People who have a lot of exterior house lights

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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,457
12,611
126
www.anyf.ca
The issue is governments don't take theft and that type of crime seriously enough they rather punish people for downloading an MP3 or writing a song that sounds too close to another. So you pretty much have to do things yourself to at least try to mitigate the risk, because the risk is there. It's not just fear mongering. In my city theft is basically legal since cops do nothing and it's turned into a huge epidemic. People get stuff stolen off their property almost nightly. Most of them steal just for the sake of it. Recently the big thing seems to be vehicle parts. They'll just take parts off your vehicle. Or even bikes. Instead of stealing the whole bike they'll just take the tires, seat and pedals.

Does not matter if you're in a "good" or "bad" neighbourhood. Thieves don't avoid certain neighbourhoods just because they are "good".
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
/
FEAR is a disease which makes it easy for politicians to manipulate you and companies to sell you things you don't need.
You won't find any security lighting around my current home and there wasn't any around my last home that I lived in for thirty years. During the course of those thirty years that house was broken into twice. I lived in a safe area until I didn't. When the police came to investigate, each time I learned that there was a rash of home burglaries going on throughout the rural township I lived in.

Your lecture is noted but is of little value to me. But please, do let us know when you stop locking your home when you leave and your car when you're not driving it.

Be sure to zoom out and watch the numbers rise. 9/9 through 9/23 at the time I'm providing the link.
http://www2.colliersheriff.org/news/crimemap/crimemap.htm

Fear? Applying rational measures in an attempt to counter reality is more like it.
 
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Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,566
9,928
146
You won't find any security lighting around my current home and there wasn't any around my last home that I lived in for thirty years. During the course of those thirty years that house was broken into twice. I lived in a safe area until I didn't. When the police came to investigate, each time I learned that there was a rash of home burglaries going on throughout the rural township I lived in.

Your lecture is noted but is of little value to me. But please, do let us know when you stop locking your home when you leave and your car when you're not driving it.
I rarely lock my house when I leave and NEVER when actually at home, and I NEVER lock my car in my driveway and mostly -- like 90% of the time, don't lock it elsewhere, either.

Looks like your fear-based assumption about me . . . boomeranged. :D
 

GagHalfrunt

Lifer
Apr 19, 2001
25,284
1,996
126
Sorry, but land mines are illegal. However remotely triggered claymore mines using a RING type system for good security are the ticket.

/S if not obvious enough.

That's the beauty of landmines. It doesn't matter if they're illegal, once a few trespassers have been blown to smithereens who is going to come onto your property to arrest you?
 

skyking

Lifer
Nov 21, 2001
22,382
5,347
146
Motion lights can be a pain in the ass too. I enjoy being able to approach the back door and see where I am going, but when a cat wanders through the yard at 3 AM ( last night!!) and triggers the back door light, which triggers the Jack Russell and the Tasmanian devil hybrid Chihuahua, it's a pain in the ass.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
I rarely lock my house when I leave and NEVER when actually at home, and I NEVER lock my car in my driveway and mostly -- like 90% of the time, don't lock it elsewhere, either.

Looks like your fear-based assumption about me . . . boomeranged. :D
Glad to see that white privilege is working out well for you. :thumbsup:
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,480
3,601
126
Every area is until it isn't.

Oh well in that case we should all put bars on our windows and build panic rooms for our houses

But please, do let us know when you stop locking your home when you leave and your car when you're not driving it.

I regularly leave my car unlocked, parked outside my house. Not that a locked door stopped someone from breaking into my car twice and stealing it once when I lived in...less desirable areas of SE MI
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,981
8,219
126
I'd be more concerned with nicer neighborhoods and big lots than poorer more urban settings. Thieves don't steal from people that don't have anything, and big lots create a sound/visual barrier to anyone seeing them. Hasn't happened in awhile, but there was a few daytime forced entries around here, and there's the occasional burglary. I don't worry much about it. If someone wants in, they'll get in. If I'm home, they'll likely regret it.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
Oh well in that case we should all put bars on our windows and build panic rooms for our houses
You should do whatever makes you comfortable. I'm totally OK with it. Open doors, unlocked doors, moats, drawbridges, armed security, electric fence, whatever floats your boat. If you interpreted my post as some type of argument, then you misinterpreted it.

