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).

This is one of the many, many reasons I have dogs. The asshole sneaking through my side gate at 3am (as captured on my CCTV cameras) thought better of it when my lot erupted like a baying pack of feral wolves! Have never seen a fat man move so fast 🤣🤣🤣
I think you can actually buy a machine that “barks” when your door is opened and you can set it at night?

i presume it was your son's car they were after ultimately
they would have perhaps got it another way without accessing the key safe

After we lost our dog about 9 years ago, I was adamant that I'd never have another dog. I have been nagged and nagged and nagged at by the family to get another, but I have resisted. I'm now re-thinking my decision and my resistance is weakening. I have really missed having a dog, but I know full well that despite all the promises and reassurances from the family - all the care would fall to me!

But I'm going to Google those machines that sound like a dog barking. That's genius!

When social services needed to install one for care purposes at an ex relative’s house they did it around the back, you had to reach over the gate (6ft) to unhook then it was by back door, the care company moaned but social services said to ignore, security is paramount

To be honest, I have been very surprised at how much police activity there has been. All over the local Facebook groups are complaints that the police don't ever attend, and just give you a crime reference number.

I dont know if it's because they have been sent multiple reports and video footage from other householders, from at least three neighbouring streets to my knowledge, or the police know much more than they are sharing with us, that they are so involved.

The CID Officer did say they "had their suspicions" as to who it may be, so that may be another reason.

I have felt very "looked after" by the police, from the first officers that arrived at 4am, to the CID Officer who retrieved my keys from my son's car, and brought them to me.

Sorry to hear your story, I hope things settle down soon.

Regarding Digital locks, just be aware that many of them don't meet the requirements of insurance companies (usally BS3621 or an equivalent).

I hope you don't meet any resistance with the key safe...

We’ve got one but it’s in an enclosed porch behind a load of coats so no one can see it. Really sorry this happened to you OP!

I share the concerns of many on here, but because of circumstances, I've had to get a keysafe fitted. However, I live in a block of 20 flats, so I'm presuming a set of unidentified keys isn't much use to anyone. However, the carers who come to my upstairs neighbour constantly leave the box open while they are upstairs. I presume if they can't be bothered closing the box over, then they'll not be bothered to spin the number barrel, leaving the correct code on view. I've complained to Homecare but they don't appear to think it's an issue!

Yeah my grandparents house had one and after they passed there was an emergency and someone needed to access the house quickly and they just took a hammer to the key safe 😬

I heard one tip to deter burglars, which sounds a bit odd, but here it is: superglue a key (a wrong one) under the doormat, as it’s one of the first places a thief will look. Most thieves want a quick entrance and exit, and don’t want to be seen for too long in front of the door. The time they spend trying to get the key off might deter them, and even if they succeed, they will then find they can’t unlock the door with it, costing more time.

Gosh what a horrible ordeal for you @HurdyGurdy19. What kind of key safe did you have?

I’ve worked in community health for many years and I’ve never heard of a keysafe being broken in to. The ones installed by social services are the type recommended by the police. Quite a lot of people have been nervous of getting one but I’ve always reassured them that they’re safe.

That’s awful, horrible to think they got in the house. We don’t have one and won’t get one reading this.

I think it was MasterKey. It was a fairly old one, and now, with the benefit of hindsight, probably should have been upgraded by now.

As I've said, we live in a very low crime area of town, and there's definitely been an element of complacency.

Our neighbour has a pedal box (I'd never heard of them before today, but it fits over the pedals of the vehicle, preventing it from being driven) as well as a steering wheel lock. Both sitting in the passenger footwell 🙄. Well, they were until they heard of our experience today.

Oh no I'm so sorry to learn of that, how scary. Glad of the police response and that they're onto it though.

How horrible!
We have two key safes. One next to the front door - no idea what it in there. not a key to our door, as we had the doors replay after we bought the house.
The other one is well hidden in the back.

Apparently it is not difficult to guess the code without resorting to a crowbar, just think of the year of birth of the people who use them........limited options to try.

This was written by an ex burglar for the Christmas issue of Good Housekeeping.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a69286946/9-ways-to-stop-burglars-in-their-tracks/

Same.

A friend of mine was held at knife point in bed at 2am because the robbers couldn't find his car keys.

I leave my accessible once someone is in the property.

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.

I'd rather they found the car keys all conveniently there so they can grab them and go rather than decide to come and get them directly off us. If they've gone to that effort to get in, then they might well decide it was worth continuing to get the keys.

Blimey OP if you had CID attending I think they must know who did it and want to nick em.

Armed response at 3 in the morning is very unusual for a simple car theft - did the police tell you why their response was so extreme?

Even if burglars nicked the car keys they would be sat in the car going nowhere as it has an immobiliser.

I used to work at a small company and the keys to the work vehicles were kept in a key safe inside the shop (bigger than a door key safe). One day the batteries had worn down and the keypad wouldn't work and no-one knew where the key was to open it manually. Slight panic as the vehicles had to be on the road at a set time. I watched a short video on YouTube that showed how to crack these safes and got into it, without damaging it, in just a couple of minutes. A lot of them aren't as "safe" as they're meant to be.

Glad all is ok OP ! Can I ask the PP what is the problem with digital door locks. No lost keys can give the number to a visitor etc. We also have a bolt on the inside that we lock at night. Just wondering.

the key safe advertises the fact that there’s a house key sitting in a box, waiting to be stolen. On rare occasions where I’ve needed to leave a key for someone to get in, I’ve just hidden the key under something, sometimes involving some digging to get to it. Covered and no external clues that a key is anywhere to be found