Since then I've thought of locks more like deterrent than bulletproof security.
Remember, a rock to the window will get someone into your house. A bolt cutter will take off small padlocks. So yes, most locks are there to protect from the casual or opportunistic thief. That doesn't mean we don't need the of course.
Security films that dramatically up the ante on what it takes to go through windows are getting cheap and easy to install. If I had thought about it when I got my windows tinted a few years back I would have just had them added on, especially for my downstairs windows (not sure I would bother with most of the upstairs - I have no trees or easy access to most of them).
There are many simple things you can do to dramatically up the ante on what it takes for someone to molest your stuff. A recent news story talked about people using coat hangers to trip emergency garage door releases so a quick re-security it with a zip tie that will break with a solid tug for it's real use, but be too hard to break with a wire from outside is all that was needed to close that "hole".
Need a place to share this kind of stuff for homeowners. I recon it would probably be a small percentage but still a large number.
I'm sorry, but your anecdote smells. If you are robbing houses at random, the last thing you want to do is rob an occupied home. You rob an occupied home for a reason specific to that house or the owner of that house.
Most burglaries happen in the daytime when people are at work and their houses would be locked regardless.
And the most common form of home theft nowadays is package theft. Which isn't going to be thwarted by locking your home since, you know, the package is just sitting on the porch.
[1] i tried to find who said it, but it looks like there are a ton of variations.
And this doesn't even begin to touch on other vulnerabilities, like the hinges of doors being on the outside. Just take a screw driver and hammer and pop the pins out.
My view is that you choose lock cores based on how difficult you want it to be to pick before it makes more sense to resort to destructive entry.
For a bike lock on the street, a few minutes of picking won't look much different to pedestrians than someone simply struggling with their own bike lock. But destructive removal is much more obvious. (Unless it's a physically flimsy lock, or even a beefy one with a simple bypass vulnerability)
It's much more obvious, but nobody is going to give two craps about you taking an angle grinder to someone else's bicycle lock. Bystanders don't want to get involved, and police don't pay any attention to bicycle theft.
So, yes, destructive lock removal can still be fairly safe for the thief, but there is still a lot of increased risk if you employ a proper lock that would require an angle grinder, and most thieves probably don't bother to carry around tools like that and will simply move on to one of many ample opportunities for an easier target: A handheld compound bolt cutter will cut through inferior locks faster than opening with a key, so why bother bringing bulkier more obvious tools that increase risk even a little bit?
It's not about whether your bike can be stolen: it almost certainly can. It's about making other targets more attractive.
They're considered motorcycle alarms but work on anything with disk brakes.
It also stops the back wheel from turning.
I am thinking of getting a Boosted Rev (escooter, $1,600) and have wondered how I would secure it when going into stores. It seems as if any lock under $120 can be snapped by 3-foot bolt cutters (and the more expensive ones can still be easily picked).
I think I would probably get a decent u-lock and also a lock that makes noise and is triggered by even slight motion (to draw attention if someone is fiddling with it.
Hell, one time a small company I worked for had five figures of gear stolen in a break-in... and then several other businesses in the area did, too. Well over $100,000 (retail) of equipment stolen by the end. Multiple cameras at multiple businesses caught them, including their van and plate number. The cops did the same, "yeah, yeah, here's your report, we don't care" until someone called them while sitting directly behind the van in question and told them they'd found the guys and to get off their asses and do something.
AFAIK nothing was recovered anyway, but I think they were at least arrested. Yay?
I honestly don't know what they do aside from give out traffic tickets and harass people.
To be fair most american houses are built such that a reasonably burly person could punch through the wall. I’ve seen friends leave big holes in the wall just from falling down some stairs. Glass windows also are easy to get through.
The problem with lock-picking is that it doesn’t leave signs of a break-in.
Sorta. Lock picking will leave marks/wear that no key would. So I recommend everyone try to pick their own lock today to make it look like someone picked it for up-to-no-good reasons.
Sure, some locks won't care. But there are some that can permanently jam pins if you don't know what you are doing (and, in some cases, even if you do).
However I’ve heard fun stories from my part of Europe where most people live in apartment buildings and own their apartment. Armored doors are a popular upgrade.
But nobody upgrades the thin brick wall holding that fancy $3000 armored door ... you can guess what started happening as thieves realized the doors are too difficult and a window on 5th floor isn’t very accessible.
And also from a darkweb guide to burglary. "Cut a hole in the door and the alarm won't go off"