Reader Eve’s Husband sent me this story:

MADISON (WKOW) — A Madison family is missing two cars after burglars broke in to their home Thursday morning.
Unlike a majority of the stolen car cases in Madison, the homeowners say everything was locked up.
“No shattering of windows or anything like that,” said Reynaldo Leon Peralta, whose car was broken into first.
On the surface, two stolen vehicles in Madison seems like an almost daily occurrence, but for the Leon Peraltas, they’re not sure how it happened to them.
They were certain they had locked their car doors before going to bed, however the burglars were still able to break into Reynaldo’s car, steal the garage door opener and then get inside the house.

Locked car broken into, two cars stolen in Madison

Let’s take the victim’s words and say the car was indeed locked. Obviously this was not your usual junkies roaming the neighborhood but somebody with a plan knowing the score was going to be fruitful. The question is how fast a locked car can be opened? One answer is in the next video.

Yup, under a minute and a half, and that is the guy messing up the first try and explaining what he was doing step by step while making sure the car was not damaged. I clocked after he reset the bag till he opened the door and took him 34 seconds. The air bag is called an air wedge and the kit of bag and hard wedge of that brand can be found in Amazon for  under $25. The reach tool also can be found in Amazon for under $30. So basically an investment under $60 will give you fast access to the inside of a vehicle.

Now allow be to refer you again to the human link that broke the security chain:

however the burglars were still able to break into Reynaldo’s car, steal the garage door opener and then get inside the house.

Basically they left the keys of the house outside and criminals used them to break in and steal two cars. And that is the good news: they just wanted or were satisfied with the cars in the garage. Knowing how weak most doors between the main house and the garage can be, are you puckering enough?

It seems these homeowners had a decent door in between the living quarters and the garage, including a deadbolt.

Next:

Reynaldo, the oldest, says he heard their two dogs barking and didn’t think much of it, since they often bark.

Ignoring dogs is a particular peeve of mine, but that is because all the dogs I had were tooled and trained for security first and pets second.  If a dog barked, I paid attention because it usually meant something. And if you know how to listen, you will differentiate between the “The neighbor’s cat is again in the back porch”  annoying bark from “I think we have intruders and I don’t like it” danger bark.  Let’s continue:

They already take home security seriously, with extra locks and motion sensor lights, but now they’re planning to get cameras to add that extra layer.

One of the thing I noticed when doing my small research about car break ins was that the burglars were both unimpressed by motion sensor lights and cameras.  What worked was a car that was locked and had nothing valuable inside. Lights and cameras work fine as evidence gatherers, not crime stoppers. Good doors and locks will delay a dedicated criminal, hopefully enough for you to take countermeasures, but the delay only works if you do not give them the keys to the damned house.

No amount of security can override human failures.