Do you own or rent a home or apartment? You should be aware of your residential security. Hopefully, when you moved into your residence you rekeyed or replaced your outer locks. These are the primary barrier and security features of your home.
If you have purchased your locks from a “ Big Box Store” you are sharing your keys with thousands of other folks across the area. They sell packages of keyed alike locks which share the same key so people can buy multiple locks and use one key for all of them.
This is a dangerous breach of your security.
You might be thinking “if a person wants to get in then they will find a way.”
This is not a valid argument. Home burglaries are easier when doors are equipped with cheap (normally weaker and poorly made) locks and many doors only have a doorknob and no deadbolt. Doorknobs are a convenience function used to open and hold your door closed: they are not meant for security.
Deadbolts are the locks on your door that provide the security. Your door should have a properly installed high-quality deadbolt. Doors without deadbolts or with poorly installed deadbolts can be opened quicker and more quietly than properly installed locks.
Your neighbors will hear and therefore see a burglar trying to open a high security properly installed deadbolt. Burglars know this and tend to move on to the next weaker target house which has no deadbolts or cheap locks.
Your home is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Are you protecting it with $50 or $100 dollar mass marketed locks?
If you are, then think twice. Burglars are very sophisticated and skilled in our area. Homes in the New York City Metro Region should be protected with high-security locks such as Medeco or Mul-t-lock.
These locks are built to much higher quality standards. The design of the Medeco lock contains three separate locking components.
The keys must be properly milled and cut to very exacting specifications in order to release the separate locking components in the locks. The keys are restricted — almost impossible to duplicate without the proper authorization.
The locks are drill resistant and hardened to withstand numerous types of forced attacks. Keys cannot be duplicated at any generic store or big box store.
The keys require registration and Identification in order to be duplicated. This gives you an extra layer of security so that any keys given out for temporary use cannot be copied. When you receive your key back after giving to someone for temporary use, you know that no copies were made for later entry.
Do you have a safe in your home? Safes provide different levels of protection depending on your individual needs. At the very least you should have a good quality Fire Safe to keep your important documents safe in case of fire. Moving up to a Fire/Burglary safe adds important protection for your valuables.
If you have a lot of high-value items such as watches, jewelry, coins etc you should consider a burglary rated safe which is made to withstand repeated forcible attacks and still keep your items protected.
There are multiple grades of high-security burglary safes available depending on what you require for your valuables.
Information provided by Able Lock Shop, www.ablelockshop.com
