Convincing others of the need for home security

[CubDriver]

I am at college, and often go home on the weekends, and live at home during the summer and am concerned about the way my mother secures the house. To start out she is/used to be adamantly against guns, but has come a surprisingly long way. When I am home I keep a loaded shot gun in my room, and she knows this and allows it which is quite amazing compared to what she would have done to me a few years ago for even brining it to the house.

We have an alarm system that she turns on when she leaves during the day, but at night it is never activated. I have made a scene about this before, and when I turn it on she becomes upset because she doesn’t want to be woken up by false alarms. It should be noted that the system has never had a false alarm that wasn’t a direct result of one of the occupants doing something negligent in the first place (Like my brother comming home at three AM). She is pretty good about locking doors, but not so windows and the other members of the house hold are moderately good at locking doors.

This behavior basically stems from the fact that she doesn’t believe that break-ins occur when people are home. She bases this from the fact that you very rarely hear on the news of someone who was shot and killed by a home owner during a home invasion. I point out that you hear weekly of some one being found dead/murdered in their home, and even more often of a string of burglaries in an area (this point was during a recent conversation and I haven’t had time to gauge its effect on her yet).

I believe that there are many more break-ins that are not reported in the news because no one was injured (some one broke into the house, and a homeowner/occupant confronted them with a weapon, and the intruder retreated).

I would be interested in stories that fall down these lines, if you don’t mind sharing. I believe that other peoples experiences would have more effect with her than impersonal statistics. Also have you been in a similar situation with a family member/loved one and how did you go about trying to get them to take protection more seriously?

Thanks,
David.

 

[hso]

Don't bother arguing with her or presenting stories from other people. Your mother isn't going to listen to her child on this question and she certainly won't listen to people that she knows less than you.

What you might do is contact the local DAs office and ask if they can provide any statistics or simple information on home breakins while the residents were home. You should also contact the alarm company and ask them how many alarms they've gotten with the residents at home that were due to real attempts to enter the house. Compile all of this and just leave it for her to read over.

Also, get a dog that barks at strangers. Once it's use to you and your mom and your brother it will serve as a good alarm for her.

 

[markdaniel]

Try having her watch it takes a thief i think its on discovery it may be an eye opener for her.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

Variation On HSO's Idea

The Bexar County (San Antonio) Sheriff's Office offers a FREE In Home Security Check. During the walk through, the officer will make suggestions that are,in effect, admonishments of your efforts! But don't come across that way!

These folks are very well trained and make a suprisingly comprehensive assessment of your home's security (or lack of it). I resorted to this after tearing what's left of my hair out over my wife's total lack of a sense of security. I mean, I can only do so much..I'm not going to follow her around like a Secret Service Agent garding the Prez!

Really, it's scary how some people just float through life with no regard for their personal safety or that of their home! My (much) better half is thinking about gardening and the grandchild, etc. and left open windows and raised garage doors in her wake..oh, and unlocked gates.

After hearing horror stories about break-ins not far from our home from a stern, uniformed officer...her attitude has changed to a degree. Not as much as I'd like, but it's a start.

Contact your Sheriff's office and/or P.D...bet they can help!

Take Care

 

[MS .45]

I know from experience that your task in an uphill battle at best. I have two younger sisters and growing up I would always talk with them about situational awareness ect... In one ear and out the other. They are much better as adults. As suggested before, some crime statistics would be usefull as well as having her read stories of home invasions(with people in home). Maybe after a lot of that she will come around. Good luck.

 

[James T Thomas]

awareness

Purchase a scanner receiver for the local police frequencies, and discretely listen to it, in her presence, especially during the evening hours.

Incident to relate: I had a large family and some of us were coming and going constantly into and out of the house, so opportunity for break -ins was limited.
Also many large and protective males; and the females were formidable too.

One Sunday following church, my mother returned home from church to find the back door smashed in. Wood splinters all over the stairs there.
We, the family had all just straggled coming home that day. My elderly mother hears noise upstairs and down comes a middle aged man wearing a sport jacket. An unknown stranger. He says to her "Its alright, I'm with the Real Estate Agency." The house was just put up for sale.

He departed the house unhindered; none of us had returned yet, and the police were called. Up in my mother's bedroom was a bathtowell twisted into a rope like garrotte for anyone who had ventured up there while he was busy stealing all my mothers hand me down, keepsake, and irreplaceable jewelery that she kept from her mother and so forth.

