Single Ladies... How do you ensure your security when home alone?

Why only single ladies? My hubby is strong, but he can’t stop a bullet either. I don’t keep a gun in my house…I have children. But no, I’m not at all “scared” when my husband works late.

My apartment (a 150 year old house which has three other apartments in it) has motion sensor lights. So, she’s well lit up at night, if someone sets foot on the property. The intruder would have to go through three sets of doors (that close and lock automatically, when you let go of the door). The other tenants are all guys and there is usually someone home at night, when I am home. Finally, I have a shank in the drawer next to my bed, and I’m not afraid to use it.

Never even think about it. Never lock my house, garage, and keys are in the car at all times.
I live on 5 secluded acres on a tiny private road with only 2 others houses in about 40 acre circle. 20 acres of raw forest/woods across the road.
I have a ranch gate across my driveway but, it is never closed unless my animals are in the yard. Don’t even know where my house keys are, haven’t seem them in about 5 years. Think they are in my desk with my spare set of car keys. lol

The only crime I worry about are the raccoons coming in through the cat door to party in my kitchen.

I’d be a mess if I had to live in the city again and be paranoid all the time.

Right now it is 10:42 pm and I am off to bed soon. Beautiful, warm summer night, all the doors and windows open, and off to bed I go, not a worry in the world. :-D

Umm.. it hasn’t ever really crossed my mind as far enough to have a weapon prepared. The closest is one night when I was all alone and my family stepped out, I became paranoid (which I do sometimes although rarely… think I hear something, then hide somewhere, or call a friend).
Anyways, my neighborhood seems to be a good one, we have an alarm system, and live by an elementary school. There’s many kids around my neighborhood and nothing violent has happened around here, that I’ve heard of…

PS: @Coloma, wow, your area sounds beautiful! :)

Is it legal to shoot at someone who sneaked into your property?Some time ago i heard that a jeweller was sentenced to jail time because he shoot at some who was trying to rob his store.It s silly.

We are not very security conscious at all. I often get up in the middle of the night to find the back door wide open or the front door even on occasions. I will lock the door when I notice that. However, we leave the back door open and have a metal gate thing over the laundry door. Our feeling has always been we have two dogs here, they will bite anyone who tries to climb through the space for the dogs. This is now being reconsidered after we came home to find a tradesman had come in the house, had a look around and one of our dogs was now sitting in his ute having a fine old time with his new friend!!! So much for guard dogs.

I’ve always been concerned about my security. I live alone in my own apartment and things can get really scary at times. I’m also quite paranoid.

I have at least one gun in every room of my house. I’m not afraid to shoot some wack ass person trying to break into my house.

I follow my dad’s simple, cheap and relatively effective security measures for protection of both person and property here at my house in the burbs for both: I lock my doors at night, before I go to bed, I lock the deadbolt. I have a light at my front door and my back door and my garage that are triggered by photocells to come on when it gets dark. Given a choice of breaking into your neighbor’s house with no lights where the person with criminal intent can easily be seen and breaking into your house where he or she can’t be see, because of the lights, well, which would you choose? I close and lock any windows that can be easily crawled through, but that’s only a couple and I generally don’t have them open anyway and I don’t “advertise.” If I have purchased an expensive piece of electronic equipment, which I don’t do all that often and mine tend to be small gadgets, but say one day I bought an expensive, big-screen plasma TV. I would break the box down and put it in with the recycling because I do that anyway, but I would not, like I have seen some people do, leave it out on the tree lawn for the trash service. That’s like putting a big sign in front of your house that says: “I just bought brand new $4,000 television set! Now’s when you might find it worth your while to burglarize my house.” That’s about all I do, but, I did just get a dog, and though I got her because she’s just so damn cute and for companionship she’s a good security feature too, well she might be if she wasn’t so damn friendly and were more of a barker and a growler but I love her anyway.

Note to self: If you ever decide to visit @KatetheGreat call first and let her know you’re coming. She may not be all that receptive to uninvited and unexpected visitors.

