Very nice article. In my former life, long, long ago, I was a carpenter and we referred to Kwikset locks as Kwikshit; Schlage was better, but not much. You could yell hard at them and they would open. When I did side jobs for a property management company, I could drill out the pins of almost any lock in about a minute. Medeco was better about key control -- you would have to ask really nice to get someone who stocked their key blanks to make you a copy. And of course without an anti-jimmy plate or a reinforced strike-plate, most doors could be opened with hardly any damage (or noise) with a bump of the hip.

Security systems are a complete joke, but only because people don't use them, or use them and set them off, or pay no attention to them when they go off. I lived on a city street a while back and hard the car-alarm song memorized. The police take plenty of time to show up at a building whose alarm has gone off more than a few times in the last year.

So the solution? We always said you just needed to look harder to get into, and less attractive, than your neighbor (granted, installing locks was how I made money, and all). Drive down the street -- case your house and your neighbors' -- if yours doesn't look hard to get into, then it's time for some upgrades.