Who Has a Copied Key?

It is a great feeling moving in to a new home and no less so when that new home isn't newly built. Mostly when we say a new home we mean the home is new to our family.

When we move in to a previously occupied home it means that we have an urgent job to do, a job that we cannot afford to leave until later.

If another family have owned, or rented, your home before you, this means that they must have had keys to your home, keys that almost certainly were loaned out to someone at some time or other.

Perhaps the family needed their washing machine repaired but the only time that the repair man had available to call was when there was no one at home to let him in. So the family loaned him a copy of the key to the front door so that he could call, make the repair and return the key.

Then at a later date when the washing machine repair, and the loaning of the key, is forgotten about, the villain returns. He doesn't have to go to the trouble of breaking in, he just ensures that there is no one at home and lets himself in.

The bad guy that has a copied key made may not be the one who does the stealing, he may sell that key on to a professional thief.

But in the meantime, the folks that lent the key have moved out and you have moved in, and there is a copied key to your home out there in the hands of the bad guys.

No doubt of it, changing the locks is a top priority when you move into a new home.

Think of this, the family that sold you your new home seemed a really nice family, cute young kids and all. And in all probability they were all that they seemed to be. But supposing this is not the case, suppose that maybe one member of that family was not so honest. Can you be sure they handed over all copies of all the keys?

Be aware that it is no use just replacing the lock on your front door, all your external doors need to have their locks changed including the garage door, particularly if there is connecting door that leads from your garage and into your house.

Changing the locks may be a chore and means paying out just when you thought you were done with the expense of moving home, but think what it would cost you if a thief walked into your home using a copied key and helped himself to your valued belongings.

You don't know how many copies of the keys the previous owner or owners, (homes get bought and sold many times,) have had made. Where are those keys now? Keys get lost, misplaced and stolen, sometimes they fall into the wrong hands.

So, you now can see that changing locks to your new home is something that you need to do right away, but are you going to replace all the locks with the existing type? Perhaps the previous owners of your home were content with a lower level of security than you require for your family, if so, now would be a good time to take the opportunity of fitting higher quality, more secure locks.

That's it. The comparatively simple and inexpensive task of changing all the external locks has eliminated the possibility of a thief entering your new home using a copied key. That is until someone in your family loses a key, has their set of keys stolen, or you loan a key to someone. Sooner or later it happens, you need urgent work done in your home but the only time that you can get that work carried out is when there is no possibility of someone being at home. So you run the risk of loaning that key.

Think about fitting keyless locks, then if you ever need to grant access to someone you give them a unique temporary code and then when the repair job is done, or your guest has left, you simply delete the code. No keys, no worries, they cannot return later and enter your home.

With fingerprint locks you don't even give out a code. The fingerprint of the person that you want to give temporary access to is scanned and retained in the system, then when they no longer need to have access you simply delete their print.

Enjoy your new home but remember that you do not want to risk someone being out there with a copied key, so get those locks changed.

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