OT Bedroom safe

Think differently, rather than "robust" go for stealth.

A stealth safe. Just don't forget where you put it. ;-)

Seriously, it takes a lot of work to make it difficult to secure a safe, without building a building over it. Look at the ATMs being knocked out of buildings by ramming them with a car, or some earlier models that they could hook a cable from a wrecker to, and rip it out of the building.

A floor safe, set in a lot of concrete and under a heavy piece of furniture is the most secure, and the hardest to use. The harder a safe is to use, the less likely it is to be used. It happens all the time. 'It takes too long to open the safe', 'Its in a hard to reach place'. that leads to things being left out, 'till the next time I need to open the safe'.

What good is a gun, in a safe?

A safe is a good thing, to focus the efforts of a thief. You know your house better than anyone else, so you can figure out how to secure your real valuables.

--Winston

Stealth is a good thing, but is not a substitute for a strong safe. Many burglars know exactly where the valuables are, especially when it comes to jewelry. Think about, say, hiring a painter to paint the house and telling his criminal friends where the valuables are.

Hiding cash is a little easier than, say, hiding jewelry.

i

Short of placing it in a basement and doing a major heavy duty job of securing it to floor and foundation walls there isn't much you can do to keep thieves from ripping out and carting away anything small enough for you to have installed in the first place.

Better to go with stealth, maybe like this:

But, DON'T mount it in the bedroom. That's the room thieves know most people keep or hide valuables in. Pick a laundry area or even the kitchen.

Jeff

Jeff, I do not keep my valuables (read cash and remainder of my silver) in the bedroom, personally. I keep them where they are hard to find.

But bedroom is where women try jewelry, that is why I want a safe there.

With a good enough safe, if I attach it to the floor and the wall with lag screws, it will probably be hard enough to remove.

i

If it's a cool vintage gun that you shoot once a year -- lots.

If it's your protection against home invasion* -- not much.

• I've never suffered a home invasion. No one in my family has suffered a home invasion. The only person I know who suffered a home invasion ran with a seriously weird crowd. I would contend that if you are worried about home invasions then you are (a) too paranoid, (b) hanging with the wrong people, or (c) living in the wrong part of the world. (a) can be taken care of with medication, (b) can be taken care of by changing your friends, and (c) can be taken care of by changing the part of the world that you live in, or living in a different part of the world.

But what do I know.

Does usenet count?

I have a friend who lives in my town. A house on his street was broken into by Gypsies, and they instantly took jewelry and cash (and nothing else). Looks like they knew where that stuff was, as in, someone told them or they did a "home improvement estimate" some time prior to the burglary. Maybe the wife told her fortune teller where her jewelry was, under one pretense or another.

I would not say that ahome invasion of impossible, but I have to balance the dangers and inconveniences of having guns easily available, in a house with children, and a need for guns in the unlikely event of a home invasion.

i

Consider two safes. One, a cheap one, in rather plain site, with crap jewelry, so any home invasion will be able to not open the safe, but be able to remove it without much trouble. The real safe is as others have described, hidden in an undisclosed location and very securely fastened to your house foundation.

My brother recently built a house with a hidden access to a rather large space behind a bath tub. Trying to retrofit a safe might be difficult, but if you ever think of remodeling your home, use that opportunity to add your safe.

On the other hand, when we lived in the Seattle area and had a safe added to our business office, the owner of the safe company told of a recent sale and delivery where the home owner had a hole cut in the roof and the main floor so a crane could move the safe to the basement. This might be an option for you!

Paul

I like this idea.

i

Gee. All kinds of people use the same few places to hide things, thinking, No one would look there! A friend started a security business years ago. People would tell him no one could find their valuables. He could find most spots in under a minute. The only way to keep it safe, is to keep it somewhere off the property in secure storage, or just don't own it.

I'm not worried. I don't keep anything worth stealing, and I give away a lot of things. I probably have a couple years left, so I really don't care. All they would get is some food and my truck.

You know enough to realize that is a threat, but not to live in fear of it.

Did you notice that the number of both home invasions and car jacking dropped when some of the culprits were shot, in the act?

Only if you think usenet is real life...

It's hard to pull out a floor safe. We installed one in Mom's house after we had to jackhammer a hole in the concrete slab in the closet to tunnel to the plumbing for major repairs. The house will be up for sale soon with safe included.

Use a heavy steel key-lock box for a pistol or shotgun for easy access, bolt it to the wall or floor from inside. Just make sure the key is on you and one in the safe, and the kids won't find them laying around.

I used to have a floor safe. Rarely used it as was too hard to get to and open. The small gun safe, holds maybe 6 long guns with an electric lock is easy to use. When we go away the wife's jewelry goes in the safe. Electric lock, so easy to open in my old age. Bolts to the floor and wall. Sure a robber can take it, but they do not want to spend a lot of time in a house. Just make it very inconvenient and they will rob someone else. An alarm system is also good. And since about 30 years ago, I designed some alarm components, I do have some knowledge of them. Pressure mats are easy to install, and no running of wires for window and door switches.

There is a child in Ig's home, so securing handguns is mandatory.

Ig, you need to think clearly about your objectives. The requirements for securing a handgun are not the same as those for securing valuables against burglars. The handgun repository must be capable of being opened very quickly in total darkness by one who has just been awakened -- but it need not provide a long delay time against a determined thief. When you're away from the house for any extended time, put the gun in the real safe that is bolted to the concrete floor and can withstand attack of longer than most burgs are willing to risk.

I think that if I have a safe that has a shelf on a chest level, but is properly secured both to the floor, as well as to the wall, I could keep a gun in it and it would be relatively convenient to get to.

I would think that for, perhaps, $500 I could buy something acceptable.

And yes, I have kids, as well as their clueless friends, and I want to take no chances with them.

i

I don't think anyone will be stashing a .44 magnum in that thing.