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Comment by codezero | Hacker News Reader

But attacking the lock is the last thing a smart or determined person will do. Sure a better lock helps, this is why most modern cars have much better locks than homes, but even they can be easily opened with the right tools, and often even easier with improvised tools.

Most locks really are cheap and sufficient for everything, in the US, at least, because we are using them right now. Schlage and Master Lock are everywhere and I taught my sister to pick them in a single sitting over drinks.

Even the most common combination locks are easily openable without any tools whatsoever. All those key holding real estate locks are even easier to open than the doors the containing key opens.

But remember, social contracts of all kinds get broken, and that’s why we have a justice system.

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> But attacking the lock is the last thing a smart or determined person will do.

I think that is contextual. In a whole lot of apartment buildings, the windows into the apartment are inaccessible from the outside. The door frame is metal, so kicking down the door would wake half the apartment building. Without a lock on the door, anybody who got into the building (generally easy) could silently enter any unoccupied apartment and nobody would know it. But with a good lock, nearly every would-be thief who can't pick locks will go someplace else.

Most thieves DGAF that their target knows that they've been broken into. They want to get stuff to sell later, they want to be in and out very quickly, and they tend not to be the smartest people out there, and having lock picks increases your jail time if caught.

When a thief steals, you are going to notice the missing items either way, a broken window doesn't change that much. Apartment dwellers also tend to be poorer, which makes homes the better target in more ways than one. If the lock is too hard, your just getting more bashed in doors or walls instead, or thieves / creeps climbing porches and going in that way, which happened recently in my area. Many porches are windows and often unlocked.

Also many apartments are not steel framed with steel doors. I have a skinny window in the interior wall of mine, and it's a solid wood door on a wood frame. Also you could get a sledge hammer and bash through the drywall. Or bring drills and take out the door that way.

Also having a fancy lock might actually make you more attractive, because the thief casing out your place might recognize it, think you might have more than the typical person and bring the appropriate battery powered tool and cut out the lock.

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