You are worried about somebody breaking into your property? Remember that criminals take the path of least resistance. They won’t be picking the locks on your front door unless they have something serious to gain from it. They would rather crawl in your window.
One of the best ways to prevent this is to make your property look more difficult and less interesting than neighbors. Motion detector lights, signs advertising your investment in alarm systems, little blinking led lights indicating alarms, thick door frames, imposing looking locks, and of course solid doors are all part of presenting a difficult-to-break-into property.
In addition, it is wise to keep really expensive looking objects out of public view. Just as we don’t leave purses in our cars, it is unwise to leave expensive electronics such as laptops near windows. Windows are inexpensively secured by the addition of small clamps to inhibit their opening past a certain point. You can also put a grill on them to avoid people crawling through them.
I like plants more than the next guy. My living space is full of plants. I wouldn’t keep plants outside near my windows, however. When planning your landscaping, keep any possible shelter or shadow from near your house for criminals to hide in. This makes it more difficult for them to work on opening some entryway surreptitiously. This is one place where privacy fences can work against you. All a criminal has to do is jump your fence without being seen and if your fence is opaque, he can take hours to open your door or window quietly.
Security hardware is built with the best intentions, but the reality is that you can only hope for it to slow criminals down. The locks I put on my motorcycle are measured by their effectiveness in criminal deterrence, but also how much longer it takes a thief to steal it with the locks on it. I have an eye bolt drilled into the ground in my parking spot so that I can lock my bike to the ground, which avoids people just picking it up. It is 800 Ibs, but that can be accomplished with three men who are drunk strong. Additionally, the cable is very long to avoid them twisting the cable to break it. They would spend a very long time twisting my cable. It is also very thick so it would take them at least a few more minutes with a boltcutter to cut through the cable. Then they would have to deal with the disc lock, which would require an angle grinder or something unless they just unscrewed the wheel and then took off the disc brake.
Anyway the point is, think about your security in terms of all points of entry, and make sure that your house or car is more difficult looking to break into than your neighbor’s. But not so much more difficult that it appears you have a fortune hidden inside.
