[hutzlibu]

"Today, your house keys are basically useless for security"

They are not useless. Only some people have the skills and tools to open them - so they are useful at keeping most people out, even though they don't provide perfect protection.

Most thieves are not professionals, but for example junkies who look for something easy. A simple automatic light, is already doing wonders to keep them away.

[postmortembees]

Raking house locks is a) not difficult and b) not expensive. You don't need to be a professional to do that.

But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence. When my neighbors have been burgled, this is the preferred method of entry I've seen.

[hutzlibu]

"But also, bricks through windows are equally not difficult and not expensive, though they do leave a bit more evidence"

But that would be loud. You don't want attention when breaking in. (Unless you are a fucked up junkie not caring about anything anymore)

But yes, my parents for example are paranoid about always locking the front door 2 times(and get angry if I don't do it when I visit), but have a glass door in the back. There are also glass cutters.

"Raking house locks is a) not difficult and b) not expensive. You don't need to be a professional to do that"

But you do have to make some investment. They are illegal to purchase (in most places), I would not know, where to start looking. And then you have to learn to use them. And I know someone who did play with those a bit - yet he still could not enter my door at all. So it is a barrier.

[OkayPhysicist]

> They are illegal to purchase (in most places)

Lockpicks are legal almost everywhere in the US.[0] Even in places where they aren't legal, they're not exactly difficult to obtain, given that a perfectly adequate rake can be made from any key that fits the target lock, and there are only ~3 keyways in common residential use.

[0] https://www.toool.us/lockpicking-laws.php

[autoexec]

> They are illegal to purchase (in most places), I would not know, where to start looking.

amazon. Not much of an investment needed https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel-20-School-Toolbox/dp/...

[hutzlibu]

Not avaiable. (at least for me from germany)

[velosol]

If you're interested they're also available on Amazon.de https://www.amazon.de/LockCowboy-Transparent-Practice-Beginn...

[hutzlibu]

I wasn't planning to, but why not pick up a new hobby ;)

(It is indeed cheap)

[brewdad]

> But that would be loud. You don't want attention when breaking in. (Unless you are a fucked up junkie not caring about anything anymore)

Pre-Covid, it didn't matter if you were loud. You and your neighbors were all off at work all day. So long as a thief felt confident there was no alarm to trigger, they could make all the racket they wanted and no one would hear.

Today, it's a little more risky but of the half dozen houses on my street I'd probably only hear one getting broken into and that's only if I were downstairs. Our homes aren't on especially large lots either (7-10k sq ft).

[hutzlibu]

But a thief does not know, if no one is there in the neighborhood, unless he is indeed professional and scouts the area in advance. Also in my area, there are plenty of old people always watching and listening ..

[jrockway]

The best locks offer is that you have to plan a break-in in advance; i.e., you have to have your lockpicking tools with you. That said, you can pick master locks with a paperclip; I've done it. So it's not much of a barrier.

That said, just because people have low-security locks on their house doesn't mean that better options aren't available. I have Medeco locks. They are harder to pick than what you get at the hardware store. So far, no break-ins from lockpickers! Also, I'll sell you a rock that keeps tigers away.

[maratc]

Number three is binding, we've got a nice click out of three!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fh6IHCr7uo

[jrockway]

It has a couple of spools. Step above the no-security-pins hardware store locks.

[ddingus]

Wait until an awful rainy night, then rock through window changes! Dog hears it and begins to bark per usual practice.

Dog owner gets up, yells at dog to shut up... because rain!

[naavis]

At least here in the Nordics no one uses easily pickable locks for house or apartment doors. Those kinds of locks are mostly found in cheap padlocks and maybe bike locks. Doors usually have Abloy locks or similar.

[rkagerer]

It's funny, I have the opposite problem. I have a particular door lock for which three different locksmiths have all failed to cut usable keys. The originals work fine, but the copies don't. The last set barely works, if you wiggle it around a lot and ram to get it in, but then it gets stuck in there and is nearly impossible to remove.

