4 ms·
I live in a rather modern European apartment/condo and I don't think this would be true for my home at all. Sure, with the right tools you can get windows or do
by dx034 5y ago
I live in a rather modern European apartment/condo and I don't think this would be true for my home at all. Sure, with the right tools you can get windows or doors open, but it will be very loud and not that easy. Windows are triple glazed (for insulation, not protection) and they have a fair amount of locks on all sides (can be annoying as they won't close if any of those are blocked by dirt or leave).
If you just close the door without locking it, it's possible to open them without causing too much damage. But I heard from neighbours who got locked out that if you have your door locked, even a locksmith will at least need to destroy the lock, potentially even part of the door, to get inside.
There's no such thing as perfect protection, but most thieves will ignore objects that take longer than a minute or two to break in to. There are too many alternatives and any minute spent at the door increases the risk of detection.
Also, apart from doors or windows there are no openings. There's ventilation but the diameter is way too small to crawl through. And access from parking is secured the same way as through the front door.
So yes, I think a front door lock will keep out thieves. Not because it makes it impossible but because it's just not worth it. Same as a well protected server all but keeps out intruders. Unless you're a very high value target, they go after easier targets first.
- jacquesm 5y agoApartments are probably harder than houses, fewer points of entry pretty much ensure that. But I've lived in apartments as well and in fact a few years ago in Bucharest I had to do something quite similar and that worked just fine as well. It all depends on how much you know about how stuff is put together to be able to spot the weak points in a structure. But a properly designed and implemented security layer for an apartment would be hard or even impossible to crack without damage. The devil is in the details though and compared to a thief, if it is your own place you have a lot of motivation not to damage it and a lot of time.
- kaliszad 5y agoI have one "shut myself" out of my apartment when I have replaced the tag and a draft closed the door - when I realized, I don't have any keys. I knew, one window was angle opened in the kitchen right next to the balcony. I asked my neighbours, if I could climb over. It was the third floor, so I kind of hesitated, but there were multiple robust things I could hold onto. I used my belt to move the handle of another window 90° so it would open like a door through just the 5 cm opening at the top of the other window. Nobody saw me, nobody asked anything. I could perhaps climb to the balcony easily even though I don't do any climbing otherwise. After this, I never left the apartment with any angle-opened window after that.
- evilos 5y agoRegular viewers of The Lock Picking Lawyer on youtube know how trivial it can be to bypass many common locks. Especially if you pickup a 10 dollar tool for the job. And I don't mean trivial for the LPL, I mean just trivial for a lay person who is aware of the vulnerability. Unrelated, here is my favorite LPL video where a locksmith calls bullshit and challenges LPL to a duel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSuaUok-wTY
- jacquesm 5y agoOh that's hilarious. He could have done four in that time.