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[Euld]

If you have a safe, bolt it to the ground? :O

[smigenboger]

With a sledge hammer, I could make a hole big enough to crawl through in 15 minutes or so. Sure, it's kinda noisy, but not horribly noisy, so you can pull it off on isolated houses (like OP's house). If it's one of them stereotypical American light frame houses, you can break through a wall in 5 minutes

I like these notes, keep them coming. So can you place something like a washcloth to muffle the noise a little more, or would that seriously lessen the strengh of the hammer?
(jk, but seriously if you suggest the ways people can get in, you have to protect yourself from everything you say and then some things you didn't)

I live in suburbia in the Dayton area and never had trouble with burglary, though in the city I roll my windows up and lock my door, just to be sure. I keep my mp3 player out of sight, and in the city I'll occasionally put my radiohead in the glove compartment.

Honestly, does removing your radiohead just tell every dishonest person that your car stereo is valuable enough to keep that one part out of sight?

[qwertyuiopas]

Clearly put warning signs about the deadly drawbridge traps, both squishing and retracting, make the magma moat evident, have them powered perpetually and triggering often. They they still try, they must be AI.

[Virex]

Honestly, does removing your radiohead just tell every dishonest person that your car stereo is valuable enough to keep that one part out of sight?

It used to work when only a part of the population had car radios. Now that everyone has them, there's little sense in trying to hide it. On the other hand, radioheads here in holland are friggin expensive (something to do with insurance, or just because the sellers are greedy bastards), so you're liable to get your radiohead stolen instead of your car radio if you don't watch out...

[Muz]

Sounds like you were hit by something more then common house burglars then. Locks are excelent for scaring off thiefs who take advantage of the situation, but by the looks of it, you were hit by a well-prepared gang. Against them, there's little you can do save for shooting them all they day before you go on vacation. Putting someone with a gun in your home might deter then, but if they're serious there's an equall chance of that guy getting shot and your home emptied anyway. They're not likely to waste a week of preperation because some punk with a gun is babysitting their painted target.

Nope, they were common house burglars. My father was at home at the time, claimed that they looked like illegal immigrants. The thing about them is that most of them work on the golf course right behind my house or the construction places not far from the place. They know the whole layout well and the (unprofessional) security guards well. Not any more of a gang than a group of people who are looking for an oppurtunity to rob. Which may be a gang depending on your definition.

Their only weapon was a crowbar. No guns, not sure if they had some knives hidden, but it's likely.

Had the alarm been turned on or the windows been properly grilled up, or some thorns put up on the fence behind the house, they'd have been stopped.

There's similar stories from other friends who've been robbed. They seem to work in a similar way, 2 hours before sunrise, in a group, prefering to take people in the other rooms hostage before moving to the master bedroom. Doesn't have to be a gang - robbers hang out with other robbers all the time and share secrets, especially if they've gone to jail before.

Against a gang, a cop told me that the best thing you can do is bolt the door to your room and bolt it up. They'll take like half a minute to break it down with something resembling a battering ram and 1.5 with a crowbar. Enough to get a lot of shots in, but you better be damn sure that it's not your kid or friend knocking, scared at night (which was why we installed a camera in front of the master bedroom).

If possible get a heavier door. Doesn't have to be steel, just strong enough wood that it doesn't shatter with a strong kick. It doesn't matter if you have a fricking machine gun in your bedroom if they break down the door while you're sleeping.

[Melagius]

1. Build a large resovoir of water/magma in your backyard.
2. Build a room that could withstand the water pressure/magma temperature.
3. Build floodgates linked to pressure plates so that if anybody walks through the room they drown in magma.

Though being a dwarf fortress player you should be able to think of something better than that.

DISCLAIMER: In America, traps like this are illegal. Even if you make a trap with the intent to wound.

