Standard advice when bolstering the security of any front door is to install a deadbolt lock. This type of lock is regarded as the ‘gold standard’ when it comes to door safety. However, in the age of YouTube, criminals are sharing their knowledge like never before and know how to bypass even securely locked doors. Here are the three most common ways that criminals get past your deadbolt lock. We’ll show you how to stop them.
- Lock Bumping
Lock bumping originated as a technique used by locksmiths to help people get into their locked homes. Using a ‘bump’ key, a trained locksmith can open even secure deadbolt locks. What has happened over the past few years is that criminals have posted videos online showing others how to make a bump key. This has effectively compromised most types of deadbolt locks out there.
How To Protect Your Home
As the name suggests, key bumping works by physically bumping or tapping the bump key as you turn it in the lock. This works on deadbolts that operate on a pin-tumbler system. Inside the lock, spring-loaded pins must be raised to just the right height for the lock to open. The obvious solution is to install a bump-proof deadbolt lock. Truly bump-proof locks rely on mushroom pins and cannot be bumped open.
- Drilling
Police and locksmiths have seen a rise in the number of criminal using drills to open locks. Cordless drills have evolved over the past decade to become extremely powerful and very quiet. Criminals take around two minutes to drill right through the deadbolt, drop the tumblers and turn the lock with a dime or screwdriver.
How To Protect Your Home
It’s always about simplicity when it comes to home safety. A company in Tennessee came out with the Lock Jaw™ – a little latch fitted to the inside of the door. It simply slides down and over the internal latch of the deadbolt. Even if the lock is drilled through, criminals still cannot turn and open the dead bolt when the latch is down. This product is applied with double-sided tape and works with any deadbolt that has a latch or knob on the inside.
- Key Theft
As locks become more sophisticated, criminals resort to stealing keys in order to gain entry to people’s homes. Very few homeowners have locks that provide defence against this, as locks are designed to be opened with keys. Criminals use nothing more than a bent wire coat hanger to ‘fish’ keys out of homes. They may go in through the letterbox, or break glass on the door. This is a common tactic as many people leave their keys near their front door, in a bowl or on a small table.
How To Protect Your Home
If your door has a letter box, fitting an internal cage will prevent this practice. Interesting, the ultimate lock has an internal button you can depress render anyone’s key useless in seconds, even if they have the right key. This is a little-known ‘lock-out’ feature that criminals won’t be expecting or be prepared for.
Conclusion
These are the three most common ways that criminals defeat deadbolt locks. Knowing about them should help you make the right decisions to increase the security of your home.