We had never experienced burglary before, nor our neighbors either.
I become anxious when I think of what might have happened.
It only takes once!

Best wishes to you and your mother, and tell her to be more cautious.

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

This behavior basically stems from the fact that she doesn’t believe that break-ins occur when people are home....
I would be interested in stories that fall down these lines, if you don’t mind sharing. I believe that other peoples experiences would have more effect with her than impersonal statistics. Also have you been in a similar situation with a family member/loved one and how did you go about trying to get them to take protection more seriously?

I live in a low-crime neighborhood. Couple years ago, a house was broken into one evening just a few hundred yards from my house because the family owned a jewlry store. The thieves pistol-whipped the 15-yeard old daughter, breaking her jaw, to get the family to give up the location of their valuables.

Friend of mine lives in another low-crime neighborhood. This guy came home from work at lunch and was murdered by someone breaking into his house.

In my neighborhood, many homes have had bicylcles stolen from garages due to the garage door being left open.

Stats--something like 1/3 to 1/4 of homes are broken into because they are unlocked. Petty crooks and roving hoodlums go around looking for unlocked entrances.

Another fact: the best burglars work in the evening when people are home because security alarms are likely to be turned off, but it's still dark. These are real pros, people like second-story men, who specialize in sneaking in and out without being noticed. But that tends to happen in fancier houses.

Though there are less hot burglaries here than in say, England, because homeowners here are more likely to be armed.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

Creeping

Given the stories and stats of your LOW crime area's..I shudder to think what the HIGH crime area stats look like.

Take Care

 

[Standing Wolf]

Some people have to learn lessons the hard way.

 

[Creeping Incrementalism]

Given the stories and stats of your LOW crime area's..I shudder to think what the HIGH crime area stats look like.

Take Care

These (relatively) low crime areas are nice, middle-class suburbs in the Bay Area and Sacramento. Everyone I know has had either their car or house broken into in the past 10 years, has been mugged, or is close friends with someone who has. Every once in a while, some psycho murders a housewife or college student in the area.

For the high crime areas... A couple of months ago in the nice part of downtown Oakland, one of my co-workers was mugged in broad daylight at noon next to a coffee shop. That was unusual because everyone else I know who got mugged in a big city got mugged in the middle of the night... and then there's San Francisco, which usually has the highest unsolved murder rate of any major city in the nation. Which is why the city is banning pistol ownership, because everyone knows that honest people are the ones committing all the murders, they just can't prove it since they can't catch the guys.

 

[gazpacho]

Motion detector lights covering all entrances help.

Get a bund of fale (or real) security cameras. They make fake ones now that pan and follow motion.

Put adhesive window tint (bare minimum tint) on windows to make them shatter resistant. It wont stop entry, but it will slow down a burgler and make them work harder.

Put Those spiny plants underneath ground floor windows.

Replace the master bedroom door with an exterior steel security door, including deadbolt.

Get a Ruger 10/22 (or mag) with a 18" bull barrel and have a gun smith open up the bore to about .50 cal 2" deep from the crown. A lil ol 22 shouldn't bother her, but a bad guy looking down that .50 cal bore might have other ideas.

 

[GoBrush]

Check with the local police department ours operates a neighbor hood watch program and have crime statistics that they are happy to give you. The sad thing here is that people develope bad habits over a long period of time and become complacent. Most of the time people do not realize they are wrong until they have learned the hard way. Good luck. Probably the best thing you can do is just teach by example and hope she catches on.

 

[Davo]

Im going throught the same thing with my mom...

For the first time in 25 years the house is empty, and she lives alone. Our neighborhood used to be very nice, but over the last 5 years there have been numerous robberys, and our home was broken into while we were on vacation. There was also a drive-by 3 homes down.
I try to tell her that even if she notifies the cops, she still may not see them for up to 30 minutes, by which time anything can happen. This assumes she hears anything at all-and several times Ive come in the house and she's not heard me enter.
I try not to scare her, but she is living in denial. A late 50's single woman living alone is prime real estate for home invasions, etc. Im working on getting her to come shooting, then I want to get her a handgun.

 

[LAK]

Many people won't act until "it happens to them" - or something serious to someone close.
---------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org