Robbed last night/Becoming a target

[Golfer68]

A purse snatcher broke through our back door last night and snatched my wife's purse before running away after me yelling and alarm . . .

Growing up I was middle class, we didn't worry about food on the table but we didn't have nice stuff either (old chevys, crap house that we loved) . . . now as a doctor still have crappy cars but nice house in nice neighborhood and got broken into.  Also everyone is trying to poach money (financial advisors, mortgage brokers, maintance guys) . . . feel as tho soft target on our back as easy money take.

What do you guys do to feel better about this?

[Hank]

Do you have a dog?

[Craigy]

His & hers AR15s.

[CordMcNally]

As far as burglaries go, a home security system, mean-sounding dogs, and guns has done the trick so far.

[ENT Doc]

Sorry this happened. Were you in the car at the time or did she leave it in the car? Were you in the nice neighborhood or do you just live in a nice neighborhood but were somewhere else when it happened? Usually it's about not making things tempting to the perp. Chances are the perp doesn't know you're a Doc - just saw an opportunity and took it. Doesn't sound like a dog or alarm or gun would stop a situation like this, nor would you be justified in using a gun. However, for general day to day protection of your family I'm a fan of concelied carry and/or an alarm system.

[AlexxT]

Lot's of that in my extremely nice and expensive neighborhood.  Alarm may not deter them. Per police, these are planned as smash and grab, just as you described it.  They target purses and laptops.  They are out within 90 seconds, most of the time.

I have outside cameras to give me a heads up.

My main protection is reinforced doors. No one has tried to break in yet, so I can't attest to how well they work, but here are the links:

see nightlock.com    Look at all of their products, both residential and school.

See also on Amazon : "Door club security", and "door armor".

I use a varying combination of all of these products on all of my outside doors, plus the door leading to my garage.

It would take them some time to break in and there will be some noise.  Between my cameras, alarm, and the reinforcement, I would hear them coming.  If I'm home and they do manage to get inside, they will be sorry.

[CordMcNally]

ENT Doc wrote:

Doesn’t sound like a dog or alarm or gun would stop a situation like this, nor would you be justified in using a gun.

Click to expand...

I think someone smashing through your back door would justify the use of a gun.

[G]

I'm sorry that happened.  Our upper middle class/lower upper class neighborhood has had similar problems of smash and grab.  Part of the issue is that we have too many darned windows, so it's easy for thieves to look in.  I've been meaning to invest in a little safe where we put keys/wallet/purse to make the snatch and run technique a little harder.  I guess if it was night (dark) you could talk about motion-activated flood lights.  I agree that a dog and a gun probably wouldn't have helped in this situation, but for the next time...?

It is doubtful that it is just your house.  Cops need to step up, neighborhood watch as well (i.e. nosy neighbors).  If you are in a fancy part of town, I hate to say it, but profiling has its place.  In our hood, folks alerted police about a grungy couple driving around in a beater car (they were going door to door trying to "sell" cleaning services--probably just casing vacant homes during summer vaca), police questioned and found a trunkful of meth and stolen stuff.

Thankfully no one in your family was hurt.

[Hatton]

Golfer68 wrote:

A purse snatcher broke through our back door last night and snatched my wife’s purse before running away after me yelling and alarm . . .

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Sounds like the guy broke a glass door around back and took the purse.  Get a fence.  Get a large dog that sounds and looks scary.  I have two dogs.  My pitfall mix looks and sounds mean.  She is territorial and will not stop barking and growling and foaming at the mouth.  I have a couple guns but I think she is a better deterrent.

[G]

CordMcNally wrote:

ENT Doc wrote:

Doesn’t sound like a dog or alarm or gun would stop a situation like this, nor would you be justified in using a gun.

Click to expand…

I think someone smashing through your back door would justify the use of a gun.

Click to expand...

Not saying that *I* disagree, but the local political climate may very well disagree with you.

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six....

[Dreamgiver]

Sorry this happened. It sucks but stuff can be easily replaced. I am also a big fan of concealed carry and have several guns with hollow points in them plus shot guns. It would not have helped in this case though unless you saw them break into your house or car (at least in the state we live in, those are fair game). As far as maintenance people and such, every time they come to the house the first thing I have learned to tell them is textually: "I am no trust fund baby, I work hard every day for a living just like you, I worked construction in the past and we compare bids, please give us an honest price." It usually works very well and once you connect with people that way, they are fair. Once in a while a bid never comes through and I know exactly what that means. I have also learned to negotiate the price with pretty much anyone who comes to work on the house.

[Dreamgiver]

CordMcNally wrote:

ENT Doc wrote:

Doesn’t sound like a dog or alarm or gun would stop a situation like this, nor would you be justified in using a gun.

Click to expand…

I think someone smashing through your back door would justify the use of a gun.

Click to expand...

It is very state dependent. In most blue states you better stay a victim or you will be sorry you defended your family. Sorry, don't mean to make this political, but that is how it usually is state by state.

[hightower]

Sorry to hear about this. I know first hand how this sort of thing can make you feel. Myself, my brother in law, and my wife were robbed at gun point back in 2013. It’s the worst feeling of violation and really took awhile to fully recover from emotionally. Unfortunately it’s the world we live in. Just be thankful everyone walked away okay and take measures to prevent it in the future. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

[ENT Doc]

Miread the OP as a car break in. Regardless, if they did a smash and grab and ran you wouldn't have time to get the gun to be in a position to stop anything or be in the position to justify self defense. They'd already be running away. Contrary to what some politicians believe, you can't just fire shotgun blasts into the air. Nor can you shoot at them while they're running away. It's not self defense at that point. Use of a deadly weapon needs to be utilized in very specific circumstances otherwise you could end up worse off than the criminal.

In this situation I think a motion detector with lights might be a deterrent. Unfortunately the courts have ruled that you can't place traps with alligator infested moats or anything like that so you'll probably have to go the tech deterrent route.

[portlandia]

Sorry to hear about the break-in. These experiences can be very traumatic.

Have you looked into door security devices like the door devil which make it MUCH harder to breach the door? The type of device you use is dependent on the door type, but for my money, the first thing you should look into, even before cameras, lights, guns, security systems etc- which all have their place, are devices that make it harder for the bad guy to actually breach your castle. Having these reinforcements be as passive as possible is helpful as it eliminates the human factor to security.