Most residential burglars aren’t highly-skilled heisters, and protecting property from them is simpler than homeowners may think, locksmith Arianne “Tex” Thompson explained during a Jan. 31 talk hosted by the Highland Park Library.
“Professionally speaking, I don’t so much worry about forced entry, and I don’t so much worry about what if they pick the lock, what if they bump it,” she said. “If you’ve seen security camera footage, they are not 007. They are not the A Team. They are not Ocean’s 11.”
Most burglars find their way into homes through doors that have been left unlocked, or by using keys that have fallen into the wrong hands, she explained.
Thompson, a former locksmith at Bee’s Keys who founded and owns DFW Antique Locksmith, is a certified forensic locksmith, an expert who can examine a lock or security device and testify in court on how it may have been compromised. There are about 40 forensic locksmiths worldwide. As far as Thompson knows, she is the only one who uses the ladies’ room.
Over the course of her career, Thompson has never seen a broken glass burglary. She’s also not seen many instances of forced entry, and the most memorable of those didn’t occur because a burglar outsmarted a dead bolt.
Instead, the thief simply shouldered his way through a door that was vulnerable because its strike plate was secured with half-inch screws. This type of situation is easily avoided by using a screwdriver or power drill to check the security of a strike plate and replacing short screws with longer versions, Thompson said.
She suggested that homeowners think carefully about where they put spare keys and who has copies. Did they only give their car key to the valet, or did they include their house key as well? Did their child lose a key (again)? Are all their keys sitting in a dump zone near the door?
To reduce the number of keys that could fall into the wrong hands, homeowners can consider smart locks, high-security keys that cannot be copied without authorization, or combination-secured key boxes to store spares.
An option for those with multiple doors would be to key one door differently and to give that key to temporary visitors (or careless children) so that misplacing a key doesn’t mean rekeying an entire home.
Thompson emphasized the benefits of layers of security, and especially neighbors who look out for each other. “Communal security is better security,” she said.
Once she’d tackled home safety, Thompson spoke about how to deal with times when homeowners are locked out of, or cannot lock, a door and a trusted locksmith isn’t available.
She said that she has had good experiences with Pop-A-Lock in emergencies. Her self-help tips included using a credit card to open bathroom and bedroom doors without deadbolts. “This is going to save your bacon when your kid locks your bedroom or the bathroom door,” she advised, explaining that residents should slide the card between the lock and door as opposed to swiping it up and down.
Neighbors left the presentation ready to put Thompson’s tips to work.
“She attended to most practical issues that we run into, and she brought up some other things for us to think about,” audience member Rudy Moras said after the presentation, adding later “I will go back and review the locks that we have in the house, and actually rectify any issues that I think that she brought up.”
Editor’s Note: A prior version of this article stated that the event was held at the Highland Park Library. It was hosted by the Highland Park Library in the Town Council Chamber.
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