How can I keep me, my cat, and my iPod safe?

May 17, 2009 9:12 PM

We just moved into a ground-floor apartment with an abundance of windows. How can we increase the security of the apartment short of installing bars on the windows?

We live in a busy part of town and in a complex of numerous small dwellings. There are lots of windows throughout our apartment all facing out onto public walkways.

We live in a hot climate and want to leave the windows open as much as possible to avoid using the air conditioner (relatively impoverished grad student) but I've been anxious about how easy breaking into our apartment would be.

Short of installing bars on the windows, is there anything that we can do to increase our security? I try to always leave the blinds down when we're gone, but closing the windows turns the apartment into a sweltering hotbox and isn't good for our cat.

Added bonus: both the back and front doors have glass panes and are secured with turn bolts (e.g., the ones that you twist, not the ones you need a key to turn). Is there anything that I can do to increase the security of those?

posted by arnicae to home & garden (26 comments total)

Prickly plants on the ground outside the window are good. Pigon spikes are not pretty to look at but just as effective.
posted by tiamat at 9:16 PM on May 17, 2009

i have no idea of you are in a high crime zone, but I would suggest buying a cheap safe (under $100) and putting your passports, cash, valuable documents in and securing it to the floor or your bed or whatever to deter smash and grabbers.
posted by Frasermoo at 9:17 PM on May 17, 2009

for deter read thwart...
posted by Frasermoo at 9:18 PM on May 17, 2009

Closing the blinds probably makes it safer to break in - people on the street outside can't see you once you're in. Unless you have stuff that looks valuable, consider keeping the place tidy, stuff out of sight, and the blinds open, so that it looks too exposed to break into.

You could also get a cheap alarm, and run foil tape across the windows, so that if they break, the alarm goes off. Normally an alarm wouldn't do much - no-one acts on them, but if the place is exposed to the street, people will look, and the alarm may be a successful deterrent.

It's hard to say without knowing the area whether blinds closed is bad move or a good move, but I guess my point is to think about it carefully - a high visibility interior is an often underrated deterrent.
posted by -harlequin- at 9:19 PM on May 17, 2009

Figure out the size you want each window to open- a size that won't allow an adult to pass through. Then cut a piece of wood that blocks the sliding part of the window open exactly that much, and keep it jammed (or even screw it) into the sliding track. That way window can be closed in the rain, but never opened enough for a person to climb through.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:24 PM on May 17, 2009 [2 favorites]

I live alone (mostly), and have two windows that goes out onto a dark alley. To sleep at night, I have moved all heavy furniture (TV, electric piano, couch) in front of the windows to deter visitors, and put lots of crap (read: plants) on the fire escape that people would have to climb over to get in.

Not so good from a "stealing my stuff" angle -- but at least if they come in I'll hear them!
posted by puckish at 9:27 PM on May 17, 2009

What sort of windows do you have?
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 9:34 PM on May 17, 2009

It's hard to explain this without pics, but you can cut a piece of dowel, put it in the sash channel and use it to keep the window from being opened more than a certain amount. It's the same thing you do to secure a sliding door, only vertical. You have to fix it so it can't be jostled loose, depending on the design of the window frame. Some vinyl frames have a little widget that pops out to keep the window from opening more than 6 inches or so.
posted by theora55 at 9:43 PM on May 17, 2009

Hang strings of jingle bells in the windows and on the doorknobs, so if someone disturbs either when you're home, the noise will wake you or perhaps scare them off.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 9:46 PM on May 17, 2009

- Get renters insurance to cover any physical theft, note model, serial #'s, etc online somewhere such as Google Docs
- Off-site (online) backup of any data that's irreplaceable
- Encryption (TrueCrypt) on your hard drive of any data that's personal (finances, etc)

Think along the lines of, OK you've got a $50K cheque from the insurance company to replace your possessions, what are the major pain-in-the-ass things it won't cover (i.e. identity theft, photos, current state of budget, rarely used cards not in your wallet, etc..).
posted by hungrysquirrels at 10:08 PM on May 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

The windows slide up and down and have cheap-o little brass locks.

We have renter's insurance- my main concerns are two-fold:

-someone will enter the house while we are home
-someone will steal my laptop and our backup drive, which contain priceless (to me, and only me...) data
posted by arnicae at 10:58 PM on May 17, 2009

You need an offsite back up of your essential data. Either burn it to DVD or buy a second HD and enclosure. I've done the latter and keep it over an my mother's. Every couple of weeks when I've over there I swap them.
posted by Mitheral at 11:08 PM on May 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Do the windows have locks that allow a little ventilation such as these? You flip them back to be able to open and close your window and flip the hinge closed so that the window can't be raised past that point. I've also lived in apartments that had this variation on that idea.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:38 PM on May 17, 2009

Having tried to break into my own apartment after locking myself out once, I wasn't able to get the window open with the locks linked above on. I even tried some Macgyver shit with a wire hanger to try to flip them open and wasn't able to.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:40 PM on May 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Check out everyblock.com for your local crime reports, too. That should give you an idea what your risk might be.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 11:48 PM on May 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Get 3M Security Film installed on the glass in your windows. Install a strike plate to reinforce the doors from being kicked in.

