Locked in a drill's world

Don't know if it is possible where you live, but here the best answer is to get to know your neighbors and have at least a semi-official neighborhood watch arrangement. Also have lots of stairs so that the other houses look easier.

Nothing will stop a determined thief, but you can at least make it easier to go to another house and more likely someone will call.

Chill, Ezra, we need you thinking about more important things (to us, maybe not to you!) Any type of security arrangement is only going to slow someone down, not stop them. There's probably an optimum level between a jimmy-with-a-credit-card lock and the Fort Knox worthy gadget you apparently have, but since you already have the Fort Knox, might as well keep it. However, if you really think you house is situated where it is likely that someone with a cordless drill would feel free to mount an attack on your lock, then I suggest you use the theft protection method which has always worked for us - don't own anything worth stealing!

I'm no expert on this, but I've seen some pretty advanced doors in European cities. The doors are reinforced steel - usually very heavy and solid on the inside, while the locks don't seem like the type you could just take a drill to. Of course, you also need to go to special locksmiths to get keys made for several hundred euros each. I wonder if anyone knows anything about them.

You are sounding quite the bourgeois -- for someone who is willing to play so fast and free with other people's money and hard earned possessions. Now listen up: anyone going to the trouble and risk of breaking into your place probably needs what you have, and has less than you do. Why should that person drink coffee made from pre ground beans, while you are drinking coffee from an expensive cappucino maker???? Most people who break in and steal are genuinely poor. Relax and let it happen.

Hahahahha. Something tells me your urbane liberal opinion on gun control is in trouble here. And good on you for it, thanks to the Roberts court you people in DC have the same 2nd amendment constitutional privileges as every other American who doesnt live in Chicago.

Your observations are interesting. However, I think you misrepresent the context a bit.

First, burglars will will always prefer lock picking tools because they are quiet. Second they can't very well put a towel over the place where the bit meets the lock; there will be noise with a drill. Third, there are always neighbors and pedestrians for them to worry about, and if seen attempting to muffle noise with a towel, they would draw suspicion.

Finally, and most importantly, the arms race you point to favors you. The aforementioned pedestrians and neighbors carry cell phones that make it easier to report suspicious activity quickly. Also, while I realize most people haven't done this yet, technology is making it cheaper and easier all the time for people to keep recorded surveillance of their dwellings.

Have you ever tried any combination locks? I doubt they can be picked or drilled.

Never leave you home. Ever

"I'm no expert on this, but I've seen some pretty advanced doors in European cities."

That's what you need: a steel door with 5 locks, including a couple of the sliding barrier type, with a little peephole so that you can eyeball whoever is at the door before you open it. And a big, vicious dog.

Doesn't look very clever now with the r missing.

Dave needs an 18V 1/2" DeWalt. Everyone does. 12V drills are for socialists.

If someone REALLY wants in to your place, they'll get it. All you can really do is discourage someone enough so that they'll pick an easier victim.

Its like that old joke. If you and a friend are being chased by a bear, you don't have to outrun the bear, just your friend.

And what is it with people on this thread equating welfare with crime? It is entirely possible to support programs for those in need and to still be against home burglary. I guess someone judged it a good day for false equivalences.

Who's talking about welfare? I was only thinking of the general rule, propagated by the President, that it's good to spread the wealth around. And also, the incompatibility between a strong desire to defend and keep one's own property, and a casual attitude toward breaking other people's financial backs with taxes, accusing them, when they want to keep what they have earned, of "not caring" about those who have less.

Locks are just to defend against the casual thief: someone who either tries the doorknob (which happens WAY more often than you'd think) or just gives a bit of a kick, a shake, or a casual lock-picking effort.

As mentioned by others, if someone is really targeting your house, they'll get in anyway.

I think it's extremely important to have a working lock and a reasonably solid door, and not important at all to go fancier than that.

Two words: Samurai sword.

The secret of home security is not to build a fort. Burglars are lazy... they go for the target of least resistance. If your neighbors leave their windows open, lock yours. If your neighbors lock their windows, get grates. If your neighbors have got grates, get a security system. Like that. It's like the old joke about two guys running away from the bear. One says to the other: "I don't think either of us will be able to outrun the bear!" And the other says: "I don't need to outrun the bear. I need to outrun you. And that I can do."

Another thing to consider is whether there are people who want to break into your home without you finding out, in which case lockpicks are going to be far preferable to drills. A burglar who wants to steal information or install bugs will want to get in and out without you knowing he was even there, and as a political journalist you have a considerably higher risk of being targeted for something like that than the general population does. Especially if at some point you start cultivating anonymous sources.

Anyone can get into your house or car if they want to. But you still lock your doors, because you don't want to make it easy for them.

At a certain point, your money is better spent on property insurance and a safe deposit box than on improved door locks.

My friend, this is all the security you will ever need need:
http://lifehacker.com/5397180/diy-secret-knock-detector-grants-you-entrance-with-the-right-cadence

I don't know why anyone would bother with a cordless drill in the first place, unless you need to use it outside or on a camping trip or something. Your house his wired with all that nice electricity, why not use it.

You should replace it with the same grade lock. There's a world of difference between the silent lockpicking that cheap locks are vulnerable to and the noise, attention, and tools that drilling your expensive lock out required. If you'd had a cheap lock you would've been shocked by how fast he could pick it, something that can be much more easily disguised as fumbling with his keys.

In my half-informed opinion, the best security is a porch light, a light on in the house, and a car in the driveway, or whichever of those you can manage. The last thing burglars want to encounter is someone in the house, since they sensibly do not want to get arrested, shot, or beaten with a baseball bat. They want a house with nobody home, so what you have to do is make it look like someone is home.

Violent burglaries of occupied houses or anything other than finding the unoccupied house on a street seem to be extremely rare, and usually the victim is someone known to have large amounts of cash and/or drugs in the house which makes the risk worthwhile. Unless you've been supplementing your Washington Post income with some nefarious activities I wouldn't worry about that.

Weren't you listening? He told you to get the same lock, not a better one.

Don't feel *too* badly, EK. I once locked myself INSIDE my apartment. The door had to be opened by squeezing the jamb with a pry bar. Luckily, it squeezed itself back into place and my door didn't break right off the hinges!