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Mate had his house broken into last night and keys used to open up the back door and loot the place easier than the window, but they left the car, what is your opinion on key location at night?
Bedside, with chance thief comes upstairs looking for with utensil from kitchen.
Downstairs on show, let them stay downstairs and get on with it
Downstairs hidden?
discuss!
General view these days is downstairs, not as a temptation, e.g. visible from window/front door, but somewhere they can be found. As you say you want to avoid them coming looking for them upstairs.
never considered it. at the in-laws place most of the time you'll find the keys in the car.
Just do what my misses regularly does.... leave 'em hanging in lock on the outside of the front door.
Save the burglars the bother of even having to come into the house!
All keys out of locks and upstairs BUT close to hand/in the same place incase of fire.
You keep a clawhammer or pliers, screwdriver etc upstairs. If you are thinking negatively- Dont forget the crim has to come upstairs/disadvantaged. Dont keep a baseball bat or golf club. Useless to swing in confined spaces.
All hypothetical.
Just put mine in the bowl, with the others...
Put them somewhere you can grab on your escape route out in the event of a fire without having to look or go into another room for them.
Having a car nicked is bad but not as bad as having your keys hidden in the kitchen when its on fire
left in back of door tbh. If there is a smoke filled house I don't want to be trying to look for them.
...and car is a Berlingo - not sure any self respecting burglar would want to be seen in it 🙂
Door keys in doors car keys hanging on hook. Never give it a moments thought or worry.
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if you deadlock your door leave your keys in the inside of the lock so you can get out if the house is on fire and visibility is poor
of course it doesn't have to be the same bunch that has the car keys on
Keys upstairs for us now.
We were unlucky enough to be targeted for our cars a couple of years ago. Our front door was forced, my wife's handbag (which was downstairs) with both sets of keys was taken, and then they made a quick get away in the cars. I was woken by the alarm on one of the cars and almost caught them, but couldn't run fast enough. At the time the area was being targeted for certain cars. The police's advice was keys out of sight, and it would have been very unlikely they would have come upstairs. These were only after the cars rather than opportunist burglars.
Ever since I had my first impreza 9 years ago it was always keys upstairs. Still in my bedside draw. With mini crowbar under the bed.
Door lock has a shield meaning you can't operate the lock when there's a key the other side. so door key in door, car keys in kitchen cupboard or at this time of year in my bodywarmer on back of bedroom door.
So long as they can't pick up the car keys with a fishing rod / magnet on a stick poked though the letter box you've probably taken enough precautions.
A big D-Cell Maglite is a useful and legitmate thing to have handy...
A big D-Cell Maglite is a useful and legitmate thing to have handy...
I have one of the 6D ones next to the bed. It has it's own gravity field it's that heavy. Not had to use it in anger yet.
If someone wants to steal my car they really need to set their sights a little higher.
Door keys in door, car is a berlingo so I don't worry about it (unless there's a bike in the back...)
parkesie - Member
If someone wants to steal my car they really need to set their sights a little higher.
This. Although, Skodas don't carry the social stigma they once did. Still, mine's mostly the colour of a ploughed field, just the top resembling the crop that might grow from it...
And my car key sits by the side of the bed, where I can find it. Once I start leaving it in a pocket, I'm stuffed; so many jackets and pockets it could be in, it'd take half an hour to find it.
Bitter experience tells me this. House key is on a separate carabiner in my trouser pocket.
we have a wall in our garden upon which is hung over 2000 sets of very similar car keys, one set works and all the others trigger an explosion under the drivers seat (after 10 minutes of occupancy). I just wish I could remember which was which.
I have one of the 6D ones next to the bed. It has it's own gravity field it's that heavy. Not had to use it in anger yet.
as a torch?
Our neighbour leaves theirs in the lock [i]on the outside of their front door[/i]
I swallow ours every night before bed and shit them out again in the morning
Our insurance specifies that keys should not be left in the lock. Not sure how they'd know but I don't want to give them an excuse.
