No, I am saying that it wouldn't have mattered in these Brisbane robberies. These were not opportunistic crimes. It was a 6 figure lesson for me too, and my several thousand dollar safe chemset-bolted to the slab stood no chance. Won't say any more specifics on a public forum, but do yourself a favour and heed advice of those who have been there.
Sorry to hear that No problem for me, mine's in 1's and 0's in the ether. But I guess there are those who say that is a stupid idea too
Information security is probably the most important factor. As best as could be determined, the targeted robberies in Qld in 2013 were all based on being able to identify individuals that were bullion buyers, and working forward from there. They were not opportunistic thefts. A "proper" safe is going to weigh in excess of 500kg, a reasonable capacity TDR slab construction one will weigh at least a tonne if you plan on holding any amount of silver, and you can't move that into your home without compromising your privacy in the first place - just the delivery will cost at least $500-$1000 in a capital city, more if you have steps. I've met one guy who had a safe company do an install, and one of the contracted delivery guys that turned up was a family feud nemesis who couldn't stop giggling that he had finally found out where the safe buyer lived. The guy had to leave the safe open and unused for three years until he moved houses. Just knowing your surname or employer is enough for many people to have their home address compromised.
In a safe on a self controlled location case, I see the safe as one of a series of elements that keeps you the owner. The story works best (there is no always) if most elements are taken care of. What's a strong heavy safe worth if you set it at a wall aside the street where after some easy demolition a truck/whatever can just pick it up the same way it arrived? What is it worth if it's easily accessible? What is it worth if you write the code on a lid of the door? What is it worth if thieves have somebody avail that can be treated to give it? And goldpelicans safe company, contracted delivery guys? A company that sells safes should have own and trusted personell. A safe/locker at a bank also requires trusted bank personell capable for the job. In any case, you can't but trust at least some people. You can only minimalize their number and the impact of their eventual failure. In that gigg-ling guy case I'd tell him to take the safe back and contact the companies boss to say why, to demand refund if already paid, and find another safe seller. Make it even hard and time consuming for yourself to reach the safe and get something out of it. Even in case the thieves come in numbers with all possible brute tools to make things happen faster. Why not? It's not like a banks case where customers can't be told please wait an hour. And it's not like that you have to put every new batch pm savings directly in a safe. Those that trust a bank to store it also have to bring it there, and the same risk applies, and even along a path that is predictable since the bank location is just public. And information security is also such element. As goldpelican says, it might well be the most important since info acquiring is always a first step to do something. Don't use the same username/pass/email everywhere. Redirect logging sites to 0.0.0.0 in windows hosts file. Or any other method of blocking. Logging sites put all what you do in databases to then sell these to advertisers. All the popular places like google, facebook, twitter, etc do this. One may wonder why companies and even government organisations send you email that contains in every link and externally loaded picture (even special set up 1 pixel ones) (set mailclient to block this) some unique string and relays along us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=<code>. While other organisations/websites just directly link to their website. Some years ago nearly no website did that, I've seen their number gradually increasing. What do I do: instead of clicking on the email link to the specific article I wanna read, I go to their home page and locate it. It's more work. And some sites even provide no search function, likely on purpose to force you to use their email links as to track you. I then locate them along other means (there are a number) and store the path to the article in a file or bookmark, as to construct the link myself next time. On forums, try to avoid as much as possible the usage of uncommon character sequences. When I write something that I intend to make harder to search for on the web, I do something like this: a duck in a bathroo m is usu-ally made from plas/tic. It already requires regular expressions to make an engine matching that, many don't provide that, and many don't know these. With all this, it's harder for someone to collect info about you. Not impossible, just harder. Thieves are lazy butts. They steal because they want to buy other peoples things without having to help producing them. The easiest thefts are surely their first choice. Making it harder brings you down in the rank. A lesson of 6 figures is way too expensive. Can happen anyone, but it is possible to drastically reduce the chance. Just think. Place yourself in the potential thieves place. What would you not like. Every case/situation has its own opportunities that serve that "make it harder". It's a matter of recognizing them as such. A better scenario should go like this: - yay I bought this and that folks. a minute later - ohdamn its time to bring it to the safe. sad face
As I alluded to earlier, even the most awesome home safe has one very critical vulnerability, the owner. A serious thief will wait for you to return home and will use violence to make you open the safe. Smash your fingers with a hammer, whack your shins with a baseball bat, etc. Simply having a high-end safe at home is a massive risk as it will signal to criminals that there is something very valuable at your place. You'd have to ensure total secrecy, that none of your kids or extended family blabbed, or that workmen didn't see it.