I regularly leave my car unlocked, parked outside my house. Not that a locked door stopped someone from breaking into my car twice and stealing it once when I lived in...less desirable areas of SE MI
What's important is to remember that they broke into your car because they decided they needed your stuff more than you did. It's hard to fault a person for trying to get ahead in life, you know?
 

Perknose

Forum Director & Omnipotent Overlord
Forum Director
Oct 9, 1999
46,566
9,928
146
Glad to see that white privilege is working out well for you. :thumbsup:
White privilege my fucking ass. A couple of years ago, thieves boosted my big screen and my laptop while I was at church. I was talking with the police chief and we agreed, he does the same, which is to not lock his house because the fuckers will just break something to get in anyway.

My guess is you will STILL not be embarrassed at how serially WRONG your asshole assumptions about me and my life have been in this thread. So much "winning" for you, eh?

So, listen up, asshole. You're talking to a guy who was a P.I. for years and refused to carry a personal piece, despite strenuous advice from all sides to do so . . . because if you carry a gun you had better be prepared to end someone's life, and I had had enough of that to last me a lifetime. Got that, Sparky? I often found myself the only white guy for blocks and blocks around in the very worst parts of North Philly at 3 am, alone. I survived because I didn't radiate fear (predators can literally smell that on you -- also body language), and because I naturally treated everyone I met with respect. Plus . . . a lone white guy in those circumstances? They didn't know who the hell I was.

And, Mr. Shithead Assumption Bleater, you're also talking to the guy who kicked Sylvia Seegrist out of his house a few months before she shot 9 people at the Springfield Mall and killed 3 of them, including a 3 year old boy.

I don't live in fear. Never have. You? You're just another twerp on the net talking smack from behind the safety and anonymity of your keyboard.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,457
12,611
126
www.anyf.ca
I'd be more concerned with nicer neighborhoods and big lots than poorer more urban settings. Thieves don't steal from people that don't have anything, and big lots create a sound/visual barrier to anyone seeing them. Hasn't happened in awhile, but there was a few daytime forced entries around here, and there's the occasional burglary. I don't worry much about it. If someone wants in, they'll get in. If I'm home, they'll likely regret it.

Yeah here thieves are equal opportunity. They don't skip a neighbourhood because "it's too nice". If anything that's an attraction to them. My area has been hit a few times but is thankfully not a HUGE target, probably because lot of people including myself do have alarm systems. They go into cars though. cars are checked nightly. If you forget to lock your car even once, you will come back to it and all the stuff in your glove box will be shuffled around and anything of value that was in the car will be gone. Though people steal weird things, there was one thief going around another part of town, and stores, stealing dice. He forgot his loot bag in another car that he stole from and there was tons of dice in it. Guess the thief was trying to start an illegal casino or something lol.

Recently one theft happened in broad day light at a car dealership. Someone's bike got dismantled. All parts stolen except for the frame. I don't even get that, why not just steal the whole bike at that point lol.
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
18,883
641
126
White privilege my fucking ass. A couple of years ago, thieves boosted my big screen and my laptop while I was at church. I was talking with the police chief and we agreed, he does the same, which is to not lock his house because the fuckers will just break something to get in anyway.

My guess is you will STILL not be embarrassed at how serially WRONG your asshole assumptions about me and my life have been in this thread. So much "winning" for you, eh?

So, listen up, asshole. You're talking to a guy who was a P.I. for years and refused to carry a personal piece, despite strenuous advice from all sides to do so . . . because if you carry a gun you had better be prepared to end someone's life, and I had had enough of that to last me a lifetime. Got that, Sparky? I often found myself the only white guy for blocks and blocks around in the very worst parts of North Philly at 3 am, alone. I survived because I didn't radiate fear (predators can literally smell that on you -- also body language), and because I naturally treated everyone I met with respect. Plus . . . a lone white guy in those circumstances? They didn't know who the hell I was.

