Some violent crimes are down a bit, but burglaries are on the rise. Whether it’s the economy and the jobless rate, or part of some other unknown trend, homeowners are at greater risk. Lately, we’ve noticed an uptick in home invasion crimes, where entry is obtained by kicking down a door or window. These usually fall into two categories: quick, smash and grab robberies, or assaults on homeowners who are subjected to violence or threats of violence if the homeowners do not cooperate with the criminal demands.
It is surprising how many of these incidents begin with a glass entryway. From very expensive and gorgeous stained or beveled/leaded glass front doors that can cost thousands of dollars, to simple office type glass doorways with basic metal frames, it doesn’t take more than a baseball bat or a rock from the garden to bash through these doors. Worse still? The ever present back yard sliding glass doors. Why are they the worst? They are often protected from view from the street or sidewalk (or other neighbors), they are usually not very thick glass and a cinch to smash, and even without breaking, they usually have terrible locking mechanisms that are easily defeated.
Decorators, architectural folks, and some of the spousal types love those fancy decorative doors. Glass office doors are everywhere. So what’s the compromise? To be honest, in the name of good security, there’s not much you can do. Certainly, a really top notch alarm can help, with window breaking sensors attached to glass, good motion detectors, loud sirens… you know the drill. However, your entire goal should be to prevent entry in the first place. It doesn’t take one minute to smash, grab a laptop, a flat screen, a jewelry box, and go. Not two blocks from a friend of bubba’s house, a burglar was watching an expensive house in an expensive neighborhood, and timed the family for their evening kids sports/out to dinner ritual. One early evening recently, they simply smashed in the leaded and beveled glass front door, alarm blaring, tried in vain to silence it by ripping the entry keypad off the wall, and still succeeded in stealing a small safe that they found in a home office.
What can stop this type of brazen, fearless crime?
Burglar bars. These are generally frowned on, especially if you were trying to give your home some curb appeal. However, in today’s contemporary art and craft world, it’s quite possible to have an artful entry gate custom designed by artisan blacksmiths, an experienced wrought iron gate builder, or even a good welder with a sense of style. Every bubba knows a good welder!
Get a decent door. Get a steel reinforced door. Many steel doors (and their frames) are stamped to resemble wood or other interesting textures. They come in traditional styles, and all but the cheapest ones are appropriately insulated with foam or fiberglass.
Instead of a sliding glass door, get steel reinforced “French” door styles. Make sure you get ones with decent glass inserts and solid glazing bars.
There are new, commercial glass reinforcement products available to treat windows and glass doors. These films are designed to act like good auto glass: resist breakage, and if breakage occurs, to remain intact. They are supposed to be able to sustain serious attack and not allow entry.
If you have commercial glass door entry ways in a traditional office park, you should seriously consider sinking some 6 inch pipe or better deep into the asphalt or ground, and filling the core of the pipe with concrete. Video like this one show you how easy and quick it is just to drive a vehicle through these glass fronts and quicly fill a trunk or truck with stolen booty. The vehicles themselves are usually hot, so the criminal is rarely concerned about preserving that nice metallic paint job on his recently “borrowed” Chevy. These pipe bollards can be capped or painted to make your place look less like a fortress. There are companies that even sell decorative plastic covers for these security bollards.