...and car is a Berlingo - not sure any self respecting burglar would want to be seen in it
I thought that about my Corolla, my burglar's obviously weren't self respecting enough 🙂
If anyone wants a 10 year old Toyota or a goosed Touran, then I doubt they would have the brains to find our wee spot where all the phones, keys and wallets live.
Quite surprised at the number of people with weapons at their bedside. I'd be interested to know how many people have been burgled and what percentage of those the burglar has approached the home owner.
I suppose it offers a little peace of mind when going to sleep at night.
For me, it is doors locked, key in lock (on the inside). My car key is downstairs in a the same place every night.
We leave one set in the kitchen with another set of keys in the door in case we have to get out quickly. I'd rather take the risk of someone getting away with my car, and avoid getting a beating to get the keys, than being burned to a crisp in a house I couldn't get out of...
Generally property is insured so if someone has got as far as breaking in the they are going to get something. Cars can be replaced.
I swallow ours every night before bed and shit them out again in the morning
spitting tea! Very funny.
I melt mine down every night and re cast them to near net shape in the morning, then final shaping of the key from memory using a hammer and chisel...
By the bed?
Err no I wouldnt want a 3yr old running aroundwith them.
By my bed/under it is Dirt etc mags. I'd roll one up Jason Bourne style 8)
As my mate living in joburg said.
Keys and wallet down stairs. If they come into my house they can have what ever they want from downstairs as long as they dont come upstairs where the wife and kids are.
As above I take no precaution and dont sleep witha Glock or sharpened mango under my bed. I.have caught some burglars in the act before. I wandered up the garden path in full lycra get up. Bloke poked his head out the door and asked if I had any money. Odd I thought but then the girlfriends house mate was idd and I thought this must be a friend of his and we'd run out of tea bags or something. It was only when I got in the door and saw that they had the stereo out of the cupboard and were loading cd's into a rucksack that I realised what was going on. Both of them seemed to want to leave so I edged away from the door and off they went empty handed. I got a it cocky then and told them to not ****ing come back. So one tried to hit me missed and punched the door frame.. Later police caught one via finger prints and he got his 240 000 conviction for burglary.
jam bo - where do your in laws live?
Don't have the upstairs option, so just leave in a kitchen draw. Due to a spate of garage thefts locally we have now started being much more careful about locking and alarming the shed etc. Going to fit more lights for the cats to set off soon.
In the boonies.
House keys left in both locks to aid escape should it be needed and also shut down the external side of the lock barrel. Car and bike keys hung up in kitchen cupboard. House is then perimeter alarmed and Dog set to stun. They are welcome to whatever they can get.
If you leave your keys in the door lock aren't you vulnerable to crims accessing them via the letterbox if you have one in the door ?
Front door key has a snowboard leash clipping it to the back of the door handle. Given the crapness of euro cylinders and the easy with which they can be bumped, i'd far rather take my chances. Plus I have no wish to go scrabbling for the key/lock in the event of a fire.
Clipped to my dogs collar.
Quite surprised at the number of people with weapons at their bedside. I'd be interested to know how many people have been burgled and what percentage of those the burglar has approached the home owner.
Not really for being approached in bed I'd imagine, more for if you hear something in another area of the house. I used to work with a an older fella who heard someone coming in through the kitchen window. He crept down and waited in the shadow for the guy coming in before dispatching him with a wee 2lb club hammer. Then went and woke his son, who was 12 at the time, as he needed help to carry him outside. They dumped him over the farm wall across the road, and the boy was told not to tell his mother anything as if the police came asking "she'd tell them everything she knew'. 😯
I believe she still doesn't know to this day, and it was the sons 40th a wee while back. Incidentally, Dougie had a look over the wall the next day, and the guy was gone.
Now I know where you keep your keys and what 'security' measures you take, I'm gonna find you on strava and rob your bikes
We were burgled 3 years ago. Keys were downstairs in a bowl. Car was loaded and taken but dumped a few streets away. We were then locked in. keys strewn along drive but they didn't find the garage keys amongst them.We always take them upstairs now.