And, Mr. Shithead Assumption Bleater, you're also talking to the guy who kicked Sylvia Seegrist out of his house a few months before she shot 9 people at the Springfield Mall and killed 3 of them, including a 3 year old boy.

I don't live in fear. Never have. You? You're just another twerp on the net talking smack from behind the safety and anonymity of your keyboard.
Thanks for the compelling story. Have you noticed that you're very angry and that it started over just six words I said? Carrying around all that anger just can't be good for you. Why not lean back in the rocking chair with a smile on your face, reminiscing about the glory days of walking through those neighborhoods where the black predators live (did I paraphrase that correctly) like a boss?

We all make choices in life and I just don't see the point in being angry to the point of calling anonymous people on the Internet asshole and "Mr. Shithead Assumption Bleater" (which is a classic that I haven't heard in ages btw). I typed six words that when combined were nothing but truth. I'm alive until I'm dead. I'm healthy until I'm sick, It's light until it's dark and "every area is until is isn't". Fighting words to you. You made that clear without a single doubt.

One of the things my father taught me is that we all have choices on how we react. One thing I learned on my own is that some battles are worth fighting and some just aren't. Combine those two and I just wonder exactly what it is that set you off today. Don't misunderstand, I wonder but I don't really care.

You've blown six simple words into a huge deal. That's the choice you made and you absolutely had a choice. Then you chose to fight a battle that is not worth fighting. But hey, I guess I'm guilty of that myself now aren't I?

You accuse me of living in fear. FEAR - in caps even. Multiple times with the fear. Yet you accuse me of making assumptions. Interesting. I know nothing about you while you, you have the ability to see deep down into my very soul. What a hoot. (It's probably a bad time, but your glory stories... we've all heard them before. The PI, the no gun, the bad neighborhoods, all of it.)

Enough. Exterous started one of his frequent threads based in the little annoyances we all experience in our day to day existence and you got offended over a few words. What a wonderful thread it's turned out to be. But what's done is done.

I know you'll want the last word so the stage is yours. I'm just another twerp on the net talking smack from behind the safety and anonymity of his keyboard and you're the Forum Director and the Omnipotent Overlord so the power is most definitely in your hands. You'll get no reply back from me so if it's in you and it's got to get out, there is no better time than now. Call me anything and everything that's on your mind no matter how foul, no matter how degrading. But most of all be sure to set an example for the rest of us to follow. After all, you're the man!



Moderator Callout. But you knew this when you posted that last paragraph.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director
 
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highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,934
6,309
136
If they're doing it for security they have a screw loose. This area is incredibly safe
If you can't spot the sketchy guy in your neighborhood, you might be the sketchy guy in your neighborhood.

Thanks for causing global warming.

Many of us have a lot of enemies and don't want to give them easy places to hide if they're planning something.

What I do is keep my yard well-luminated except for one obvious copse of shrubs with a light that *appears* to be out. That's where I put the land mines.
gang stalkers and such?
 

realibrad

Lifer
Oct 18, 2013
12,337
898
126
White privilege my fucking ass. A couple of years ago, thieves boosted my big screen and my laptop while I was at church. I was talking with the police chief and we agreed, he does the same, which is to not lock his house because the fuckers will just break something to get in anyway.

My guess is you will STILL not be embarrassed at how serially WRONG your asshole assumptions about me and my life have been in this thread. So much "winning" for you, eh?

So, listen up, asshole. You're talking to a guy who was a P.I. for years and refused to carry a personal piece, despite strenuous advice from all sides to do so . . . because if you carry a gun you had better be prepared to end someone's life, and I had had enough of that to last me a lifetime. Got that, Sparky? I often found myself the only white guy for blocks and blocks around in the very worst parts of North Philly at 3 am, alone. I survived because I didn't radiate fear (predators can literally smell that on you -- also body language), and because I naturally treated everyone I met with respect. Plus . . . a lone white guy in those circumstances? They didn't know who the hell I was.

