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DoorWatchBeacon

Index

Entry Points

The organizing idea on this site is the opening, not the product. A front door, a patio slider, a ground-floor window and a rented apartment door each fail at a different point, sit under different rules, and deserve a different order of spending.

Every page below walks the same four layers in the same order — Deter, Detect, Delay, Document — and puts the measures that cost nothing above the ones that cost money. 5 of the 7 carry an escape note, because the hardware they describe restricts an opening from the inside.

  • The Front Door

    The jamb, not the lock: on most homes the strike plate is held by screws that stop inside a thin board nailed to the framing behind it.

    4 free measures · 7 jobs linked · carries an escape note

  • The Back Door

    Privacy: a back door is usually the only approach to the house where somebody can work unobserved for as long as they like.

    4 free measures · 9 jobs linked · carries an escape note

  • The Sliding Glass Door

    The lift path: on a lot of older installations the panel can be raised in its track far enough to come out of it, and no latch prevents that.

    4 free measures · 6 jobs linked · carries an escape note

  • Ground-Floor Windows

    Habit: the overwhelming majority of ground-floor window entries are through a window that was left open or unlatched, not one that was forced.

    4 free measures · 5 jobs linked · carries an escape note

  • A Rented Apartment Door

    The key list: in a rented apartment you have no idea how many keys were cut before you arrived, and no lock upgrade you can make changes that.

    4 free measures · 6 jobs linked · carries an escape note

  • The Garage Side Door

    Specification: the side door is almost always the cheapest door on the property, with the cheapest lock, and on an attached garage it opens into the house.

    4 free measures · 7 jobs linked

  • The Porch and Package Theft

    Time: a parcel sitting visible on a step for six hours is the entire problem, and every measure that shortens those six hours beats every measure that records them.

    4 free measures · 5 jobs linked