Most residential break-ins in this county are not sophisticated. They are opportunistic: an unlocked back door, a snap-vulnerable cylinder, a spare key under a plant pot that has been under that plant pot since 2019. Here are the five checks worth doing this evening, none of which cost anything.
1. Check what your cylinder is rated
Look at the edge of the door for a kitemark. If there is nothing stamped on it, assume it is builder-grade and snappable in under a minute. An anti-snap replacement is around sixty dollars fitted and closes the single most common attack route on a uPVC door.
2. Test the strike plate with your hand
Push the closed door hard at the lock. If it moves more than a couple of millimetres, the strike plate screws are into the frame lining rather than the stud behind it. Three-inch screws fix that in about four minutes.
3. Move the spare key
Everywhere you would think to hide one is somewhere a stranger has already looked. A key safe rated to at least LPS 1175 costs less than a single lockout call-out and cannot be prised off a wall with a screwdriver.