And, Mr. Shithead Assumption Bleater, you're also talking to the guy who kicked Sylvia Seegrist out of his house a few months before she shot 9 people at the Springfield Mall and killed 3 of them, including a 3 year old boy.

I don't live in fear. Never have. You? You're just another twerp on the net talking smack from behind the safety and anonymity of your keyboard.

You might be one of the most angry and defensive people on this forum.

First, if the police chief said it does not matter if you leave your door unlocked then he is an idiot. I doubt that a police chief actually said that though. Locking your door will not stop someone that wants to break into your house. That said, its well understood that thieves typically look for people that are easy targets. If you have a house that is harder to break into vs another house, you are almost never going to get broken into. Unless the thieves know what is in your house, its not worth the trouble to go into a house that is reasonably secure.

Here is what you will find almost ubiquitously as a suggestion.

http://www.sjpd.org/bfo/community/crimeprev/preventiontips/prevent_burglary.html

"Light up your residence, lock your doors at all times, and call the Police when you see something suspicious."

https://www.chandlerpd.com/safety/burglary-prevention-tips/

"Keep all doors and windows closed and securely fastened. Thieves are also quick to spot weak locks that may be easily forced open. Doors should have good deadbolt locks and all windows should have window locks."

http://www.seattle.gov/police/community-policing/burglary-prevention

"All exterior doors should be secured with a deadbolt lock that has a minimum one-inch throw."
 

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
10,868
1,516
126
"All exterior doors should be secured with a deadbolt lock that has a minimum one-inch throw."

You should also replace the screws that hold the strike plates (the metal piece on the door frame that the throw goes into) with longer 3" or 4" ones that reach the 2 x 4's underneath the door frame.

Upgrading to a bigger strike plate that has more area to attach to the frame wouldn't hurt either...

51JZ%2BVMjbcL._SL1000_.jpg
 

realibrad

Lifer
Oct 18, 2013
12,337
898
126
I don't worry to much about bank grade locks when there's a window 2' to right and left, and behind the bushes, and in the cellarway, and, and...

Breaking a window makes noise and is a risk for cutting yourself. If you have a house that is unlocked vs a house that requires you to break a window, which do you think will get hit?

The point, however, was that saying you can leave your door unlocked and it wont matter is absurd.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
57,981
8,219
126
Breaking a window makes noise and is a risk for cutting yourself. If you have a house that is unlocked vs a house that requires you to break a window, which do you think will get hit?

The point, however, was that saying you can leave your door unlocked and it wont matter is absurd.
I think I'd rather go through a window, since it isn't right out front where everyone can see. If you're afraid of a little glass, housebreaking probably isn't the right career for you ;^)

You mentioned a minimum 1" throw on a deadbolt. Lock the fucking knob, and be done with it. That'll keep the "honest" people out, and everyone else knows better.
 

realibrad

Lifer
Oct 18, 2013
12,337
898
126
I think I'd rather go through a window, since it isn't right out front where everyone can see. If you're afraid of a little glass, housebreaking probably isn't the right career for you ;^)

You mentioned a minimum 1" throw on a deadbolt. Lock the fucking knob, and be done with it. That'll keep the "honest" people out, and everyone else knows better.

Its not that I'm saying a window is hard to bypass. I'm saying that the way to reasonably protect yourself is to make your house harder to break into than the surrounding houses. That mentality is pretty much the backbone for home security. Why break a window when you can walk through an unlocked door.

https://www.safewise.com/blog/8-surprising-home-burglary-statistics/

#5 Almost 30% of burglars enter a home through an unlocked door or window.

You will find that most studies find that rate or very close to it. The next one is unlocked windows.

Its the reason most home burglaries are crimes of opportunity. Lock your doors and your odds of getting hit are greatly reduced.
 

kage69

Lifer
Jul 17, 2003
28,744
40,186
136
People leaving lights on screws with all kinds of insects, and causes light pollution. Let's give pollinators and bird food a break I say.

I understand the need for lights, but many people go over kill. Timers and motion sensors are the way to go, someday they will be widespread.

Clear summer nights are a blast if you're away from developed areas. This past August was epic in Maine. As good as it gets for those with telescopes.
 
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