Is your home safe from burglars? You probably thought so until you saw this video. Bump keys are things most of us have never heard of before. If you have heard of these before you may have had a hobby breaking into places, or you are probably a police officer. Believe it or not, this burglar tool has been proven to work for over 50 years. So much for feeling your home is secure when you leave. The Bump Key burglar tool could be made by a 3rd grader with a file, thanks to the simple directions made available by sites such as YouTube. The question now is how safe are you and your material possessions considering how easy it is to acquire and make the bump keys. Bumpkey.us sells keys as cheap as $3.50 while offering bigger packages. Everything the burglar ever wanted to enter your home. Are you scared? Maybe, we all should be a little scared knowing how easily a burglar can enter our houses.

There is only one bit of knowledge a burglar needs to enter your house when they use a bump key, and that would be, how many tumblers are actually in your lock. That knowledge is required to get the key to work. But, the truth of the matter is that most keys are cut from standard formats, giving the “bump key burglar” a quick and easy guess of which bump key to use on your lock.

BayAreaLocks.com recommends buying secure locking systems that combine digital and mechanical keying. But are they any safer? Will they provide you with a better sense of security? Medeco™ and Abloy™ are companies that sell secure locking systems that combine digital and mechanical keying. They show a key that appears unique. It looks special, and you know immediately from looking at it the bump key burglar tool won’t work. You may feel more secure, but now you have a key that’s warranty will end in two years. As if that isn’t bad enough, you must remember that this is hybrid technology mechanical and digital technologies combined. This places a limit on temperatures within which the technology is useable. For most people, -22° to 122 ° F would be considered normal living temperatures. For someone in Texas or Nevada or, other hot places such as Bahrain, it is possible this technology wouldn’t come close to working correctly. People who live in the Northern regions of the USA and other places in the world, would find the cold temperature margin a big issue. Even in New York State, they close schools for temperatures that go below -20° F.

The only other safety measures you could add to keep thieves out of your house would be a burglar alarm system or a rather viscous dog with a bad reputation.

So are you safe considering how easily accessible this information is for the up and coming burglar? The answer to this has to come in the form of additional questions. Do you trust your neighbors? Do you feel your neighborhood is secure? Do you believe your neighbors are looking out for you? Feeling safe at home has to be founded on these issues, not the ability to keep the burglar out of your home.

Safe living,
Yovette Mumford