How Secure Is Your Home?

A couple of months ago, I locked myself out of the house.  On one hand, it was a bad thing.  On the other, however, it was a very good thing.

I'm not advocating locking yourself out of your house to see how secure it is, but if that's what it takes to identify any security weaknesses...*shrugs*... okay, maybe I am advocating locking yourself out of the house.

Our zombie-proof apartment

Fortunately, we live on the second floor.  Our bedroom windows face a street with a streetlight on a busy intersection.  The only way to break into our bedroom windows would be to use a 30 foot ladder that would extend into the street.

The living room window, which you can see in the picture, is almost inaccessible.  I say "almost" because someone taller and stronger than me might be able to leap from the stairs to the sill, pull themselves up and get into the apartment.  The locks on the window are good, so it might be more difficult than it's worth.

Our door, which would be an obvious entry point, is unbelievably secure.  I should know.  I tried jimmying the lock and I tried flat-out breaking the doorknob.  No go.  The door is metal and both the primary lock AND the deadbolt are securely anchored into the door jamb.  Someone might be able to kick the door in, but it would take a lot more effort than most bad guys want to expend.

The weak point in our security is the window above the door.  Yes, someone could reach it to crawl through.  In theory.  However, the window doesn't open.  The storm window is completely sealed and the inside window is sealed from the inside.  Could someone get in through it?  Yep.  If they wanted to badly enough.  But it seems like an awful lot of work.  Especially considering the apartments below us on the ground level are much easier to get into.

Also, we've got two security lights; one at the first landing of the stairs and one next to the front door. Anyone wanting to break in after dark will be well illuminated.

Though I felt like a complete idiot for being locked out of the apartment in my pajamas for a great deal of the day, I actually came away from experience feeling much better about the security of our apartment. Not that I really doubted it, but it is reassuring.

Maybe you should give it a try. Or pretend to lock yourself out.  Spend some time walking around your house/apartment and look for entry points.  Use your imagination - in this case, you can't think like a good guy, you've got to think like bad guys.  Try to get yourself into your house.  If you can do so easily, so can someone else. 

Don't fall into the "it can't happen to me", especially if you have guns in your house.  The last thing you want to do is arm a bad guy with your well cared-for, hard-earned guns.

I'd love to hear from you - what was the outcome of this little exercise?  What changes did you make?  Do you feel good about how secure your home is when you're away from it?

"Die In The Parking Lot" by Tara Janzen

Yep, that was my motto way back when, BG, Before Guns came into my life. It all came about because of a college girl in my town. She worked at a clothing store in the mall. One night, I went into her store with a little extra cash to buy the coolest new outfit in the latest style – layering. Remember back when it first became cool to wear two shirts at the same time? With the under one showing via rolled up sleeves and an extra unbuttoned button at the throat? It was all too cool, and I wanted two shirts to wear together. The clerk was marvelous, spending all the time in the world with me to make sure I had just the right two shirts. The underneath one was a hot pink T-shirt material, and the on top one was a purplish, bluish plaid. I looked so cool when I walked out of the mall that night, got in my car, and went home. Safely.

A few weeks later, that beautiful, wonderful, precious college girl who had helped me was dead. Her picture and story was front page news in our local newspaper. She’d been kidnapped leaving work one night while walking across the mall parking lot to her car. They found her body someplace else.

You know the awful details. We all do, and I have read similar stories too many times since, local stories about a girl who lived two blocks from good friends of mine, another girl who went to junior high school with my children, a woman whose home in our town was burglarized twice before she was killed by the thief on his third foray into her home.

At the time of the college girl’s death, I swore to myself that I would die in the parking lot before I let anybody take me anywhere. That I would fight to the death, either my attacker’s or mine, before I would let myself be terrorized, raped, burned, beaten, mutilated or anything else. The list of atrocities is endless. Death I could handle, but not the rest of it, not without a killing rage welling up inside myself that screamed “FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE OR DIE TRYING.”

Then along came the Steele Street boys. They had guns, lots of guns, and they knew how to use them. As the author of these operators, I figured I should get to know guns. I’d never even held a handgun, so I figured that would be a good place to start. I was right, and it was while shooting a Springfield 1911 that I had a life-altering epiphany: “There is nothing like a semi-automatic .45 caliber pistol to level the playing field. Any playing field.” To hell with dying in the parking lot.

Now, after years of shooting and training (TRAINING IS IMPORTANT!!!), I am still amazed that owning a gun and knowing how to use it for my own self-defense never crossed my mind before I started writing the Steele Street novels. The fact astounds me. Unless you really are Skeeter Bang or Red Dog, a woman is at a severe disadvantage in a physical struggle with an attacker. A .45 or a .38 or a 9mm changes the odds, drastically and in your favor, if you are willing to learn and train and step up. Let me repeat that last part: STEP UP. That’s right, step up and take responsibility for your personal safety.

A woman I know lives alone up in the mountains and thought maybe it would be a good idea if she got a gun, but her friends (friends????) convinced her that if someone broke into her home, they would only take her gun and use it against her. I could only stare, slack-jawed, at the mountain woman while she was telling me this story. When she finished, I said, “Well, they won’t take your gun and use it against you if you shoot the bastards first.” Duh. This is called Tactical Thinking, and I highly recommend it, especially when it comes to personal safety.

