Locks & Bolts - Can You Ever Really Have Enough When It Comes To Home Security?

When it comes to looking at things objectively, there is a fine line between pessimism and realism. I have always considered myself an optimist or in layman’s terms a “glass half full” kind of girl, however when you are faced with real world issues it’s only realistic that you consider all options to safeguard yourself.

Security is something that is consistently spoken about in the media, whether it’s to do with protecting your financial assets, identity theft, safeguarding your children etc. Whilst certain topics get more of the limelight then others there is one particular situation that normally slips under the radar of your average news headlines, and that’s burglaries! These incidences have reduced over the years particularly since 2005, however they are still occurring across the globe.

Last year my Grandma decided to up and move from her four bed semi-detached family home, as she was struggling to get up and down the stairs. Upon moving to a bungalow around the corner from my parents, and five minutes away from the local shops she knew that she had made the right decision whilst she was still able to do so. Her surrounding neighbours were and still are for that matter pretty elderly, so you can imagine it’s a nice and peaceful area, or so we thought!

About two months after she moved in she was out and about in the nearest town catching up with her retired pals, only to come home and notice that she had been burgled. As she desperately scrambled around the house to figure out what had been taken, she soon came to discover that all of her jewellery that she was going to pass on to my cousins and I was gone. These items were family air looms that had been passed down for generations, and unfortunately no money would ever be able to replace those memories. As if it couldn’t get any worse a load of tools and brand new land mower were also missing from her garden shed. She was lucky that they didn’t manage to take anything else, and it could have been a lot worse. I dread to think what might have happened should she have been there when the burglars broke in.

Although the likelihood of that occurring again was pretty slim, my parents and I could see how traumatised it left my Gran, and in all fairness if I was to put myself in her shoes I wouldn’t blame her. To help put her mind slightly at ease the next night we ordered some door locks online from a London brand called A & H Brass, who I dare say had quite the collection. I genuinely didn’t realise that you could get that many different styles of locks?

We purchased a mortice latch to re enforce the front door, as it already had a lock and key. For extra security measures we booked a black smith to change the front and back door locks and cut new keys. We also bought a household security alarm system, and installed the trigger points on the doors and windows, as well as giving her a panic button in case she was ever in trouble.
 

As for the garden shed that had also been broken into we needed something a tad more durable for the outside weather conditions, so we fitted a digital lock giving my gran her own unique pin code to get in and out of the shed at her leisure.

Since then it has taken some time to get her back to how she was before the burglary occurred, which is why it’s really important to raise awareness to those who haven’t taken the proper precautions to safe guard their property. Remember it’s more than just material items, the proper security could be potentially lifesaving!