Re: Burglar Bars… - Posted by eric-fl
Posted by eric-fl on June 13, 2000 at 21:18:36:
OH, Great!, just what we need in Florida, someone else with an arsenal! (Kidding here.)
Be sure to tell the phone company… - Posted by HR
Posted by HR on June 12, 2000 at 20:53:07:
A couple thoughts on this. (I do it the same way as Jim is describing, but have been paying higher installation fees. Hmmmm… have to look into that).
When you have the phone company turn the phone service on, make sure they block: all long distance calls, all collect calls, and all 900 calls. While I don’t put a phone in either but just connect the alarm to the phone line, a crafty subcontractor can tap into your line easily. (Now how do you think I learned that? Ouch!!!)
Gotta love those subs. Are thumbscrews illegal?
HR
I agree… - Posted by HR
Posted by HR on June 14, 2000 at 06:10:47:
Burglar bars can be removed quickly. I install them on the inside of the window, sometimes on the inside of the window frame, and consider using the one-way screws.
I bought them at Home Depot for about $25 each.
Finally, I found that it really did stop the nuisance break ins. The crack heads breaking in weren’t stealing much of value: a $5 bucket of mud, some preassembled kitchen cabinets, a couple small hand tools, etc. While I hate having my stuff stolen, I look at it as a reality of doing business in some of the rougher inner city neighborhoods. My experience is that the burglar bars really do deter the folks from breaking in. You just got to make it difficult enough so they will walk away cause it’s too much trouble.
I’ll tell you the other thing that helped: I put up the burglar bars and took down all the plywood on the windows outside. That was hard for me emotionally to do; I was scared, frankly, that I was losing another deterant. One of my subs recommended it, saying it would actually lead to a decrease in break ins because they would 1) see the burglar bars and 2) see there wasn’t anything inside worth taking. It worked.
Finally, one last note on burglar bars. I’m going to be inserting a clause in my lease that asks the tenant if they want me to remove the burglar bars. They are going to have to initial that they want them to remain. I’m sure they all will initial Yes. Why am I doing this? If there is ever a fire, I don’t want them coming back on me that they coulden’t get out through the windows. I’ll have their signature and request to keep them in.
A little paranoid? Yes. But as Andrew Glover, the founder of Intel says, “The paranoid survive.”
Cheers,
HR
If Randy Weaver and the Ruby Ridge ?boys? move to my neighborhood, I?m all set! - Posted by SusanL.–FL
Posted by SusanL.–FL on June 14, 2000 at 08:32:24:
My Dad had a special room built in our basement that we called ?the gun room? (bars on the windows and the room was alarmed). It looked like a little museum. He built his own gun racks and had everything displayed on two entire walls (pearl-handled handguns, derringers, swords, cannon ball, rifles, pistols, you name it). Many were from the battle in upstate NY where his ancestors were from/many were brought back from WWII.
I used to take my friends down to ?the gun room? and my Dad would give them the ?tour? (the history of the various pieces). It was PRETTY neat.
Years later he built us a shooting range in our garage (two car-lengths long). (We had a 3-car garage under the house used one side for the range).
Built a large target (enclosure) and suspended it from the ceiling. Inside the enclosure, he hung little brass cut-outs in the shape of ducks (strung on a brass rod). There was a steel ?back-drop? slanted to deflect the bullets into a sawdust ?bed?. (Mostly used 22s cause they ?splattered?.) When we hit the ducks, they would spin like crazy!
As kids, we spent many a rainy Saturday afternoon shooting up a storm!!
C-ya!
VERY good point on the ‘liability’ issue (CYA). - Posted by SusanL.–FL
Posted by SusanL.–FL on June 14, 2000 at 07:34:11:
I know I have read some ‘horror’ stories of people being trapped in burning buildings. Horrible way to ‘go’.