"Smash and Grab" No More: Make the Neighborhood Safe

Don't let your front door and flat-panel TV be the path to a junkie's next "fix": I can deftly install steel reinforcement hardware unobtrusively behind matching strike plates, or, if a sidelight makes the frame next to the locks vulnerable to breakage, lag in a heavy steel channel the length of the door to make it akin to a Mosler Safe.

Any deadbolt within 36" of glass should be double-cylinder - keyed on both sides, and lock options to enhance further physical security can include mortise locks with double cylinders, and single cylinder deadbolts with a key on the inside without any outside trim - adding additional "hold" points to prevent "kick-in" entry.

Alarm systems, glass-break detectors, pistols or shotguns, and dogs all serve to increase the odds that your property and person won't be harmed.

Above all the strike plates for latch and bolt should be placed to the correct tightness: keeping out the weather, and more importantly, removing the "shake" that lends itself to the tooth of a wrecking bar or the foot of a burglar. If your door is "solid as a rock," burglars, lazy by nature and trade will know by testing that a fight is in store and go elsewhere.