They've tried various blanks, and I've never gotten a satisfactory explanation from any of them. It's possible all my local locksmiths are inexpert.

[StillBored]

Its just a schlage or kwickset?

The pins in new locks have pretty tight tolerances for the first couple years until they wear a bit. Its likely they are just using older equipment which isn't sufficiently precise to cut them. Get a key that is exactly right, and works with a bit of wiggling, use it as your primary key for a couple months and it will work just as well as the originals. The slight variations in the key ways/etc will knock the edges off the pins with enough use. Assuming the key is cut correctly from the right blank, you might just need a bit of lube/oil on the key. If you can see variations by eye in the ramps/etc its likely the key is just wrong.

[hutzlibu]

Yeah, I have the same problem with some old locks. Impossible to get a copy for a key, because it does not meet some modern standard.

[sleepybrett]

want to post a picture anonymously? it may be that the biting is difficult. It may also be that one or more of the locks pins is sightly out of spec.

[knodi123]

> Only some people have the skills and tools to open them - so they are useful at keeping most people out,

No, not really. A large part of the security of locks comes from most people not knowing that they have the tools and skills to open them. It's like if everyone taped their door shut, and we depended on most people not knowing that tape is easily removed.

My kid accidentally locked us out of the house the other day by twisting the knob lock on our garage door. Turns out we never got a key for that lock when we bought the house - oops! And we didn't have keys for the back door, for complicated reasons. No worries, I took my wife's key ring and used the key to her parents' house to open our back door. In my experience, most keys work in most locks, if you just apply a light turning force and then rake the key in and out a bunch of times, ending with the key sticking all the way out except for a millimeter or two.

[hutzlibu]

Erm, maybe the locks in germany(europe) are different - but what you describe I only know from very old or cheap locks, no one would use for a front door (insurance would not accept that).

[akira2501]

> (insurance would not accept that).

Which is always hilarious to me considering insurance has no problem with glass windows or fenced in backyards.

[knodi123]

haha, well in America, insurance has no idea what kind of locks you have, and the vast majority of home locks are "whatever was cheap at home depot".

My front door is a pricey digital lock with a key for backup, and I don't think I could pick it with this method. That's why my first instinct was to try on our cheapest door.

[hutzlibu]

Well, here they also don't know, but if a break in happens, they might check the lock and refuse to pay if it does not meet a minimum standard.

[SoftTalker]

I haven't had a key for my house in probably 10 years. I used the garage door opener PIN pad to get in. I recently replaced the front door lock with a new one that also has a PIN keypad, but I still mostly enter and leave through the garage out of habit.

[dharmab]

A friend of mine was bored and bought a Lishi tool online recently. Within 10 minutes and with no previous lock picking experience he was able to silently pick his house's deadbolt.

[zerkten]

This can be true while it still keeping most criminals out. It's going to depend on the location and context. I'd say an analogy for this is engineer thinking versus economist thinking. My observation is that criminals prefer the latter. Rather than doubling down on engineering, they try to move to a more lucrative venture. Getting better at burgling houses doesn't change the upside as much as other crime.

In my suburban area, the biggest problem is unlocked doors on houses and cars. Despite this problem existing for many years, doors are still regularly left open. The criminals don't attempt to exploit the same neighborhood repeatedly. They pass through in waves and then go elsewhere before returning when everyone has let their guard down. When they attempt forced entry, or anything more than casual theft, they get a lot of attention and caught.

They could improve their takings by developing some lock picking skill, but it's also higher risk since they have to spend some more time on each target which increases the risk that an observer will actually notice them. I could easily imagine a dog walker ignoring someone entering a home through an unlocked door, or making it look like they are checking a door is locked when entry fails.

[Ekaros]

Being in country that uses proper locks... Yep, people aren't picking them in field.

Good locks are expensive, but they also last a long time. And nearly unpickable is good enough. There is wall of window next anyway that then becomes much easier.