I know plenty of single men who are much less prepared, and more fearful, than I am.

I am a lady. I am not single. But I am the muscle in our home. My lady is very tiny and weak. Her strength is the equivalent of a child. The poor dear.

I’m answering the question because I feel I should.

I have a machete hidden on my side of the bed. I have a baseball bat hidden behind the couch, and another one in the office room. I also have two hunting knives hidden in two of our washrooms. I have my dog, although he’s quite small and getting rather old (plus he’s lacking his front teeth). He’d still run at anyone, especially a man, that was not invited ..and gum nip the crap out of the person. The garage door ..I took the pull string off because there are ways to get at it from outside.

We always lock our doors, even when at home. The windows are always locked unless we have them opened (we never leave windows on the ground floor open at night or when we are away). I put a bar on the deck doors because I don’t trust the lock. I installed deadbolt locks that can not be picked (on both of our entrance doors). We leave the outside lights on during the night. Our gate, to the backyard, is impossible to open from the outside without a ladder to climb over. We have no back alley. We made sure to know our neighbours ..so they know if they see someone who doesn’t quite belong. I have an old pair of men’s size 13 work boots that sit outside by the front door. If I’m feeling extra paranoid, I stick a gun magazine/article in them.

I am confident, that if an intruder were in our home, they would regret it. I am prepared to fight back. I know self defense and I am capable to use it. I’ve had a lot of violent people in my life – it has taught me to be safe.

Interesting that the answers so far seem to be either from people who really don’t do much at all in terms of home security and people who are armed to the teeth. No a whole lot in the middle.

Locks….and guns, lots of guns.

Oh! And a 150lbs Cane Corso (Italian mastiff), named baby girl, who honestly looks more like a bear than a dog.

@lillycoyote Hehe, I actually I thought I was in the middle. We were thinking of getting a security system at some point. Not sure though. There really isn’t a whole lot of crime in our area. My apartment, where I used to live ..much higher crime rate there. I used to live near downtown – now I live on the outskirts of the city.

@cheebdragon a cane corso? Those dogs are freaking awesome.

I don’t think I should be afraid for my safety. I am a little bit scared that I’ll be faced with a Scary Movie situation, but there’s not much you can do about it. Realistically, nobody’s going to break into a house with someone inside it, even a lone female, and especially not someone able-bodied and awake. So I turn on the music (which also makes me feel better about psychopathic/supernatural killers) and shuffle around the house.

I am sure I don’t have much to worry about living alone since I’m in the middle of suburbia with very nosey neighbors (ahh that fact is finally a blessing!) but, I also have night vision video cameras around my entire property which is very heavily wooded and I am also currently learning ju jitsu. I have weapons (not firearms) which I am trained to use and usually carry cs tear gas with uv dye to help identify an attacker. I’m less scared at my home than other places like shopping malls, airports, etc. I go most places alone. It’s all about being aware of your surroundings. Obviously I also keep my doors and windows locked, bar in the sliding door, and I also don’t answer the door for strangers..sales people .. religious people etc. I also don’t advertise what may or may not be in my house and anything of value is kept in a safe. There have been quite a few home break-in/robberies in my subdivision (which is actually a pretty nice area – with the mayor and 2 alderman living on my street) I also have a very flexible job and like to switch up my daily routine making it almost impossible for somebody to predict my next move :P

<———— My security system. He may be cute, but he’s really really loud.

<——And this is my security system.

@chyna : But what if she loses her glasses? Can she still tell who the bad guys are? XP

I live in downtown Toronto and never worry about my safety when I’m home alone. My apartment door has a deadbolt and a chain-type lock (which I rarely use because if I’m alone, that usually means Mr. Fiance will be home sooner or later). The building has a secure entrance and 24-hour security guards who man the lobbies and patrol the grounds (my residence consists of 2 buildings across the street from one another), so if the guard isn’t in my lobby, I know he’s at least somewhere. I have the security guard’s cell number somewhere, so if I ever need help I just have to call.

But honestly, a thunderstorm makes me more nervous than the idea that I might be unsafe in my apartment.

