Home security for an apartment?

With (relatively) cheap web cams available, wifi etc and motion sensing lights it ought to be genuinely possible to work up a monitoring system for doors and widows. Putting up those perspex domes (outside) that cover cameras could be enough of a deterrent.

I don't think motion detectors would work for an apartment building.

What's to keep cameras from being stolen? They're on the outside of the apartment, aren't they. (Sorry if I don't understand the mechanics.) Also, it's possible that your neighbors would be annoyed at being on camera every time they came home or went out. I know I wouldn't like it if my neighbor was taking pictures of me every time I went into or out of my apartment.

Maybe you could consult with a security company. Just tell them you're shopping around and see what they recommend.

We had bars/gates on all the windows (against the law where there's a fire escape but we put them on the fire escape window anyway--it was the most vulnerable window) and special devices on doors. Iron bars that locked into place when you shut and locked the door. Effective against somebody pushing the door in, but a pain in the patoot for you to get in and out. You have to slide past the bar, which is embedded in the floor.

Maybe you might want to talk to your daughter about a whistle. She could carry it with her--maybe wear it around her neck. You could tell her to blow into it if anybody came up to her and tried to touch her or make her go with them.

One final note re the landlord. You would require permission from the landlord to put anything in the hall. You would not likely need permission for window guards. If you were to put a special lock on the door such as the one I described with the bar, you would probably need permission from the landlord because you'd be putting a hole in the floor.

Here's a link to something like the doorlock I'm talking about:

http://www.lockpeople.com/250D.htm

well, it looks like we'll have to nix the ideas I've had.

seems as though the guy could sue you for planting a trap. Imagine that, getting in trouble for catching someone uninvited and unwanted in your home.

If you were home, in the middle of the night, you could still shoot him. That's self protection.

uhh....I don't think this guy would be intimadated by a man to man talk...him and his 6 chulos really don't care.

I really am concerned about this for shewolf. Guys like she's talking about aren't scared off by white middle class "security"

So an alarm goes off? Who's going to call the cops? Maybe nobody, none of their business.

I might be wrong, so correct me shewolf, but I don't think your little street is much on community involvement and looking out for your neighbor.

A deadbolt is definately a must.
As far as the windows, well, I don't know how to keep him from smashing them in, but you can go and buy wooden dowels and put them in the tracks or upright between the upper and lower windows to keep him from opening them.

It seems the only window he can break in without climbing the outside of the building is in your living room, right?

It doesn't seem that's a window you would use as a fire escape, is it?

Can you get security bars and drill them into the INSIDE of your apartment?

He could still break the window, but couldn't get past the bars.

The landlord wouldn't even see you've done this since it's on the inside, and when/if he does, well, the holes are already screwed in his wall, so screw it. Just tell him you'll patch it before you leave.

I'm serious, we've dealt with people like this. So have you. You do what you gotta do.

I'd go to Home Depot this morning and get some bars.

Check this out....

I found this related site when googling security bars for windows.

keeps glass from breaking....

Shatter Guard

Im slipping Cjhsa a check as we speak



Nothing like an armed mexican hiding behind my front door

THIS has .. actually crossed my mind.

I was thinking of racing out of the house screaming and swinging a baseball bat. Act like someone just tried to open my door.
Then start yelling about shooting them since they were not up for a face to face combat. Yell that they are scared of getting their ass kicked by a girl, and just start acting like some of their wives do. Start yelling ( at noone in particular) that if they try that again I will just open my door and shoot them in the face.

You know.. try to be mean ....

I can hook those up to existing light fixtures right??

Shatter guard...


hmm...

I used to use something like that in my teen years.


Clear tape, in an X and around all four sides of a window.
Place pillow against window
hit with hammer
use tape and peel back glass.

Voila in with no mess and no noise

<bump>

Good catch roger... I would consider this.

I'd consider that too..
taking HIS photo out.


I read back and see you're on the second story. Is your porch on the second story? Are the steps to more than one porch? I'm not clear either if you have a hallway before your front door, or the door opens straight to the porch..


Getting creeped out...
my immediate neighbor had her new jeep stolen a couple of weeks ago.
Her driveway is a few feet from mine. Luckily, there's lesser interest in a funky old volvo. This is a moderately safe neighborhood, and a sheriff lives two doors down. (Too bad I've never even seen him, but I hear his German Shepherd). My present alarm system is short and barky.

On the other hand, where I had the trouble with the apartment dwellers/meth? sellers was an excellent neighborhood (if, unfortunately, along a main through street) with one smallish apartment building that rented to nurses and hospital techs most of the time, with this one exception when they placed people from some helping organization - a matter I'm not against except in this one case.

I did something like that once...when I lived in that trailer outside of Okeechobee. I had kicked my ex-husband out and was there alone in the middle of nowhere....no neighbors close enough to hear anything.

I tried to keep it quiet I was there alone, but I know people talk.
I started hearing weird sounds, scary....Mr. Tea had given me a gun for protection and I went out on the front step at 2am and yelled something to the effect that I knew they were out there, and if they wanted to come in they'd get some of this...and fired a few shots into the palmettos.

Might have been an animal, never heard anything again. Felt a lot better.