frame (just like your front door). The same locks as on the front door, plus a heavy sliding bolt which can only be opened from the inside.
The rest of the room can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish to make it. I will cover safe-rooms more fully in later blogs. Inside of the safe-room you need two things. The first is a working cell phone so you can call the police. Remember, just because you have a panic button doesn’t mean you will have time to use it. The second item is the weapon you have chosen to use to defend yourself and your loved ones, should that homicidal maniac succeed in breaking down that last door separating you from him.
By Robert Jones
In my previous blog entry, I referred to criminals as being either vultures or wolves. Vultures are non- confrontational thieves. Wolves are predators who stalk their prey. They are murderers, rapists, child molesters, armed robbers, etc.
In order to properly protect yourself from both vultures and wolves your security set-up must incorporate these three elements: Deter. Delay. Stop!
In this post we’re going to look at the first element: “Deter”.
“Deter” should effectively prevent most of the vultures from bothering you. Remember, the vulture is non-confrontational. It wants to avoid a fight, and it does not want to go through too much effort to steal your stuff. The idea of “Deter” is to make your home unattractive to the vultures. For example: When the vulture walks past your home he should see an area clear of brush and shrubs. Nothing is available for him to hide behind (He doesn’t want anyone to see him and call the police).
The area should be well lighted, with no dark shadows to hide in. (Motion detector lights are an excellent choice. They only light-up when something enters their area so you don’t have the expense of burning the lights all night. Also, the vulture never knows for sure if the motion sensor turned on the light or if the homeowner did).
The vulture should see signs in the yard and stickers on the doors and windows which warn that the premises are protected by an alarm system. If you cannot afford an alarm system there are fake alarm signs that look just like the real ones. Get some and put them up. The average vulture is not going risk getting caught if there is a reasonable possibility the house is alarmed.
The vulture should see that you keep your windows and doors (including your garage door) tightly closed. If he tried them, he would find them locked. The days of leaving your windows open while you run out to do a few errands are long over. An open window is an invitation to a criminal.
A couple of electronic timers can be purchased from you local discount store. Set the timers for different times. That way you can have a lamp turn-on in one room, turn-off at a predetermined time, and another lamp turn-on in a different room. This gives the appearance that someone is home and they are moving around the house. You can make the sequence of lights as simple or as complex as you wish.
A timer can also be used to turn on a stereo so the house will not be dead silent. One individual went so far as to record the sound of the telephone ringing and someone talking on the phone for playback their stereo. The possibilities are endless. The vulture would see all these visual clues and decide that the risk was too high to bother with this house.
It would require too much effort on his part to overcome these security measures. He will move on down the street to one of your neighbor’s homes and look for a much easier target. Your home does not need to look like a castle prepared for a siege. It simply needs to look like the most secure house on the block.