That's about the best you can do without drawing enormous amounts of attention to yourself (which only screams "GOOD QUALITY STUFF TO STEAL, RIGHT HERE!")
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:16 AM on May 18, 2009

You could use fake security service signs in the windows. It is, anecdotally anyway, just enough to deter the average amateur burglar from your place. It won't deter the careful professional, nor the jonesing junkie.

The thing with burglary is to some extent the tale of the two guys and the bear. You don't need to be faster than the bear -- you just need to be faster than the other guy. Make your apartment seem to be the one that's riskier than your neighbor's.

The other thing you could probably do that would be more effective than almost any other thing would be to get a dog. There's a cost there, both time and money, but if the dog is home the barking may be enough to send our hypothetical burglar down the street.
posted by dhartung at 12:31 AM on May 18, 2009

Many different issues and ideas here. I've been robbed a few times, here's some quick ideas from experience.

1) Fake alarm stickers are great. Get them on eBay.
2) You might be able to get the landlord to pay for bars, or half of the cost. I lived in a basement apt once and asked for this before I'd move in. A nice thing about bars is that you can leave windows open without worrying about anything but rain. You can get some pretty wrought-iron looking ones too, they don't have to be ugly. Grow vines on them.
3) Monitored alarms can be expensive (hundreds to install, hundreds per year in fees) but a motion detector that makes a godawful racket is probably enough to alert your neighbors in the building. Radio Shack.
4) +1 for Backups, including offsite. This can be as simple as a pocket HD you carry to work or leave at a friend's house.
5) If you use a Time Machine or some network wireless drive for backup... hide it in a duct, or behind your cereal boxes in the kitchen, or somewhere way inconvenient and invisible. You never need access anyway unless it breaks.
6) Encrypt personal stuff... including whatever you leave at your friend's house, ahem.
7) Cheap safes are only useful if they can't be stolen en todo. Bolted to floor is good, unless you leave a wrench nearby.
8) Get a non-working huge ugly old full-size tower PC from a dumpster. Plug it in but don't ever use it. Make it really easy to steal. I've lost three of these to thieves, who twice didn't even notice the Mac mini clamped under my desk. Suckers.

Advice: spend a little money/effort now so you feel safer and less worried, because you will hate yourself if you skip a simple/cheap step now, and pay for it later.
posted by rokusan at 2:33 AM on May 18, 2009 [3 favorites]

Figure out the size you want each window to open- a size that won't allow an adult to pass through. Then cut a piece of wood that blocks the sliding part of the window open exactly that much, and keep it jammed (or even screw it) into the sliding track. That way window can be closed in the rain, but never opened enough for a person to climb through.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:24 AM on May 18 [1 favorite +] [!]

A very good idea.

I've been in a similar situation as the OP, and would recommend the following:
- Open window wide enough to get air in/out, but narrow enough to prevent trespassers from entering
- Get a long screw, and screw the screw in through both parts of the window: the part that slides up and the part that stays shut
- If you're fancy, drill a hole through the same path, and use a slightly smaller rod or screw
- Keep a small bat by your bedside for smaller trespassers who're able to still get in. I recommend the mini-league bats. Two of them. They're lighter and smaller and allow for more possible hits in the same amount of time it takes to swing one full-sized bat. As with most things, quantity trumps quality: 5000 light bonks to the head will have a greater effect than one large bonk to the head, because most trespassers can't count past seven.
posted by herrdoktor at 6:04 AM on May 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

Figure out the size you want each window to open- a size that won't allow an adult to pass through. Then cut a piece of wood that blocks the sliding part of the window open exactly that much, and keep it jammed (or even screw it) into the sliding track.

A very BAD IDEA. This will not allow you or anyone to exit easily in case of fire. The flipping jam type stops mentioned by mandymanwasregistered above are a safer option.
posted by Gungho at 6:46 AM on May 18, 2009

The "wood window vent lock" linked to by mandymanwasregistered is precisely what you want. With those installed you will be able to leave the windows open while preventing break ins, plus still be able to get out via window in case the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.
posted by Wavelet at 8:45 AM on May 18, 2009

I'm sorry, but for a ground-floor apartment, window bars are a necessity. Get your landlord to put them in.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:42 AM on May 18, 2009

And further- people on here are, seriously, suggesting you ARM yourself. This is ludicrous when window bars- the kind that you install from the inside that are keyed so you can escape in case of fire- will give you precisely the security you need without having to sleep with a fucking baseball bat.

Get window bars.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 9:44 AM on May 18, 2009

Er, Gungho's comment is 100% correct and points out what a stupid idea screwing in windows is.

Might be able to get away with drilling a hole and inserting a rod that can be removed easily, but it's clear you shouldn't trust my judgement in regards to this.
posted by herrdoktor at 5:20 PM on May 18, 2009

A very BAD IDEA. This will not allow you or anyone to exit easily in case of fire.

Don't be silly.

A fire bad enough to keep you from using the door is worth breaking a window for.
posted by rokusan at 11:49 PM on May 18, 2009

And of course risk severe lacerations for...
posted by Gungho at 6:30 AM on May 19, 2009