Key Safes - a cautionary tale

[HurdyGurdy19]

We are never having another keysafe again.

We were woken at 4am by the police. Unbeknown to us, my son's car had been stolen from our driveway at 3am, was involved in a police chase with the Armed Response Unit, before crashing into a lamppost.

The three thieves, wearing balaclavas, gloves and with hoods up, had used a crowbar to get the keysafe off the wall, and then a screwdriver to get the key out. (They also pulled the video doorbell off the wall)

We have video footage of two of them using the key to come into the house, where they found my keys and our son's keys, coming back out of the house, locking the door behind them, (presumably so that when we had to unlock and open the door, our fingerprints would overlay any that they had left behind, despite them wearing gloves?) and getting into my son's car and driving off. Thank god they only came for the keys, and didn't go any further into the house. My son's bedroom is downstairs and thank god also that he didn't need to get up in the night to use the loo or anything, as I am certain they'd have had no qualms in smashing him with the crowbar 😢

I posted on our local area's Facebook page to see if anyone in the adjoining streets had any doorbell/cctv footage of them walking around, hopefully without their balaclavas on. Turns out these little scrotes have been around at least three nearby streets, trying houses and pulling off video doorbells and multiple pieces of footage have been passed to the police, so with a bit of luck, they may stand a chance of catching them. CID said they "have their suspicions" as to who it was, so with any luck, all the footage will help them identify them.

We have had a parade of police at the house today - the original officers who tracked us down via ANPR, then SOCO, then CID and we will be contacted by the Burglary Section tomorrow.

Our neighbours are now in the process of taking their keysafe off their house, and have told their children to do the same.

The keysafe for us has been a godsend (during my Menopause Years, I was forever forgetting my keys and getting locked out), but never again. We are now looking into changing the lock for a digital one so we never need a spare key again.

Oh but the hassle this has now caused. My son has had to take today and tomorrow off work as he needs his car to get there, and has had to speak to police, and his insurers (waiting for them to call back still) as he needs a courtesy car. So that's two days' lost pay for him. I don't have a spare key for my car (I can't count the number of times I've walked past the Timpson's cabin on my way into the supermarket and thought "I must see if they can cut me a new key for my car" 🙄), and now having to change the lock on the front door (the thieves still have our spare key from the keysafe).

I did always wonder about the security of those things. Especially as a lot of them are positioned by the front door of vulnerable people so the carers can gain access.

Stories like this make me thankful for my barky dog.

We have a safe, but it’s hidden within an outbuilding.
Sorry this has happened to you OP, so scary.

Someone who worked for a local authority once told me that key safes should be avoided if at all possible because they are often broken into. I don’t know how that’s done but apparently they’re not as safe as people think.

I wanted one of those keysafe things but my husband talked me out of it he said they can easily be broken into.
We opted for one of these.
DD can no longer loose her key has she don't need one.

How awful, I'm so sorry!

I used to be a postie and was always surprised by how many people have them when they're just so, so easy to break into.

I won’t be getting rid of mine although your story is terrible

@Christmasfairyishairy
how does your lock work? Is it key and code or key or code?

Wow, what a story! How does stressing for all of you to wake up to this mess!!!

I agree, although it is convenient to keep your car/house/other keys right by the back door in either a key safe or a bowl or hanging up on a hook, that truly is the first place that a thief would look. Talk about convenient, they only need to get into the door about 5 seconds to grab all your keys.

Although there is a cautionary lesson to be learned here, about don't put all your eggs in one basket (or in this case all your keys in one safe), let's face it, this sounds like a practiced crime ring. That despite your having cameras despite your having a locked key safe, despite your doors being locked, despite all the precautions that you took, they still managed to break into your house, break into your safe, steal your car, protect their identity, etc.

Sometimes, no matter how cautious you think you're being, somebody can out smart you. Doesn't mean you made a mistake.
I'm sorry that you went through this, OP

Gosh OP I’m so sorry. You must all be totally freaked out by that.