[piecewise]

You really want to theft proof your home? Get these on every window http://www.stormshutters.com/rolling-shutters/security_rs.html, A solid metal security door for every entrance making sure to replace the door frame with metal as well (so crowbars won't work) and use a combination deadbolt and fingerprint lock. Or you can just convert a basement into an underground bunker with a single solid metal door hatch as it's entrance. Or you could rig a loud speaker to the top of your house so that, should your door be broken into, it broadcasts, at 160 Decibels, "HOLY SHIT MY HOUSE IS BEING BURGLED! GOOD THING I HAVE ALL THESE CAMERAS EVERYWHERE! FUCK YOU THIEVES!"

That or simply make it look like your house doesn't have anything worth stealing. Its best to make it look both poor and vagulely dangerous. Board up the windows, stick a Biohazard sign on the front door and occationally fire blanks in the backyard. 

[Caesar]

If you've been visited by burglars recently: Do NOT replace the stolen goods until they've visited again, or a lot of time went by.

From my experience, burglars will pick the same target a month or two later, to 'pick up' all of the new goods.
If they do not find anything, they'll leave.

[piecewise]

If you've been visited by burglars recently: Do NOT replace the stolen goods until they've visited again, or a lot of time went by.

From my experience, burglars will pick the same target a month or two later, to 'pick up' all of the new goods.
If they do not find anything, they'll leave.

fill your house with bees

[JoshuaFH]

Consider investing in Non-lethal armaments, like long range tazers, or beanbag shotguns. Strangers might be invading your home, but it'd be a pity to kill someone because of a few hundred dollars of stuff.

Also, for the people describing situations like "Beating down a wall with a sledgehammer", I just want to say that it sounds possible, but painfully unlikely to happen. I've personally never heard of those things occurring, and that things like strong doors, deadbolt locks, and loud alarms will be enough to deter 99% of all burglars without anyone getting seriously hurt. The remaining 1% will be the psychotics that are dead determined to get into your home, regardless of the obstacles or consequences involved, and there's nothing your can do about that minority.

Also, I don't want to hear any of this "Oh, locks/alarms are worthless because I forgot about something and so it wasn't useful", because it wasn't the locks/alarms that failed you, it was you that failed you. So no complaining.

[sonerohi]

Our security system does not keep them out. It locks them in. We've seriously got a fence around the property with the metal spikish things up top, and a grate across the driveway. When shit goes down and the system goes active, the spikes are electrified and a spike strip rises through the grate.

[JoshuaFH]

Our security system does not keep them out. It locks them in. We've seriously got a fence around the property with the metal spikish things up top, and a grate across the driveway. When shit goes down and the system goes active, the spikes are electrified and a spike strip rises through the grate.

Something tells me this is a design flaw.

[sonerohi]

No, it is an awesome design, because there is no notice of it, and the grate is right after a turn, obscured up until you are right there. So, if they break the gate open and drive a car through, they hit the spike strip and are stuck as we chase them with shotguns. If they climbed in, the wall tasers them for us and we call the police while they writhe on the ground.

[Virex]

Sounds like you were hit by something more then common house burglars then. Locks are excelent for scaring off thiefs who take advantage of the situation, but by the looks of it, you were hit by a well-prepared gang. Against them, there's little you can do save for shooting them all they day before you go on vacation. Putting someone with a gun in your home might deter then, but if they're serious there's an equall chance of that guy getting shot and your home emptied anyway. They're not likely to waste a week of preperation because some punk with a gun is babysitting their painted target.

Nope, they were common house burglars. My father was at home at the time, claimed that they looked like illegal immigrants. The thing about them is that most of them work on the golf course right behind my house or the construction places not far from the place. They know the whole layout well and the (unprofessional) security guards well. Not any more of a gang than a group of people who are looking for an oppurtunity to rob. Which may be a gang depending on your definition.

They were at least well-prepared. Locks work pretty well against thiefs of opportunity, who scour the neighbourhood looking for a quick way to get a laptop (which surprisingly make up the largest population of thiefs, though they're not the most effective part of said population)

[eerr]

arrange a light to beam brightly through the hallway so people can't see in very well.