Good morning Mr Crim, my keys are just inside the front door in a small Pasta Bowl along with all my pocket change (which is overflowing BTW, so when you nab the keys.. clear out he sodding change to eh)
😆
🙄
Front (inner glass) door and back door have the keys in the locks, turned an extra quarter turn. No letterbox in glass door so can't be fished, and hopefully the sound of breaking glass would be enough to wake me and [s]ready the .22 zip gun[/s] ring the police.
...to avoid them coming looking for them upstairs
Errr [i]no[/i]
Keep a set in the doors myself, so I can find them! The car keys are elsewhere and it usually takes me 10 minutes to find the damn things in the morning so they must be cunningly concealed!
That said, if someone does come through the door the rather large border collie tends to take offence. Actually - if anyone stands outside the door he takes offence and starts shouting about it. Tends to keep miscreants away 😉
Not sure if this has already been said but is this really the best sort of information to be publishing on the internet?
I know you think you're anonymous but I'm pretty sure unscrupulous with friends in the know would be able to find out who tou are.
at said, if someone does come through the door the rather large border collie tends to take offence. Actually - if anyone stands outside the door he takes offence and starts shouting about it. Tends to keep miscreants away
Having a dog is definitly the best deterrent.
Do Burgulars always come upstairs? Why would they? Plenty to grab downstairs.
Saying that..an old friend of mine did 18months after he confronted a burgular on the stairs. I think he was sentenced as he hit the burgular but then followed him down the stairs and really laid into him in a bad way at the foot of the stairs.
Blimey. I dont even lock the door when I go out.
Where do you lot live? Beirut c.1975?
Yeah yeah stoner. Don't act all innocent, you used to live in the midst of the Kosovan's in West Hampstead 😉
I used to live near an estate in Plymouth known as little Beirut.
Aye, hora.
And Mrs S' golf was missing it's radio and airbag. So we didnt lock that either 😉
It's a sad state of affairs that people even have to think about what they do with their keys at night.,I would question the area you live in if you do have to.
I walk in, sling the keys down anywhere, and get on with stuff. This may explain why I can never find them in the morning though.
I used to live near an estate in Plymouth known as little Beirut.
I used to live on the Flowers estate in Southampton
I used to live in Fartown/Sheepridge Huddersfield
I live in a dodgy area of Manchester
Etc 😉
I had my house broken into for the keys to my Civic R. The car was used in an armed robbery a short while later.
Keys were downstairs on a key hook in the kitchen fortunately, even if I did keep a baseball bat under the bed, I'm not sure what good it would do me vs. a sawn off!
Cars are insured and will be replaced
I'm with Oliver and northern matt. Batteries are probably flat...but there to add weight.
Keys upstairs in the bedroom. Except front door keys, they are close to door, not in reach of letterbox and out of immediate sight.
Keys were downstairs on a key hook in the kitchen fortunately, even if I did keep a baseball bat under the bed, I'm not sure what good it would do me vs. a sawn off!
Precisely.
AS i fit locks for a job, its quite surprising how many times i get asked and refuse to fit locks on hardboard skinned interior doors, one kick and youre through, and in a fire how are you going to get out as most doors open into a room, so not so easy to kick in.
Fire and smoke kills burglars rarely do.
I used to live near an estate in Plymouth known as little Beirut.
I used to live on the Flowers estate in Southampton
I used to live in Fartown/Sheepridge Huddersfield
I live in a dodgy area of ManchesterEtc
As my neighbour who leaves the keys hanging out of the front of their house said... 'you'd have to be bloody mental to rob any of the houses round here'
My aging parents had a fire safety visit a few weeks back. Told to keep door keys in the lock. Better to get out than burn with your valuables?
car keys stay in the living room. wife keeps the spare one in her handbag upstairs, along with her set of house keys. my house keys stay next to the car keys. they are in plain sight if you are in the room but cannot be seen from the outside. i never leave them in the door overnight.
for security i keep an old 425mm blackspire seat post behind the front door and another similar seatpost under the bed next to the baseball bat for security.
Isn't it a well known fact that if you live in a sink estate they are often the safest where you can leave your door open etc.? Pretty sure that anyone nicking stuff is known by someone nearby and often families look after each other thereby using almost a local (police) force to keep the areas "safe"ish.
