ask about back of house security after neighbour break in night

[ALittleFreakedOutby]

two days ago my neighbour woke up to find a burglar in their bedroom fortunately ran off without injury to them but I'm now shit scared. They broken in via the back garden - climbed over then broke french window door.

It's made me really reappraise the home security and I had some questions/would welcome advice.

I've done a lot of reading around it - basic advice of avoiding having front of house very concealed by high gates/shrubbery as as burglars can hide while they break in but gather most entries are via the back of the house.

Back Door Reinforcement? I was thinking of changing the back door to get one with London and Birmingham bars (steel reinforcements around the frame to stop it being kicked in -one on the hinge side and one on the lok side).
Has anyone got these? who did you use? worth it /not worth it?

Backgate into garden? I gather wood is supposed to be better than iron gates as iron gates they are more solid and easier for burglars to climb quickly. Has anyeone got any advice/thoughts about the backgate security? I'm worried now about that just being kicked in if its wood.

Any other advice from experience? Like I've said I've read around a bit and we already have an alarm etc. This is more about stopping or deterring someone breaking in at night when people in house

Also wondering whether to get a 'panic room' type lockable door on the bedroom or whether that will just make me more anxious.

Have you got a ring doorbell? We have a ring doorbell and then have a little camera at the gate and one in the garden. It works as more of a deterrent than anything else. We have then put the little Ring camera stickers on the back door (discreetly) so they are there.

I have motion detector lights at my gate and then at my back door, again to work as a deterrent more than anything else.

Security Light .. defensive planting … window locks, and a good strong door with a 5 lever mortice deadlock

We already have most of this including security lighting.

I don't think a ring doorbell makes any difference. Any neighbourhood website is chock full of ring doorbell footage of ten for a penny criminals in dark hoodies with faces covered and totally unidentifiable - usually titled things like 'has anyone seen this scum' -where you'd have no idea if you saw them because they all look anonymous.

I'm particularly bothered about the back gate and it's climability and whether a wooden one is a good thing or if there is more I can do to it

Anti climb paint on the gate, cctv in the back garden with big cctv signs visable near the gate. Bird spikes on the top of fencing. Yes you could get more secure doors if you wanted

i would never have French windows or sliding doors as they are too easy to get into

Kicking in a wooden gate is very noisy. You'd have called the police before they were even through the gate.

We were broken into via back garden, coversatory and french doors smashed. I never felt safe there again. On holiday with friends I was broken into, strangers in our bedroom at night. It has made me a bit paranoid.

We have:

• Gravel drive. Excellent deterrent. Can hear people coming to the door well in advance. Even from the back of our house, as it's very noisy.

• Keep shrubs/hedges etc. trimmed back from gates so clear line of sight from the street.

• Motion sensor flood lighting in front drive and rear patio.

• Alarms on doors and in ground floor rooms, with visible alarm box on prominent place on front of the house. (Admittedly, we rarely arm the alarm)

• 6ft high fences around entire perimeter of back garden. Two gates on side access; one at front of house, one at the back. Both bolted and padlocked. These are kept constantly locked unless we are actively using for access and in our garden.

• We keep the hallway light on at night (although this is admittedly also so our DC can see to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, too).

In my former home where we were broken into, we also had internal cameras so I could check ground floor rooms from my phone.

I feel very safe where we are now.

@Gizamaluke

Kicking in a wooden gate is very noisy. You'd have called the police before they were even through the gate.

That's more for being out of the house. It's no different from kicking in a door is it? It's smashing wood around the lock areas which is the same for both. Good luck with getting the police to attend anyway!

For the back gate I'm more worried about it being climbed over as like many it's down the side of the house so not visible from most angles on the road unless you are right there.

@Songlyrics
On holiday with friends I was broken into, strangers in our bedroom at night. It has made me a bit paranoid

Shit. Sorry to hear that. what did you do? did you have ptsd/trauma afterwards?
It's sucha fear for me at the moement.

Do you have any advice about CCTV companies? I worry about security of data - if anyone can access the CCTV or hack it, huge privacy and secuirty implications - they can see when you are out.

@ALittleFreakedOutby

I thought we were going to get raped and murdered so I screamed relentlessly. Hysterical screaming so that the 999 operator my friend called had to ask her to get me to stop screaming as she couldn't hear what my friend was saying. We are all very shaken up afterwards. It made me absolutely paranoid about crime etc. There are so many things I won't do now on my own, as I was only a teen when it happened.

Our house being broken into was worse though. It was where we lived. I had a young baby and had only lived there a few weeks. I couldn't sleep at night. I was scared to be home alone. I couldn't enter the house on my own without being on the phone to someone else for fear of finding bulgars in there.

Re: gates. We have two on the same side. Wooden. One at the front so visible from the street. Then one at the back. Wooden with an arched top. It was what was available at the time, but there's definitely less to grip onto as a result of the curve.

I would say that OTT security makes you more anxious, though. Hence I stopped arming our alarm all the time and we don't have cameras in our current home. Sensible measures are good but anything that feeds paranoia is not.

