As I blogged earlier, someone had tampered with my front door. To recap, while it is extremely unlikely, I guess it's not impossible for me to forget about my deadbolt. However, the fact that my lock opening had been taped over is most definitely not from me! Also, it doesn't help that my house have been burglarized once in the past. As someone who has been threatened to be killed multiple times before, and is generally hypervigilant to begin with, I can not stress enough what a big deal this is for me. At the very least, it's just embarrassing to me on a professional level.
Now for some generally inconvenient truth about physical security in an average house: It's never going to be secure enough to stop a determined burglar or home invader. Even if it's somehow possible, you might not actually want that, as in the event of a medical emergency or fire, you don't want your domicile to be so barricaded that EMTs or fire fighters can't break though and get to you in time. So, it's an interesting balancing act.
Also, I don't want to end up being that weird guy in the movies where, every time I open or close a door, you hear like at least 4 or 5 different locking mechanisms being activated. The added security still need to be convenient enough to work with in daily life. With all that said, let's get to what I added as new:
I don't know if you guys have seen this mechanism before, but the basic idea is, even if your door lock has been picked or tampered with, the door itself still can not be opened, as these barricade devices will have to be disengaged from the inside.
Now, the reason why I don't mind showing this in public is because, well, they've been proven to be defeated before, and with a slab of plastic cut out of a milk jug no less haha. Also, there are a couple more details to this, that I am choosing not to show for security reasons. So, this is not all there is to it.
Another reason I decided to go with these is because they don't actually look that bad aesthetically, and in terms of using them day-in and day-out, it's pretty frictionless to me. Oh, and it's pretty affordable for what it is!
Regardless, it's been nearly... 3 weeks since the day of the incident? I have to say I am a bit disappointed that this prospective burglar / home invader had not shown up. I had really hoped to bag whoever this is. The MO on this one seems somewhat idiotic, and I have questions on why he chose to do exactly what he did hahaha. Oh well.
May 23rd, 2026 at 02:06 pm 1779545180
May 23rd, 2026 at 02:31 pm 1779546672
May 23rd, 2026 at 05:22 pm 1779556938
May 23rd, 2026 at 06:26 pm 1779560804
However, this new, lower crime neighborhood is just a much better overall living arrangement, regardless of the crime level. That is why I am here now.
I think what many people that live in this nicer neighborhood might not realize is just how much crime that also occurs here. However, it is much more related to property theft than anything else. The bad guys I have encountered in my previous life here have a saying, “This is where we go shopping!” They love hitting what they consider is a rich neighborhood, especially if they think it’s full of stuck up rich, old white people.
If you think about it, it also makes sense in that you typically don’t want to steal from your own neighborhood, where you know they are generally poor and don’t have much to sell anyway, and worse, they also recognize you. Instead, they prefer to go kind of out of their way to richer neighborhoods where they will not be easily recognized here. “Don’t shit where you eat.” Is an oft-cited advice I would commonly hear the bad guys share with one another.
As for me, I commonly practice a habit where I try my best not to let anyone know if I am actually home or not. From the outside, there should not be any obvious signs whether or not someone is home or not, and each night looks hopefully the same as any other nights. That way, even if I am not actually at home, and was at work for example, The house still looks the same as when I am at home.
However, I get the funny feeling that this is might be backfiring as burglars who actually take the time to survey their potential targets might have gotten the impression that, based on their observations, instead of appearing that someone is home most the time (which is now actually true), they may have walked away with the opposite impression that someone may NOT be home most of the time. Perhaps that is why they decided to “prep” my house for burglary or home invasion later on. Which if that is the case, is funny to me, because most people make it too obvious whether they are home or not, but because I don’t make it obvious enough, I think it might have actually backfired on me! Hahaha, ah I love it.