The Zohan

Which is why i keep an 6 cell maglite next to the bed, in case the power goes out to i cannot find a light switch Maglite is heavy and solid and would break bones or indeed a skull i would imagine in addition to providing adequate illumination. Have one in the car to - by the drivers seat

No one ever got arrested for having a torch!

GlesgaKiss

Christ, what a load of sh*te. But the law is one thing, defending yourself if it comes down to it is another. I'm sure plenty of parents would be up like a shot with whatever they could lay their hands on if they thought their kids might be in danger.

grahamc

iTrader: (10)

Coming from South Africa, I HAD all sorts of stuff in my room/under the bed/in the house/in the car... Along the lines of kali sticks, knives, sword, everything but a gun... So I think its BS!!!

Problem is, that if you hear a noise, pick it up (for defensive purposes) and hit someone with it, it shows intent to do harm!!! I dont agree with it, but its whats happen. UK is going like the US where criminals have "more" rights than the person they are attacking!!

I dont have kids, but I would be none-the-less... missus in the house. However we do have 2 GSDs that we brought with us from South Africa not the friendliest of dogs and they are normally very grumpy if woken up with a loud noise.

The Zohan

Graham, a maglite is a torch, simple as that. If i heard a noise hypothetically i would pick it up and turn it on to see what the noise was, then if needed i could defend myself with it. No one has ever been convicted of carrying a maglite as an offensive weapon or likely to. If i was carrying a carving knife or a club then it could well be a different matter but a torch (as recommended by a cop to me) is not a problem

Dingdongler

joz8968

iTrader: (13)

The victims have no rights whatsoever.

I'm so, so apoplectic with rage at the INNOCENTS' slowly... nay, quickly... diminishing human rights. EVERYTHING is in the assailants' favour!!!

Fecking Brussels-led, no doubt.

Thanks, all you sandal-wearing, tree-hugging leftie types. Happy now?

markjmd

iTrader: (11)

You're seriously saying this about the US, where all you need to buy a gun in 3/4 of the country is a driver's license?

Even in the UK, there's been barely a dozen convictions in the past 40 years against people attacking intruders in their homes. If you challenge one to leave and they go for you, you're perfectly within your rights to clout them with anything you've got to hand, and the chances of criminal charges sticking against you are virtually zero.

In the US, in 99% of cases you could shoot them where they stand if they don't run like hell the second you set eyes on them. Any other course of action on the criminal's part will see you easily pass the local sniff-test for legal homicide, if you decide to blow them away.

Adrian F

The only way to keep them down stairs is to but a high security gate accross the bottom of the stairs and have a attack alarm with flood lights and sirens so once they are in the house they cant get to you but you can wake the neighbours.

The IRA members use to have set ups like this to stop them being shot in their beds at nights as they use have the front doors kicked down by hit squads the security gate stopps them getting to you whilst your asleep.

a few friendly dogs probably help to, licking to death.

L.J.F

iTrader: (31)

Or you can just sell the "desirable" car and buy a Corsa Diesel, no ****** is gonna knee cap you for that now

tony de wonderful

Better still a Honda Diesel Civic.

^Qwerty^

We got broken in to during the night last September for the same thing (RS4), however they missed the keys which were in kitchen but hidden. The keys for a Freelander and Fiesta were ignored. As soon as I rang the police in the morning the first thing they asked was, “do you have a nice car”. An R8 got stolen from the down the road on the same night. I learnt a few things from this episode in my life:
1) If you have a seven point, reinforced front and back door, but standard style euro locks fitted, then you may as well not bother locking the door at all. Just search on youtube for lock snapping and/or bumping for more info. One of my doors had the locked snapped out. All my locks have been changed now.
2) Set your alarm overnight. (police told me that about 80% of people don’t bother). Ours was set, but the proximity stuff was turned off due to kids.
3) I had no idea how I would feel until it happened. It made me very angry and I now have an iron bar under the bed. Personally I’ll take my day in court and get sent down before I pander to this **** about not kicking the living daylights out of a burglar. (that assumes they don’t do it to me first).
4) If they come upstairs, the police told me that you are pretty much free to do what you like in terms of ‘self-defence’, just make sure your statement says you shouted a warning 2-3 times telling them not to do so
5) Security Lighting and to a lesser extent CCTV is a waste of time. A light flicking on a 02:30hrs doesn’t wake anybody up. What you need is noise. Burglars don’t like noise, hence why dogs are good. It’s not the fear of being bitten, it’s the barking.
6) I won’t have a fast/expensive car again unless I can garage it.
7) The police were very good in general, but CID showed about as much interest in catching the person who broke in, as I do in ballet dancing. (which isn’t a lot)
I feel for anybody who wakes up to find somebody has been in their house overnight, it’s quite disturbing, and if you do have a nice/fast/expensive car sat outside your house overnight, make sure your door locks are not the standard 47p ****.

