This tip is of extreme importance and is so easily fixed it’s a shame to see anyone lose family heirlooms, keepsakes or anything of value because of neglect of this simple step. That is namely, secondary window locks.
You can find secondary window locks at any home store for anywhere from 99 cents to 5 dollars. Even if you have a big house you can usually put window locks on all of your windows for less than 25 dollars. Here’s a cold hard fact. Burglars know what type of window is installed in your home. They know that when your housing tract was built, the builder put the same type of windows in all of the houses.
If they can find a flaw with one window they can now seek out which housing tracts have that style of windows and then they know where lots of homes are that they can get into very easily. Once the flaw is found with a window, they can usually get into that window in about 5 seconds.
One of the most secure tract grade aluminum windows out there is a particular window that I have had a lot of experience with. The manufacturer’s pride themselves on passing the strict California forced entry codes, where the window is scrutinized by several “previous” burglars or security experts. If these people cannot get into the window within 5 minutes without breaking the glass, the window passes the test.
This particular window actually has a secondary lock built in and in my experience was the most secure window I had seen at that level. It wasn’t until a certain installer of mine showed me how he could break into the window in less than 10 seconds. Now of course he is an expert with years of experience working with this window, but you can rest assured that if he knows how to do, there are several others who know, including burglars.
Putting secondary window locks on your windows is not only smart but it’s easy as well. Why not remove this risk by placing window locks on your windows? I recommend the type of lock that requires you to drill a small hole in the window and has a rod that pushes through that hole. This keeps the sliding window from sliding side to side and from sliding up and down which is important because that’s how most windows are broken into, by lifting them up in the track and then sliding them open.
Bonus tip – Walk over to your horizontal sliding window, open it just enough to get your hand around the side. Then see if you can lift the sliding part of the window up. If you can, you need to make adjustments so that this can’t happen.
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