Anyone been or know someone that was very security conscious- and still was successfully burglarized?  Maybe I'm paranoid- but I have a pretty decent safe (bolted down & awkwardly positioned in a closet) AND an alarm system, and I'm still worried about losing my precious guns (especially since a lot of them can't be replaced!).
Really want feedback...
***ptp

Three guys I went to high school with were Bad Boys.  One burglury netted them 100k CASH.  I asked them about this.

The best theft deterrents are the ones you have heard time and time again.

A dog, a very heavy safe that two big guys can't throw in the back of a truck (the 100g case), lights, good locks, and nosy neighbors are the best.  Anything that will slow them down is a plus.  They always raced the clock.

Don't disclose what you own, unless you are shopping for trouble.  One of them had a day job boss who bragged about his audiophile grade stereo, so they decided to steal it.  The boss came back to work the next day moaning about the theft, but at least they missed the speakers!  They went back the next night and got them.  Lots of laughter in the retelling.

Two of them went to jail for a short time (where is the justice) and all three are now leading regular lowlife lives.    

Get in touch with McUzi.

He can be your case study in progress.

[rocket]

Got about $500 worth of stuff taken from my wife's Explorer that was parked right out in front of our house about a month ago.  "Luckily" the vehicle was unlocked - other people in the surrounding neighborhoods had their windows broken and items taken - some just had the windows broken for no reason.  Police figure it was punk kids.  Latest in dallas is a rapist who sneaks into your house while you do something that doesn't take a lot of time - something you wouldn't normally lock your door for - get the mail, take out the trash, ect...

Die, Scum     [uzi]      [xx(]    

Tate

My brother had his house broken into (he lives in Santa Ana), it was alarmed and had a monitoring service.
The thief got all of the big money items and placed them in the center of the floor, then destroyed two bedrooms and my brothers trophy/collectibles room when my sister-in-law came home. As she was going in the front door the thief was breaking out the window of the master bedroom.
He stole 2 VCR's and all of their credit cards.
He had a TV, microwave, and all of her kitchen appliances over by the side window. It looked like he was getting ready to move those out of the house.
He was caught almost 9 months later and charged with that burglery.
How?
My bro and his wife had been watching a video of their little girls birthday and it was in one of the VCR's that the thief stole. The thief was busted for unrelated drug charges, and when the police tossed his garage they found all of his loot.
The cops in the evidence room were going through all of the VCR's they had in there (don't ask me, they could of been looking for home made porn for all I know) and they came across my bros VCR with the tape in it. They watched it, one of my sister-in-laws sisters made a statement on the tape that included the last names of both my brother and his wifes maiden name, their city, and the date of the taping.
The detectives got the tape, did some work, and found my brother.
They added that burglery charge to the other charges against the thief.

I was broken into the Sat. before Xmas in 1986.  The total take:

- Pre-64 Win. M-70 in .308
- Ruger .44 Mag Carbine
- My Dad's .45 Colt auto that I had spent maybe 125 hours on (remember Nonte's book?)
- Win. M-1200 shotgun
- 2 H&K P7M8 mags, but not the gun

The pisser was that I put out reward notices and got back two names.  When I talked to the cops, they said they were trying to get search warrants since they were the top suspects.  I never recovered any of my stuff, but the insurance company paid me pretty good.

Merlin

Unfortunately, I have had some experience with this sort of thing during the past two years . My place was broken into twice in 10 days time in October 1999. The thieves took over well over $14,000 in guns, ammo, accessories, my laptop computer, all my stereo equipment, and two TV's. They took my Remington 700 VSSF .223; my Remington 700 Sendero .270; a Springfield M1A; an HK USP 40; a Benelli M1S90 shotgun; my tricked out 10/22 silhouette gun; and the 22 my dad purchased for me when I was 12.  Fortunately I had good homeowner's insurance and everything was taken care of.  I now have a half ton safe, two dogs, and a security system.  I would also recommend keeping all of your important papers in your safe.  I had all of mine in a briefcase that was ultimately stolen.  That made it real difficult for me come tax time.  I have also used cables to tie up my computer, monitor, stereo equipment and TV's.  At least if I am going to get broken into again the bastards will have to work at it (and in the meantime be caught).  All I can say is 'God help 'em' if I'm the one that catches them......

Dogs are good inside the house. Geese cant be beat for outside. The best alarm system in the world is only as good as the people monitoring them. Geese will not fall for the gate open trick, they wont go for the steak and sleeping pills trick, they will not make friends with anybody, are loud and deligent.
I had an attempted entry of my house by two very bad home invader/killers/ thiefs. They were in the process of getting my little p/u truck ready for flight and would have come in next. The sound of a pump gun being racked sent them off were they stole another van and killed the pregnant lady who came out to stop them.
Unfortunatley they stole my wallett and left it in the drivers seat of the same van. Since the cops had zero clues as to who the burglers/killers were they started an investigation on moi. Luckily the perps were caught soon after the killing and were brought up on 78 counts each. I testified and looked them in the eye the whole time I was on the stand, when asked if I would have pulled the trigger if they hadn`t took off, I stated I wished I woulda had a rifle to shoot them as they ran. the defense was taken aback and stopped asking me stupid question

my house was burglarized once! the guy had his heroin addiction cured real permanent like! and we didn't even get in trouble over how we cured him! The cure is kinda load in side a residence though! there is no addiction stronger than the .357 mag. cure!

For those that keep dogs in their yard to deter would-be thieves:

I once had the opportunity to interview an individual who had burglarized nearly a thousand homes in his career.  His speciality was breaking into homes that contained dogs.

