Safes & Security for the Home
Safe & Vault Masters of San Diego offers the home owner some very effective products for home security, and home safety. Before getting into the types of safe…
Some ideas to consider
Having a well made safe in the house offers you a storage area for items you simply can not do without. Sometimes these items are fairly obvious, but there are times when what we need is more subtle.
In 2003, San Diego and surrounding areas were surprised by the tremendously fast moving Cedar Fire. Within less than 20 hours of the blaze’s meager beginning out on the remote flats, the fire ripped across the county with amazing speed. You can see an animation of this (here). Doing volunteer work in Julian and other areas, we were surprised to note how many people were not prepared for such an event with even the most basic of needs.
Later we learned that while most people in the hard struck areas of Julian, Ramona and Alpine had plenty of money in the bank, they like most people, simply didn’t carry cash. ATM cards these days are very convenient, and much safer to carry than even checks. When the fire took away electricity, and cut off the roads, these people were also cut off from any source of cash, and could not use ATM or Credit Cards to buy clothing, food or gas. $200.00 in a small fire safe would have made all of the difference to many of the Cedar Fire victims. An investment of less than $400.00 total (including the cash).
While this is an extreme example, which we certainly hope will not happen again, the lesson learned is a sound one. Most burglaries, the police tell us, are committed by minors and amateur thieves. They are looking for small items, which they can sell quickly, or use themselves. Just about any quality lock will thwart them.
Yes, hand guns are certainly a prize, however any type of prescription drugs, passports, documents, extra key sets, small collectibles, company ID cards, and CD’s are high on the hit list as well. These individuals don’t really care about the difference between a prescription bottle of pills that have street value, or one that you simply need on a daily basis while they are in your house. They also aren’t going to take the time to insure that the CD disks they are grabbing don’t include your computer backups or project files.
Many college students are discovering that while their iPod and laptop are safe with them, the stacks of school books in their apartments and dorm rooms are prime targets for theft on and off campus. After all, you can sell them instantly at the college book store, and no one notices an eighteen year old walking down the street with a stack of books in his back pack, and three in his hand.
So while we may not have a jewelry collection which attracts master thieves, or a major gun collection, we may want too consider our home inventory not only at the replacement value, but also at the consumption of our lives not having the item might induce.
If you don’t know what you are looking for specifically, a good place to start is with on our Types of Safes page, and then our page on Customizing.