Littleted

Outa Intrest was it a UPVC door ?

or a good old woodun ?

BurgerKing

iTrader: (1)

Fully agree with this, the Police were very helpful on the night and even gave me a lift home after I moved the Impreza (the attempted theft failed) to my mother-in-laws house. They took statements from both myself and the wife at the time but after that seemed lose interest interest in catching any of the guys involved.

Some tactless sod within the department then did a trawl of the database for all locally registered Imprezas and sent out a mail shot warning owners about a local gang of violent car thieves, they included us on the mailing list

Our old wooden front door that was smashed in was replaced with a high density foam and GRP jobby that looks like wood but is as strong as a steel skinned door, I'd like to see them kick that down.

Littleted

one thing i will say is the safe by design doors are very good and can withstand a great deal, but the weakness is alwasy the lock.

Even the ant bump n snap ones are easily picked if you know what your doing ( ps im not a burgler )

The real safe option is to have a new hardwood frame installed and a high end proper Hardwood door not the 40 quid doors the 250 quid ones, with 2 5 or 7 lever locks, yes i know wood splinters and plastic doesnt, but the Locks on the plasi doors just aint any good never have been.

M8s a locksmith and hes never been to a job where they have bumpoed the lock on UPVC they either snap it or smash it, Once in the lock your inside the lever system.

but with wood 5 levers are a **** esp if you have 2 middle and bottom.

If in doubt get this or if u hear bangin open ya window and throw ya keys down, make sure GAP insurance is up to date give them 10 mins of driving then SMS the tracker to disable the car hehe

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STEEL-EXTERNAL...-/260757130318

gtisid

iTrader: (2)

happened at my mates house last year , an employee of mine had my brand new vw crafter stolen, broke into his back door with a hook on a bamboo cane, filled the ****er up with most of his worldly possesions. local pikies with a drug problem. van recovered within 2 weeks i lost nothing he lost about 5 ks worth of kit. guess what no arrests even though they drove through the dartford tunnel with cameras everywhere.

i now have cctv and a tracker which i will probably never need again for the rest of my life. seen some nice mums picking kids up at the school outside my house though grrrrr. might come in useful when v festival is in town in the summer as i can watch the trash dump their vehicles outside my house though.... happens every year.

hope the rs4 turns up, probably on its way abroad though

tony de wonderful

The CPS pressing charges is one thing, a jury convicting is another....or at least convicting of the most serious charges.

If I was a juror I would never agree to convict someone no matter what force they used to defend themselves or property.

This country is too biased in favor of the criminal. We should be like Texas where you can shoot someone if they come on your property and try and steal your property or threaten you.

If the individual cannot rely upon the state to protect themselves, then they should be able to defend themselves and their property with their own arms.

hodgy0_2

lol great stuff

^Qwerty^

UPVC.

The doors and windows are really strong, and to break them would create lots of noise. However, as somebody has pointed out, the weak point is the euro style locks. The standard ones shipped by most installation companies are worthless in terms of security. I've now got avocet ones fitted, which are about the best ones you can get.

^Qwerty^

http://www.avocetabs.com/?gclid=CN_s...FRRC4Qod91w5ag

You just need your external and internal measurements and order away. Fitting is a 2 minute job. (which is why the problem exists in the first place – the overall design is flawed IMO)
Basically the locks above will still snap, but they are designed to snap at a predefined point and not on the weak bit where the screw goes through. In doing so, they prevent access to the door locking mechanism - or at least that's the theory. If you dig around on the net, there are a few examples of where an attempted break in has occurred, but the internal section of the lock has remained in place and thus prevented access to the property.
I think West Yorkshire police are now giving these out for free in certain areas because the problem is becoming endemic.
I’m still of the thinking that at the end of the day, if somebody wants to get in, they will do, but if you can make your house harder to break in to than your neighbours, then as a tealeaf, which house would you choose?

austinwrx

normal europrofile locks in a upvc door, even with 5 or 7 point multi locking points are only about £15. they can be punched out with a hammer and chisel.

you can upgrade them for locks that disintergrate on attack- but stay secure, very easily yr self. its only a few screws.

upvc door handles also tend to be be crap, again you can get much stronger high security ones.


I say all this because someone tried breaking into my house - clearly for the scooby keys. our hse is easily the most secure on the street (there are only 8 hses where I am in the bit of the village)


rear porch, very elevated, alarm on, two high security upvc doors on.

anyhow they fecked the barrel, but couldn't even get the door open to the porch.


all my neighbours hses have either no alarm, no porch and most just a timber back door.......... very clearly they wanted the car.

I sleep with a fecking great snap on, bodywork hammer (with the head filled with lead shot) under the bed. anyone gets in near me and my family, *&*&*^&**(((@@@ !!!!

I'll take my chances in court as a nice clean cut chap


it did take me at least two hours to get the knackered barrel out of the porch door, but thank god I'd upgraded the locks.