His M.O. was to scout the area beforehand, and to notate which houses were 1. on corner lots, and 2. contained dogs.  These were his prime targets, as the corner lots allowed him more than one avenue of escape, and persons with dogs were often more careless in leaving windows or doors unlocked.

In order to defeat the dogs, he brought a shovel with him.  If the dog should attack, he would simply smack the dog as hard as possible, preferably in the head.  He said that if he hit the dog right the first time, the dog would run away.  He said that he never needed to hit a dog more than a couple of times before they backed off.  He stated that this worked for all kinds of dogs, and had never failed.

The shovel also served a second purpose.  Many houses have sliding glass doors, and when you place a shovel (or screwdriver) in the tracks from the outside, you can simply pry the door out.  This depends on how much play you have in the door itself.  An easy cure is to place a dowel along the top of the door itself, and below the frame to eliminate any excessive play.

I just purchased a Gunsafe after not having one for many years. $2300 and I'd rather spent it on pistols/rifle, but I'm glad I got it. Frankly, I'd feel irresponsible if somone stole numerous AR's and other weapons.

I got burgled about 3 years ago. Lots of stuff got stolen and I am 99.999% certain of who did it. If TEOTWAWKI ever hits, Paul Kersey will be paying him a visit.

oneshot1kill - Sorry to hear about your brother - that is very sad.

Glad to hear the politicians "protected" you...

Tate

I know a lady who had her late husbands .357 Colt stolen from a locked safe, along with other valuables. Everything was recovered, but the Kops wouldn't return the pistol. They said it would be destroyed, and that she didn't need the gun as a rememberance of her husband. I called the sheriff's office and they said it's  their policy not to return stolen firearms to their owners.

Just before departing for SHOT show '96, I stopped in my "secure" storage facility where I stored some of my guns.

The lock was untouched, and I had always been very discreet when picking up or dropping off guns there.

To my horror I opened up the storage room to find.

1. the first centerfire rifle I ever owned, my dad gave it to me, Rem 788, .243, recently accurized and refinished...

2. a Feather AT 22, preban with 10 mags

3. an HK 93 with a ton of accessories, paddle mag release, mags, mounts, stocks, etc...

4. a case of 100 AR mags, NIW

all gone.

the lock as I said was untouched, the thieving scumbags took the sheet metal of the wall apart from the adjacent storage unit and took them, my unit was only connected to one other. Pretty simple.

Called PHX PD, an old fart of a detective came out and the manager of the storage facility refused to give him any names. He seemed content with that.

D.

GEF, maybe the cops were trying to find the rightful owners of the VCRs so as to pin as many burglaries as possible on the scumbag.  Cops hate criminals just as much as we do.

My workshop was broken int a couple of years ago. They took the stereo and NO TOOLS.
Next door to it, on the same floor, was an Egytian-American(coptic-christians)social club.  They were broken into also, their stereo stolen, too.
One night Abdul, the club owner, hid in his club after it closed.
At 4 AM a junkie comes through the window.  Abdul knocked him out with a 2x4, and then tied him to a chair.
Abdul and his Egytian friends beat and tortured the guy for 6 hours.

That night, he came back and stole their TV and 10 30lb. boxes of tile.

Heroin.

I have been a victim twice, once in 1977 my entire collection of 12 pistols and 5 rifles. None of them were ever recovered.
In 1986 I had a 1911A1 stolen that was recovered and returned by LAPD.The Detective thought I was active military because the weapon was marked "U.S. Property" (don't know if that had anything to do with me getting it back)

Well, in August 1999, I went to my self-storage locker to find my HEAVY duty lock untouched, but on the floor ten feet away. The hasp was ripped to hell, and I was out a ruger 10-22, mossberg 500, a friend's mossberg 88, a BUSHMASTER AR-15(!), and accesories that all added up to 2k in losses. The storage facility bragged left and right about thier burglar alarm system when I got the thing, but when we were sitting there filling out paperwork with a cop,I asked: "did the burglar alarm go off?" "no, nope it didn't. It goes off real loud in the office, we would have heard it." I took them to small claims court on non-functioning burglar alarm grounds, but lost.  I KNEW the mofu that did it, and I had some GOOD vengeance plans. He would have been f$#*ed and I would have scored some new guns on his dime. Long story. Anyways, I guess he musta sensed I had my sights on him, because the next I heard of him, was that he had put a glock to his head and, well, cut down on my chore list. And only 5 days after I had talked to him. The cops did find guns, but none of ours. NRA armscare insurance picked up the tab, and I got new and improved editons of what was lost only weeks before Y2K. All's well that ends well, really. I got better weapons, earth is minus one scumbag and I learned one hell of a lesson.

OneShotOneKill- My condolences.

MotelBravo- HOOOOOO-YAAAAAHHH!

My home broken into in the mid-80's. Thieves took all the standard easy to carry items, used the pillow cases from all the beds to carry the loot. They looked in all the expected places for the jewelry and stuff, like drawers, closets etc., so they would probably find a closet safe. Broke in the first day the dog was gone. must have been living close by/ watching the neighborhood.

One thing to mention though, they could not find the items hidden in plain sight. All my guns remained safe, without a safe. Sometimes the least obvious place is the best hiding place. Cheesy pictures on the wall, covering a small in-wall safe (or opening/shelf). Furnace ducts, false ceilings, the wall directly above your head while standing in the door to a closet (most people will not look up AND BEHIND them) can be places used to hide things, until you get a large safe.

It is the official policy of the police to steal lawfully owned property from the citizenry? WTF!!??? What happened with the state police, FBI and her state and federal Congressmen and Senators?