Weapons? Training? There are some knives in my kitchen, and I can julienne with the best of ‘em… Does that count?

I lock the doors at night and if we are out. I rarely lock my car at home. I wouldn’t have a problem leaving the bedroom window open at night but don’t usually because it’s cold. When I lived in London I was a lot more careful about locking doors and windows. I am not particularly worried about violence, more about stealing. I do not have any weapons.

I’m married, but it doesn’t make a difference. I always lock everything and I have an alarm. Well, during the day I might have a window open. My first house I had an alarm sensor when certain windows were ajar, if it was moved from the open position, but I don’t have that now. It wasn’t so much that I had the alarm on every hur of the day, but if smeine opened a door or window the system would give out a little beep beep. I don’t feel paranoid all the time or anything, it is just automatic for me to lock everything. Many people don’t lock the door leading to the garage, that is not a good idea, the garage is the easiest thing to break into. My cars are not locked while in the garage, but my car doors are always locked when I am driving.

I did take a self defense class for work, never had taken one for safety in general, and it was very good, I recommend it. I don’t remember most of it, but there were little tricks to get out of holds. The thing is, if the guy has a gun it is a completely different situation. At work people had a very very slim chance of having a gun on them.

I am married.
My house is secure and my neighbors are cops,whose officer friends visit them often.
I have a protective German Shepherd Dog,and my own gun that I would not hesitate to use.
I also have no fear of physical contact and will hurt you.

I’m not single, but my husband just started working 3rd shift. We live on a farm off a popular state route, so the security of me and the children has come up in discussion. We have two large dogs who won’t let a stranger come anywhere near us, especially in the dark, but we’ve also discussed the possibility of keeping a gun in the bedroom. It’s dark out here, and no one will hear or see anything if anyone tries to break in.

If I lived in the burbs, I may feel differently, but out here, I’d feel safer with a gun in the house.

It seems like it depends upon where you live, as well as past experiences. @JLeslie and I live near a city where violent crimes are on the local news every day. Despite both of us living in the suburbs, our locations are not immune to it.

In England where owning a gun is against the law, except in special circumstances. Yes, they still have their share of crime, but what shows up in their news reports is rarely anything like what we get here in the US on a daily basis. The same can be said for several other countries.

Personal experiences can also make one desire to be as secure as possible. They do not want to risk the potential of going through such an experience again. Even hearing their stories can invoke fear in others. A local acquaintance was driving home one night, when at a stop sign, a man jumped into her car and attacked her, including stabbing her with a needle. Luckily she got away, but she has had to deal with the post-psychological trauma as well as regular HIV tests. When she shared her experience, many of us started locking our car doors.

@KatetheGreat If I may ask, what is the reason you feel the need to have so many guns within quick reach?

@lillycoyote As long as you’re coming to my front door and ringing the bell, unexpected visitors are fine! But if you’re climbing through my window, you’ve got some explaining to do!

@Pied_Pfeffer I live in an apartment in one of the more dangerous cities in South Carolina. I live by myself, I have no dogs with me, and my neighbors could give a fuck less about security. My guns are like a security blanket.

@KatetheGreat Thank you for sharing the personal information.

Back when I was living alone I had a home security system (and still do). The system comes with a panic button you can keep by your bedside just in case. I also had pepper spray and a large bat I kept near my beside. Most of the time I did not leave the house when it became late. There were also flood lights for the front and back, bright ones.

Oh, and add to that a very large security door. :)

If you leave your doors unlocked and your windows open you probably have a less than 2% chance if something bad happening (I made up that statisic) But, when the bad think happens it really really sucks. What’s the big deal to lock the door if it is closed? It’s like some people insist on showing they are not paranoid, or feel safer even, being able to say they leave their door unlocked all of the time. Forget the local news, let me tell you how many people I know who have been robbed or assaulted

1. My house was robbed in Deerfield Beach, FL, really nice area. My neighbor down the street here in TN was robbed twice in a month.