@Songlyrics thanks for sharing . sounds horrific. I cant imagine how you start to get over that. the neighbour here seems ok with it at least publicly.

yes I know what you mean about ott security making you more anxious that's what i meant about the door.
i can imagine if you get a panic room type door for your bedroom and lock it when you go to bed, that process is itself probably panic inducing and you would be like 'what's out there' every mornign plus it may mean you can't sleep soundly anywhere without an ultra secure locked door.

Someone's already said it but gravel is excellent deterrent as it makes such a noise.
Also sensor security lighting.
I think a wooden gate is good with a padlock and/or bolt. Yes they can jump over but if you have other measures such as gravel, security lights and security cameras (ring doorbell, blink etc) then they're less likely to succeed.

I'm not sure what you mean in your first paragraph about being out of the house. The wooden gate is outside but they need to get past it to get to the house, what gate being kicked in were you referring to in your first post?

The potential burglars round here are pretty noisy climbing the gates as well. I think it's possible to do it quieter though.

The police are good at attending here but I make sure the burglars can see/hear me calling from the window and they have all run off straight away so gone once the police arrive.

Honestly as an ex burglary unit detective, don't go nuts. I've also been burgled twice (as a teen, living at my parents) so I do understand the worry.

Do not make your home a fortress where you're worried about living. You need to live in it!

A determined burglar just breaks a window - exactly what happened next door. They look for the easiest targets (mostly - exceptions will be the likes of the Premier League footballers where they are hitting them for Rolexes and diamond jewellery), so make yours unattractive to them.

Cameras, external lights that come on with motion (but remember it can also be a cat, hedgehog, trees shedding in autumn that can set them off - they aren't good for worriers!), good blinds or curtains which you open and close at appropriate times of day (shows its occupied), internal lights on timers for when you're out are all good and normal options.

The more open the view to your doors and windows, the less attractive they are because the chances of being seen are higher. That doesn't mean take down a gate, but it does mean that a good night vision camera plus a light that comes on is more of a concern than a dark garden.

The more you barricade your home, the worse you'll feel IMO. No panic rooms unless you're a high net worth target for kidnapping like a Kardashian.

And if you see that batshit article in The Times about Ring / video doorbells increasing the chances of a burglary, completely ignore it, the woman is a moron and it's been debunked by a LOT of people.

FWIW, I have a ring doorbell out the front, a motion sensitive light out the back, an internal camera to watch my dog howl when we go out 🙄 and a lamp which talks to Alexa so I can switch it on remotely it set it to a timer. That's it. The 30kg dog doesn't count, she'll lick them and wag her tail.

The front door is a generic UPVC one, French doors to the rear and a 6 foot garden fence and gate with a padlock on it.

Additional security doesn't make me more anxious. Quite the opposite. I have every kind of security available (cameras, dog, spikes on fences, security lights, internal lockable doors etc) and I sleep like a baby because even if someone did manage to break in, they couldn't actually get in to my room.

Good solid composite doors with Ultion locks.
Laminate glass all round.
Gravel round the house.

This ^
Ring local police station because years ago a copper would visit wearing their “crime prevention” hat and walk you through what could be done. The constabulary might still do it? Ask.

Is your area “Neighbourhood Watch?” Why not set it up for your street? It’s easy. Local police will help & insurance firms or brokers will sometimes pay for the lamp post signs. Our local broker did.

As other people on here. You can never stop 100% people getting into your house if they are determined. What you can do is a) make it take a long time and make a lot of noise or b) make your house look like a hard target so they decide not to.

Restricting access to the back is a good idea. Have strong gates and make sure they are padlocked. Make sure that they can't just use a wheelie bin to push next to and climb over.

Use high security eurocylinder locks. Do not buy the cheap ones that can easily be snapped. Also, I don't have thumbturns on the inside of the doors. That way someone can't smash the glass and get in. BUT you need to make sure you leave a key somewhere in close proximity to get out in an emergency. remember the harder you make your house to get in, the harder it can be to get out, or get in if you lose your keys.

Motion sensitive lighting round the front and back. Cameras I would have on display but only round the back rather than the front. You can get cheap door sensors and PIR motion alarms that will activate if doors are opened. Also remember to not have security systems on non backed up electrics that can simply be switched off at the outside meter box.

Don't leave stuff around outside that makes it easy to break in. Like big rocks or tools. Also make sure that the house is lit when you are out and looks like someone is in (lights on programs). Generally you make yourself a target by not doing stuff like this.

Finally remember most burglars do not want to break into houses with people inside. Because it ups the ante considerably in terms of discovery, in terms of danger (for them) in terms of prison sentence as well if they are caught. The ideal buglary is for them to get in, find £1k in cash and jewellery and walk out within 2 minutes having encountered no one. The vast majority are not interested in risking encounters with humans, the risk reward simply isn't there.

My neighbour was also burgled which really scared me so I got myself a beautiful big German Shepherd which is a fantastic burglar repellent

We have a double wooden gate into the drive with cameras on that, we then have cameras and security lights at the front, down both sides of the property.
Security lights and CCTV at the back of the house, on all fences we have spikes.
We have a safe that all valuables go in.
we also have 2 dogs that go mad, when any movement happens outside.