LA Burglar Steals $180,000 Through One Unlocked Sliding Door

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The Ready Brief #192

Practical preparedness for uncertain times

A burglar in my county got into a house through a sliding glass door. Not by breaking it. By lifting it. The standard sliding door sits in a track and can be lifted up and out of the track from the outside. The homeowner had a deadbolt on the front door, a camera on the porch, and an alarm on every window. The sliding door had nothing. It took the burglar about 8 seconds to remove it from the track and step inside.

Here's what I've got this morning:

Sliding Doors: Your Home's Biggest Security Gap

We covered door hardening (Issue 66), garage security (Issue 101), and window film (Issue 66). Sliding glass doors and patio doors have been mentioned but never received dedicated attention. They deserve it because they're the weakest standard entry point in most American homes.

The lift-out vulnerability is the primary concern. Most sliding doors can be lifted off their track from the outside. Anti-lift pins or screws installed in the upper track prevent this. A single screw driven into the upper track above the sliding panel (leaving just enough clearance for the door to slide but not enough to be lifted out) costs $0 and takes 5 minutes. This single modification eliminates the most common sliding door entry method.

The track lock is the second layer. A simple bar or dowel in the bottom track prevents the door from being slid open. A cut broomstick or wooden dowel ($2 at a hardware store) works perfectly. Commercial track locks ($10 to $20) provide a more polished solution with the same function.

The latch on most sliding doors is a hook-style latch that can be defeated with a flat tool inserted between the door and frame. A secondary keyed lock or a Charlie Bar (a bar that mounts at handle height and swings into place) provides a lock that can't be defeated from outside.

Tempered glass is standard in sliding doors and is harder to break than regular glass. But it's not break-proof. Security film (Issue 66) applied to sliding door glass holds the glass in place even when shattered, requiring sustained effort to create an opening. For ground-floor patio doors, this is a meaningful upgrade.

Visibility through sliding doors is a two-way issue. You can see out, but outsiders can see in. Curtains or blinds that close completely prevent visual surveillance of your home's interior. During disruptions (Issue 151), closed patio door coverings reduce your visibility from outside.

Sensor placement: your alarm system should include a sensor on every sliding door. Many homeowners install alarm sensors on the front and back doors but skip the patio slider. It's the most likely entry point and the least likely to be alarmed.

Put a dowel or broomstick in your sliding door track right now.

Cut a wooden dowel or broomstick to fit the bottom track of your sliding door. When placed in the track, the door cannot be slid open from outside. Five minutes. $2 or free if you have a spare broom handle.

Most Burglars Walk Through a Door, and They're Gone in Under 12 Minutes

Front doors account for 34% of home break-ins and back doors another 22%, meaning more than half of all burglaries (56%) happen through a door rather than a window (25%), according to an analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data. Once inside, the average burglar spends only 8 to 12 minutes searching for valuables before leaving. That is barely enough time to check a jewelry box and a nightstand, which is why every door in a home, sliding glass doors included, is worth hardening as much as any alarm system.

Source: Modern Home Protection (analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data)

Clint Emerson addresses sliding door security in 100 Deadly Skills: Survival Edition as part of his residential security assessment protocol. His intelligence background taught him to think like an intruder: identify the weakest entry point and exploit it. For most homes, the sliding door is that point.

Emerson's layered approach: anti-lift screws (prevents removal), track bar (prevents sliding), secondary lock (prevents latch defeat), security film (prevents glass breach), and sensor (provides alert). Each layer adds seconds to entry time. Collectively, they transform the weakest point into a hardened entry that most opportunistic intruders will bypass. About $22 for the paperback.

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Serial Burglar Steals $180,000 From a Los Angeles Apartment Through an Unlocked Sliding Door

A suspect scaled a second-floor balcony in the Palms neighborhood of Los Angeles just before midnight Saturday and got inside through a sliding door that had been left unlocked, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. The intruder took designer handbags and jewelry from a unit in the 2700 block of Motor Avenue. Detectives believe the same person carried out at least 10 other residential break-ins in recent months, often forcing entry when a door or window was not left open. LAPD is urging apartment residents on every floor, not just the ground level, to keep sliding doors and windows locked. No arrests have been made.

Source: WestsideToday

Sliding Door Security Kit (Complete)

I hardened both sliding doors in my home with: anti-lift screws in the upper track ($0, screws from the toolbox), a cut dowel rod in the lower track ($2), a Strybuc Charley Bar at handle height (about $70), and 3M security film on the glass ($35 per door, applied myself). Total: about $140 for two doors.

Before: either door could be lifted out of its track in under 10 seconds. After: the door cannot be lifted, cannot be slid open, cannot be latched-picked, and the glass holds even when struck. The upgrade took about 90 minutes for both doors. About $140 total.

Budget alternative: Anti-lift screw ($0) plus a broomstick in the track ($0). Two modifications, zero cost, that address the two most common sliding door entry methods.

Overrated: Replacing sliding doors with French doors for security. French doors have their own vulnerabilities (glass panels, multiple lock points, kick-in potential). A properly hardened sliding door is as secure as any other entry type. The issue isn't the door style. It's the hardening.

Underrated: The anti-lift screw. One screw in the upper track, installed in 2 minutes with a drill, defeats the single most common sliding door burglary technique. Zero cost. Maximum impact. Yet most people have never heard of it.

Building habits that stick. The science of habit formation applied to preparedness maintenance.

PS: That burglary through the sliding door? The homeowner had spent over $1,000 on front door locks, cameras, and an alarm system. The burglar ignored all of it and went through the $0 vulnerability that nobody had addressed. Security is only as strong as its weakest point. For most homes, that point is the patio slider.