Main problems are mixed areas like Hampstead, one side of the road is ohhh soooo niiiice and the other well dodge.. etc.. etc.. repeat around the country.
On the Farm we lock everything up, it's near Harrogate and yet the sheds have been burgled 4 times in the last 7 years.. 🙄 What soes that say about "R'ogate, yah"? But we think it was probably (cough) "travellers" 🙄
My brother had his car nicked off his drive when thieves fished the key from the hall table using a fishin rod through the letter box, his 3 dogs slept through the whole thing. A neighbour phoned him to wake him as the theives were struggling to manouever his car out the drive. Apparently my house is "High Security" although no-one has been able to explain to me what that means exactly.
Key in the door, my letter box shares DNA with Crocodiles and Clams so good luck, the postie has never figured it out.
Keys downstairs out of sight mostly, front door key is in the lock, but there's no windows close enough for a burglar to break and access the key, unless he's Mr. Tickle
I keep my claymore by my bed just in case, I have a clockwise staircase so plenty of room to swing it.
About 5yrs ago when we had the pronounced earth quake in the NWest? I was awoken in the middle of the night by the bed being violently shaken/house shaking. I thought 'oh Poltergeist' and went back to sleep (before I did though I noticed the dog fast asleep on his back being shaken). Fat good guard dogs are..his 3 dogs slept through the whole thing
My brother-in-law had their previous house broken into , laptops/phones/electrics loaded into their cars (fully loaded golf gti/focus st). They only found out when they were shaken awake by the police to let them k ow they had caught the thieves after a car chase.
Depends on the dog. Had a few which are useless but most of them are really alert. Last Xmas i woke up in the middle of the night to tell mine to stop barking at the cats in the back yard only to see when i get to the kitchen door it wasn't a cat but someone jumping back over our wall.
You keep a clawhammer or pliers, screwdriver etc upstairs.
Pliers???? I'm gonna get within two inches and twist his nipples off?
Pliers???? I'm gonna get within two inches and twist his nipples off?
I always thought that a pair of snips would make a fun weapon, for tendons and stuff
door keys upstairs and handy in case of fire
saying that, there are spares elsewhere in the house - out of sight from the doors.
the first thing you'd see if a burglar poked their head around any of the doors is our noisy staffie, so we'd have a fair idea something was awry
Pliers????
Maybe for the torture, once the perp has been aprehended?
Get a mate to look really pissed off and to come towards you with pliers within a confined space.
Place a pair of pliers on your forearm, neck or anywhere else and gently squeeze then post back...
You'll want to disengage and get away! A punch to the skull/head feels like a dull-thud doesn't it. This doesn't.
Again all hypothetical. I've never been in trouble with the law and I've no intention of.
You'll want to disengage and get away! A punch to the skull/head feels like a dull-thud doesn't it. This doesn't.
Either you've got a skull 2" thick or you've never been punched hard.
I've had my head stamped on and I've been kicked in the head. Its a dull thud with adrenaline.
Erm where do you live Hora? Mogadishu?
One of the times I was pissed and jumped after I'd defended someone (followed post-event). The first time after I had the nerve to walk away from a football 'group' as everyone was always getting arrested. The joys of youth .
Either you've got a skull 2" thick or you've never been punched hard.
[img] 
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"[s]Homer's[/s] Hora's skull is a quarter inch thicker than the average skull (dubbed "Hora Singletrack Syndrome") that protects him completely from cranial injury up to a certain point allowing him to be beaten by normal folk with no effect"
🙂
Back on topic... Keys are left on the stairs. This to remind me to turn off the alarm in the mornings before heading through the garage without making my ears bleed! Frint door has a very large bold across, so keys are moot.
They are welcome to the car 😉
We've got a dog so hopefully she'd make enough noise to disrupt or deter. If not - she's only little and crated at night anyway so unlikely she'd be much of a defender.
Unless you're a fox getting jiggy wid mrs fox in the garden. Then she screams blue murder enough to wake the house, the neighbours, and probably rouse the police 5 blocks away anyway, given last night's experiences.