The Burglars Problem with Gun Safes
The Burglar’s Problem with Gun Safes
It will help if we can define the problem from the burglar’s perspective. Simply put, an intruder’s risk of getting caught increases with the amount of time that he spends in your home and the amount of noise that he makes while there. Therefore, the question is what steps can we take to make the bad guy waste time and make noise? You’ve already taken the first step, purchasing a safe. A safe is one of the most effective time wasting, noisy obstacles you can confront a burglar with. The tougher the safe is, the more time and noise it takes to break it. The weaker the safe, the less time and … well, you get the idea.
Buying a safe may not be enough by itself. One of the first thoughts that pops into the bad guys head is that if he can’t break into it in your house, take it to where he can. Do consider bolting it down as weight alone is not enough to keep the bad guy from removing the safe and transporting it to a location where he can take his time and make as much noise as he wants. It’s not that hard to move a heavy safe. Commercial power dollies, such as the Ultra -Lift that we use for deliveries, can easily walk up and down stairs, in and out of the back of a pick-up truck with as much as 1500lbs. No power dolly? Remember the commercial “Two men will move you”? Well two men can easily tip most safes over into a pick-up bed. Bolt it down!
Be creative. Stick it in a closet with a solid core door and a deadbolt (more time, more noise). If the closet is in a garage or utility room stick a professional looking sign on the door, “WARNING! HIGH VOLTAGE, ATMOSPHERE CONTROL UNIT, NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE“. Put a smoke detector on the ceiling directly above your safe – most of the things a bad guy does to break into a safe, (drilling into a hard plate, grinding, cutting torch), creates smoke. If the smoke detector lights off we have noise and the bad guy doesn’t know if someone is responding to it or not. Best guess is he leaves.
Take advantage of the S&G electronic locks. They dramatically increase security and increase your convenience at the same time! YOU change the combination, not a locksmith, a full million combinations, a tamper lock out (YOU set it for 0 to 9 minutes), 9 possible combinations which you can change, alter, or delete as desired. The 9 volt battery is on the outside and the combo is stored even if it dies. For Champion safes, a glass relocker is an outstanding way to improve your security by booby trapping the internal mechanism against tampering and drilling.
One last burglary item.
Unless the safe is a “show piece” for some reason, treat it as confidential family information. The less others know about your personal security measures the more unlikely they are to be unprepared to deal with a safe. Install it somplace out of sight and out of mind. Warn the kids against showing it to or talking about it with others.
FIRE
As with burglary, fire safes are not fire proof, they are fire resistant. If the safe cooks long enough, everything in it is toast. A fireliner buys time. Time for the FD to put the fire out. Simply put, the best fireliner is one that buys more time. Having said that, you don’t have to settle for whatever protection the safe company gave you. It is possible to improve your fire protection if you can think inside and outside the box.
Inside the box thinking includes things like not storing super flammables like perfume, gun powder, and ammunition inside your safe. It is possible that a fire could heat up the inside enough to ignite these items and that valuables that might have survived otherwise won’t. we stock a variety of lockers for these low value, flammable, keep away from children items. Another example of inside the box thinking is a fire box. Small enough to fit into most safes, (they come in several sizes), they can double the fire protection of most safes. It’s a perfect solution for important papers and small valuables.
Outside the box thinking might include: double or triple sheet rock inside the closet that your safe is in. Installing a sprinkler. Not storing flammables by your safe. Installing the safe away from likely ignition sources so that it isn’t the first thing to go. Not storing ammo or gun powder in your safe; once it cooks off things that otherwise might have survived may not.
Call us today for help with building your safe.
Remember ‘BUY’ your safe before you need it – do not wait too long!
Thank you -
Chris Guerra
Direct: 510.397.1151
Toll Free: 800-656-4143 x2000
Article courtesy of: Ron Godwin
Filed Under: Blog • Gun Safes • Private Security Products