I’ve been thinking we must get rid of ours and this is the decider.

In my DM’s case the carers would just leave the thing unlocked to save time. Lock never scrambled. This despite us paying £££££ per hour of so called care.

One piece of good news - CID officer has just called to say that my keys were found in my son's car (the police have it at one of their garages to be forensically examined), and the officer is going to drop them to us today. First job tomorrow is to get a spare key cut!

I think I'd rather they just broke into a key safe than breaking windows though! I always leave handbags and car keys by the front door for the same reason.

Agree that it sounds like an organised crime ring.

I don't like keysafes. I used to work in domiciliary care and had the keys are numbers for around 20 clients, as did my colleagues. Carers come and go very regularly and any one of them could get into a house or pass on a keysafe number to someone else.

I’m so sorry that this happened to you. If they have crowbars and other weapons and are that determined they’ll get in, key safe or no key safe. They don’t sound like your average burglars.

Personally having worked in care, where they are very much needed, I’ve never known anyone to have this problem so I’m not sure it’s all that common but perhaps it varies by area.

We've never had one. They have always looked unsafe to me. I've had a few inconvenient moments when I've had to wait for DH to get home if I've left my key at home, but it just reinforces the need to remember it next time!

My key safe is my neighbour. I'm hers.

On the rare occasions she is not home, my brother has a spare key he's three miles away.

I think I'd be very scared to have a key safe TBH. I live on my own.

I'm a domiciliary carer and consequently use loads of key safes.
I've never heard of one being crowbarred off the wall.
I do live and work in a quiet area of West Norfolk though

I agree about who has the keysafe code. I have no skin in the game but you can get safer keysafes like this one. I have got a key buried in a box in my front garden. I know where it is and I am the only person who does. Its been there for 15 years, used twice and reburied. The secret is to use a lock and lock box, not any other brand. Lightly oil the key, seal the box and bury it. keysafe.co.uk/?ppc_keyword=police+approved+key+safe&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=19657896200&gbraid=0AAAAADmzGpO1KDKeIqNrJ5PvXdxOhQynD&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-rXw9ZKakQMVuZRQBh0oCSTJEAAYASAAEgLSdPD_BwE

I used to work in the community in the NHS and to my knowledge it has happened. people buy a cheapo one and don't do their research.

Dh’s party trick is cracking key safe codes in under a minute. I spent £80 on a police approved one years ago and dh cracked the code on that in under a minute as well. So we never put it up. They’re all useless I think. Certainly the dial ones.

even the push button ones he can crack, says the resistance is different.

The backplate for the keysafe is still securely attached to the wall. You can see from the camera footage that they've used the crowbar to pop the actual box part off to retrieve the key. Definitely a lesson learned for us.

We probably are guilty of a level of complacency, as we do live in a very low crime area in town. We've been in this house for over 30 years, and as far as I know there have only been four break ins within the Close (22 houses) in that time.

Our security is definitely being stepped up now, although there is an element of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Can use code or key. I still prefer to use the key. Dd uses the code because she looses her key regularly.
We looked at another one that didn't have a key and just code but I still wanted to use a key.
Once boys are old enough ill probably just give them the code.

I think they are unfortunately very necessary for a lot of people. Some are definitely better than others though. Personally I have them at home in case anyone needs to be able to get in. However you would absolutely have to know it’s there to find it. Putting them right by the front door is just asking for trouble. Mine is also covered by both a motion detector camera and light. So I know if someone is in the vicinity of it long before they would actually get to finding the key safe.

That's terrifying. So lucky you all stayed asleep and are safe though.

I use to work on a contract where we would put key safes on all the empty properties we worked on for all trades to access. I was out with 1 of the guys doing it 1 day and where there were already keysafes he said we could reuse them, I asked how when we don't know the codes. He showed me how easy they are to break into and work out the codes used. Took him just a few seconds to show me and he left the next 1 we found for me to work out myself, and yep it was that easy. That was 1 of the 2 types that were commonly used