As for the woman who was killed by the thief, I still wonder why, in the very least, she didn’t get a big dog. The burglar only stole her underwear, which is so creepy, and ended up being deadly for her. She, of course, reported the incidents to the police, but even if you’re married to a policeman, he’s not going to be with you 24 hours a day. We all need to be responsible for our own safety – that’s the prime directive.

Until next time, GunDiva and I will be out there, practicing, practicing, practicing, putting those rounds downrange, armed and in charge.

What Would You Do.....?

The other day ago, a very dear friend of mine related a story to me that was humorous, because I know her, but also fairly alarming to me.

She had gone to WallyWorld (Oh Boy! It's our favorite place for scary encounters!!) to fill a prescription for her young daughter. There was to be a substantial wait, during which time Gramma offered to take Daughter to the truck so she could rest. Upon asking- again- when the script would be ready, my friend decided to go and gather other supplies at another store, and return in an hour to get the medication.

Now, let me describe my friend to you. She is six feet tall, lean, strong as an ox, and known to be incredibly creative, determined, and take NO crap from ANYONE. She walked on out of the store, into the parking lot- with an expression of determination/ stress/ tiredness/ etc on her face.

And some crazy dude (he had to be crazy. Who in their RIGHT MIND would approach a six foot tall woman who looked pissed off?) accosted her- stepped directly in her path of travel, got all too close to her, and asked, "Are you a Democrat or a Republican?"

Remember when I said my friend was creative?
Her reply to Crazy Man was, "I'm a convicted felon." She also slid her hand into her purse, as if putting a hand on her pistol.

Now after I got done busting a gut laughing at her convicted felon line, (she isn't,) I thought about the story some more and found a few things to be quite alarming.

1) If someone is THAT DETERMINED to approach you, He Has A Purpose and May Not Be Operating Alone. A quick check of your surroundings is well in order.

2) She was unarmed. I am quite uncomfortable with a bluff. This time, that and her answer and physical bearing served her well to back the Creepy Determined Man off. But what if she had been a 5' 4" tall, soft looking blonde, who also tried the bluff and it didn't work?

3) Purse Carry. I. Hate. It. If you are going to carry, carry it ON you. Where you can get your gun with speed. (But to be fair, I also detest purses and refuse to carry one.)

(Again- WalMart corporate policy is allow carry, but prefer it concealed.)

I know what *I'd* have done in this instance-- but I'd like to see a bit of discussion from readers on YOUR plan of action.

-Would you stop? Keep going? Go faster?
-Do you look around?
-Have cell phone in hand to speed dial 911?
-Go back to the store and request an escort?
-Tell the encroaching potential threat to f*ck off?
-Report to management that there is a nut in the parking lot accosting shoppers?
-Wait for the "security" car to drive by?

(I SO have issue with the "security" patrols provided here. Don't know about the rest of the Wallyworld shopping populace, but if someone is providing SECURITY, please--- do not be 300#. Do not sit in vehicle, with windows rolled up, BluTooth thing jammed in your ear, radio going, driving about looking as if you were Lost In Space. Do I feel "secure" with you chumbawumbas "protecting" me? HELL NO! Which would be why I choose to protect MYSELF.)

Come on folks- let's hear what YOUR plan would be. Let's get a good educational discussion going.

PSA - Spokeo.com

A friend of mine, who is a coroner's investigator, and who has been in law enforcement for fifteen years or so tipped me off to this website, http://www.spokeo.com/.

Spokeo compiles all public information and makes it available via the internet.  Their slogan: "Not your grandma's phone book."  They're right; it's not your grandma's phone book - this is super scary.  Since they compile information from public sources, they have a scary amount of information out there.  You can search by name, email address, phone number, etc.  If you don't want your name out there on Spokeo, you can have it removed, which I encourage all of you to do.

To remove your information:

• Search your name on Spokeo
• If there are multiple people with your name, choose the correct one.  When the file opens, your personal URL will appear in the URL box at the very top of the screen.
• Click on your URL to highlight it and then copy it (either right-mouse-click copy or Ctrl+C)
• On the bottom of the screen, look for the word "Privacy" in small grey letters.
• Click on "Privacy", a new window will open up.
• Scroll to the bottom of the new window and paste your URL (either right-mouse-click paste or Ctrl+V)
• Fill in your email address (for them to send the confirmation email)
• Complete the word verification
• Don't worry when the screen pops back up with a different word verification - I kept thinking that it hadn't gone through and filled it out about a million times.  It worked the first time and then I had a million confirmation emails to delete :)
• After you've completed the steps, you can close the privacy window.
• I then checked my email, completed the confirmation email and performed the search again on Spokeo.  I had, indeed, been removed.
• Note:  there may be muliple "yous" in the system.  I had two, a friend of mine had three.  Search by name, phone number, email to make sure you've removed all of the "yous" from the system.  Be sure to have your children do this as well.

I have to tell you, sites like this scare the hell out of me, especially after having been stalked.  I refuse to hide forever (heck, I've got three blogs, a FB and a MySpace account), but I will do whatever I can to limit the amount of personal information that is readily available.

Verified via Snopes:  http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp