Home Security
vs
Careless Roommates

Careless roommates (and dormitory dummies) greatly endanger your home security. No group is any safer than its most careless member – and imposing sensible home security habits on careless people is well nigh impossible. Especially frustrating are the defiant, know-it-all teenagers and post-teenagers enthralled with newfound freedoms and striving desperately to prove their savoir-faire. After all, as a poet once said, “Each generation comes along living as fast and furiously as though it’s never been done before.”

Lassiter's victims were random targets, many of them college students who were vulnerable because their apartments were left unlocked. He and three other men entered an unlocked home to commit a robbery. During the robbery, the home's eight occupants who had gathered for a birthday party were restrained while three women were raped.
Excerpted from The New Brunswick Home News Tribune (NJ) – 08 July 2004

The Collegetown Creeper has intruded on women's bedrooms 18 times. A Cornell University student woke to the sound of someone inside her apartment. The student reported that her bedroom door was locked, and that the intruder did not gain access to her room, but did spend several minutes walking around inside her residence. ... A police expert, Greg McCrary, said that this type of break-in is common with sexual predators who are pre-targeting their victims. "They do it to make sure who lives there, not to steal - but to select a victim," McCrary said. "'Who's living here? Is it men's stuff or women's stuff?' These guys are typically very inadequate individuals, they want to avoid encountering a male. No men, no rottweilers." ... McCrary also said that escalation of behavior to the point of cutting off clothing and rubbing lubricant onto a sleeping woman's vaginal area, as a victim reported on Sunday, indicates the classic "transitioning" of violent sexual criminals.
Excerpted from The Ithaca Journal (NY) – 18 September 2004

A student’s voice trembled with fear and anguish as she frantically described the horrors which befell her housemate around 4 a.m. “Someone’s got in the house,” she told a 911 operator. “My housemate just got raped. He’s got a gun. He told her he’d kill her.” The victim had been sleeping when the intruder entered through an unlocked door.
Excerpted from The Oxford Press (OH) – 09 January 2006

Increase your home security (at least for your bedroom, anyway) with:
• Doorstops (a wedge under the door) won't stop a Push-In or a kick-in. But a doorstop alarm from www.magellans.com at least slows unwanted entry as well as alerts you to an intruder.
• Door-brace: leans diagonally from the floor to the door - see www.smarthome.com.
• Doorknob Alarm at www.guarddog.net.
• Motion detector alarm with a siren and strobe-light for in-or-outdoors. See www.smarthome.com.
• Chain-locks (a.k.a. Chain Door Interviewers) allow partial door opening, but are far too flimsy to stop an aggressive Push-In. Instead, use a peephole and an intercom to communicate without risk. See www.smarthome.com.
• Alarm Systems (wireless, portable) at www.smarthome.com, and www.smarthome.com.
• See Pepper Spray & Devices.
• See Safe Room for home security insights.
• See Apartment & Dormitory Security for more home security products.

Minimal Safety Rules for Home Security in College
• Keep your doors, windows, and exterior doors locked at all times.
• If you lose a room key, change the lock as soon as possible. Any key lent out can be copied.
• When alone, avoid isolated stairways, basements, or laundry rooms.
• Make sure you know who is trying to enter your building before you let them in.
• Report suspicious people or activity immediately to the campus police.

To back up a bit, before choosing which school to attend, consult Security On Campus at www.securityoncampus.org.

Then try to choose sensible roommates, remembering that schools do not screen students for criminal records – or for common sense.

See Alarm Systems

Go to
• Home Security - Overview
• Break-In: Most homes are easy to invade. Make yours burglarproof.
• Walk-In: Half of all home invasions are through unlocked doors and windows! It's easy to always keep them locked at all times with the guidance in the Security Products Buying Guide: Home - Intro (below).
• Push-In: Never blindly open the door when someone knocks. If you are pushed-in, do not stay inside with him (even if other family members are home) – flee to the outside for help. See Hostage Taking. Better to use an intercom from www.smarthome.com.
• Mug-In: If you’re ambushed outside your home and ordered to go inside, do not go! As with a push-in, you’re better off outside. See Kidnapping.
• Scam-In: Do not open the door, not even an inch, to any stranger - no matter what they say - scam-artists are master manipulators (see Push-In above).
• Cracks in Security: subtle variations of Break-In, Walk-In, Push-In, Mug-In, and Scam-In home intrusions.
• College - Apartment & Dormitory Security: staying safe despite careless roommates. (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE)
• Good Neighbors: the final layer of home protection.
• Security Product Buying Guide: Home - Intro
• Door Reinforcement
• Window Reinforcement
• Garage & Yard Reinforcement
• Simple Home Electronics
• Alarm Systems
• Flaws in Electronic Security
• Apartment & Dormitory Security
• Safe Room
• Recap: for a quick summary of this entire section.

Safeguard your home security even if you live in Sleepy Valley - predators like to prowl where the prey least expect them.

Prevent the vast majority of home intrusions - whether by burglar or invader by making sure all your roommates use these home security strategies. Of course, predators will always find prey – but the most cautious targets will be spared.

Return to
Home Security - Overview
Crime-Safety-Security Home Page