Sunday, April 3, 2011

Where to keep a spare key?

You see it all the time on television and in the movies. People hide a spare key to their apartment in a light fixture above the door or a potted plant in the hallway. The idea is if you lose yours or need a friend to get something at your apartment, there's the key.
What this does is leave you completely at the mercy of anyone who takes a minute to look in these areas. Burglars are the exact type of people that will take the minute to look. Doing this is no different than leaving your door unlocked.
If you want to keep a spare key somewhere, leave one at a friend's house. If you have a safety deposit box you can even put one in there, but never leave it outside your door.
If a burglar manages to pick or break the lock on your door and get in the apartment, an alarm system will often scare them away. They won't know the code to enter in the control panel and they won't know your password to give the monitoring company.
The easiest thing you can do is make it hard on criminals.

15 comments:

  1. Leaving a key with someone you trust is a good idea, although if you don't have any friends... :(

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  2. Yeah, I always critised having a spare key 'hidden' right by the front door :/

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  3. yea its never a good idea to have a spare key sitting around for anyone to pick up

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  4. I just do not participate in the spare key idea. Anyone who needs to get into my house has a key.

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  5. I hide mine in the backyard, behind my shed, under a rock. If a burglar has that kind of time to look for it then he probably needs my things more than I do.

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  6. maybei keep mine under my floor mat. he would never thing to look there

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  7. hmm we don't have one at my house..

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  8. I agree with what Jim said above in the comments, leaving a spare with a trusted friend is the way to go.

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  9. my house key was under one of many potted plants

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  10. the last time I lost my housekey I had to climb in thru the window lol

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  11. Yeah, totally leave it at a friend and be safe!

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  12. Soon we will be using fingerprints or eyes as 'keys', don't have to go through this stuff anymore

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  13. I've never thought about the trusted friend idea. Good tip!

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