2. My husbands car was stolen in Boca Raton, FL, very affluent area.

3. Daughter of a coworker raped, when she stopped her car leaving a parking lot to turn onto the main road a man jumped in her care made her drive to a construction site and raped her.

4. When I was in my late teens a girl in my school who I did not know well, was raped and killed. Gaithersburg, MD

5. My aunt has been robbed twice (I think twice?) NY, NY many many years ago.

6. Growing up there was a rash of robberies in my neighborhood, the robbers would just walk right in sliding glass doors at the back of the house which were not secured.

7. A woman I worked with and a gentleman I worked with had their cars stolen, oh and my SIL, also Boca Raton, FL.

8. A friend of a girl I worked with lived on the second floor in a condo, a man came into her open sliding glass door and raped her. Delray Beach, FL.

9. People have their bags taken from them all of the time at the mall (Boca Raton, and other FL malls, and where I live now in TN).

10. Coworker assaulted at gunpoint in parking lot at the mall.

I have more, but I’ll stop. If you visited where I have lived, especially Boca Raton, FL it is beautiful, there are pretty people everywhere, expensive cars, it feels very very safe. Still crime happens.

@JLeslie

I agree, crime can happen anywhere, and affluent areas are prime targets for stealing the good stuff, like nicer cars and home items.

If I lived in the city again I certainly would be on delta lock down tactics.

But this is why I love my serene lifestyle up here in the hills.

I have only had one incident( a, shall we say, very persistent UPS guy last Xmas that tried his best to pick up on me) haha otherwise, zero crime in this area, all the neighbors have never had an issue in as long as they have lived here, 20+ years for many.

Also, in my particular zone almost everyone does keep firearms and random break-ins just don’t happen. My community is a ‘gentlemens ranch’ community, many high end ranch estates, but, again, between dogs, guns and often, dead end roads with only one way in and one way out, and the amount of land most peoples homes sit on, just not an issue.

I moved here for the beauty, space and peace, and to have all the farmy animals if I wanted, but, the zero crime factor has been one of the BEST ammenities. Not to sound too Pollyanna-ish, but, it’s true. An unexpected bonus!

Besides, I do have 2 country Sheriffs and a Game Warden on the mountain, who would be here within 3 minutes. The bigger issue is getting hurt and having to wait for emergency medical assistance. My nearest local FD is about 10 miles away, but, on these tiny little winding roads with lots of blind curves, it could take awhile for the paramedics to get back into some of these little canyons and hollows.

I will close/lock my front gate if I travel for more than a few days though. :-)

@Coloma I certainy agree that there are areas in the country that are simply safer. But, I know a woman who lives not far from me, same town as @Pied_Pfeffer, and once when we talked about something similar, I won’t bore you with the conversation, she said, “oh, but this is not Memphis, it’s safe here.” Well, no it’s not if she looked up a crime statistic. It is relatively safe, but there are over 3,000 crimes a year I think in that city, cannot remember for sure the number,

So if you ony close the gate when you are gone, anyone casing your house knows when to rob our house.

@JLeslie

No one ‘cases’ back here, haha
Trust me.

The only people that ever come down my road are the neighbors, the only ones that live below me down the dead end hill here. Once in a great while some city slickers get lost, you can always tell, they drive about 2mph and then stop at my driveway, looking down the road that leads to nowhere and then, rifle around looking at their directions, decide they are lost and leave. lol

Besides, I have attack geese remember? ;-)

@coloma I realize you are in a safe place, it was just an example of how I think of things for myself. It would have to be some really random 1 time in the last 100 years type of criminal to wind up in your parts. And, for sure geese attack. Lol.

@JLeslie

Watch, I’m jinxing myself as we speak of this.
Tonight the sociopathic UPS guy will be back! Knock on wood. LOL

I have the double trouble of a 150 pound Great Dane and a 10 pound Pomeranian. The Great Dane wouldn’t hurt a fly—unless the Pomeranian told him to.

Living near a cop isn’t really a form of safety. I lived across the street from a police station (literally) and it still took nearly 2 hours for them to respond to a burglary in progress call.