May 14, 2025 • 40 mins
Creating a Secure Home: Safe Rooms and Home Security with Samuel Fish
In this episode, Andy discusses the importance of home security with Samuel Fish, a security expert and founder of Shield Security Doors. The conversation covers the creation of safe rooms, the cultural differences in home security between the US and Europe, and practical steps homeowners can take to enhance their security.
Samuel shares his personal experiences and offers valuable insights into the holistic approach needed for effective home security. The episode also highlights the role of everyday preparedness to avoid the worst case scenario.
For more about Shield Security Doors: https://www.shieldsecuritydoors.com
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00:00 Welcome to The Secure Family Podcast
01:00 The Growing Problem of Data Collection
01:59 Meet Samuel Fish: Security Expert
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andy (00:11):
This is The Secure Family Podcast.
Welcome friend, I'm AndyMurphy, the host, and I'm also
the founder of The Secure Dad.
This show is all about empowering parentsto protect themselves and their family.
I believe that security is thefoundation of happiness, and I want
your family to be safe and happy.
The information that I shareon this podcast is for general
(00:33):
information purposes only.
My goal is to empower you to makesafer decisions for yourself and
your family because our safetyis our own responsibility.
Today, I get to talk with a securityexpert about how we can make a
safe room in our homes to use inthe event of an emergency, like a
break-in all of that and more comingup on The Secure Family Podcast.
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My guest on the show today is Samuel Fish.
He's a third generation security expertin the door lock and key industry.
(02:06):
He started Shield Security Doors in2013 with a mission of introducing
residential security doors commonthroughout Europe to the US market.
In addition to manufacturing,he consults for governments
and corporations on fortifyingbuildings, offices, and residences.
He recently completed the processof onshoring, his manufacturing from
Eastern Europe to North Carolina.
(02:28):
But most importantly, he's a dad.
Here's my conversation with Samuel Fish.
So Samuel, thanks fortalking with me today.
Introduce yourself to everybody.
Samuel (02:46):
First Andy, thank you for having me on.
My name's Samuel Fish.
Uh, I'm the founder of Shield SecurityDoors, and we manufacture custom high
security doors, mainly for residential.
Also some commercial, but anywhere thatthere is demand for both aesthetics.
security.
That's really our niche.
Andy (03:07):
That's cool and it's good that you mentioned like aesthetics and security,
because I think some people when theythink security door, they think of like a
vault from a movie or something like that.
But it, this is, you're talkingabout like a door that you could put
on the front of your home, right?
Samuel (03:21):
Bingo.
The first thing that comes to mind for themajority of us when, when we talk about
security doors is a big ugly steel door.
Andy (03:31):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (03:32):
That's what it conjures up.
Um, our doors are designed tolook like virtually anything.
Uh, one of the best secrets good security.
I. keeping it a secret.
if your security door doesn't look likea security door, if it looks like a nice
custom residential door or a four paneldoor, a six panel door, uh, perhaps
(03:56):
whatever was on your home before or thatmatches the other interior doors in your
home doesn't attract any attention to it.
Andy (04:04):
And that's great.
And that's a very good point.
So, uh, what got you startedin the security industry?
Samuel (04:11):
My grandfather was a locksmith.
Uh, my great uncle was a lock distributor.
My father grew up in, in my grandfather'slock shop, and he went on to, uh, start
what one of the largest, uh, lock and keycompanies in the world called Ilco Unican.
So, uh, if you are orany of your viewers have
(04:33):
any keys in your pocket, I guaranteeyou some of them came out of, uh.
Came out of his factories.
Andy (04:41):
Wow.
That's cool.
Samuel (04:42):
the environment that I grew up in.
When I had a day off school, was in thefactory and I thought that's what all
school kids did when they had a day off.
You go to the factory and work.
Uh, so that's, for me,that's, uh, where it started.
It, it's one of those thingsthat's always been in my DNA, uh,
(05:03):
one of my brothers works in theindustry as well, and for myself.
doors was the direction thatI went in, uh, personally.
And of course it's not theexact same as, uh, keys and
locks, but, uh, a very integral
Andy (05:19):
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (05:20):
product.
Um, and so that's how I gotstarted in this business,
uh, very much, uh, in my DNA.
Andy (05:28):
Yeah, I would say so.
So you're like third generationand, and, and dealing with this.
I think that's great.
So let me ask you this, you know,with all the experience that you
have, what do you think are someof the biggest misconceptions
when it comes to home security?
Samuel (05:44):
The biggest misconception that, uh, that I come across, and this is
really a cultural issue for us, uh.
love it.
And you've talked about this before.
You've talked about a, a culture oflocking your doors when the reality is we
have a culture of not locking our doors.
Andy (06:03):
Right.
Samuel (06:03):
all have friends who say, oh, I live in such a safe neighborhood,
or, oh, I live in a gated community.
I don't lock my doors at night.
it's one of the biggestmistakes we could possibly.
Make.
So from, uh, in terms of what's thebiggest misconception or mistake,
(06:24):
it's just not utilizing the toolsthat we already have available.
Not locking your doors,
Andy (06:31):
I, I, I agree.
And like I used to get made fun ofbecause, uh, I would lock my car in front
of my apartment when I was in collegeand people are like, you lock your door.
And I'm like.
Yeah, like why don't you, this is justweird 'cause I grew up, I imagine like
you in, in your household, the door wasalways locked when you weren't using it.
That was just normal for me.
(06:52):
And there were people who I guess thought,you know, that, you know, they, they lived
in simpler places or whatever and theydidn't worry about that sort of stuff.
But man, like that was just a kindof a culture shock to me when I
realized that man, people are not, whyaren't you locking your front door?
This is just weird, but yeah.
Samuel (07:09):
and, and it.
For, for, for Americans.
That's, uh, it's something that weclinging to for our own peace of
mind and safety, telling people, oh,I live in such a safe neighborhood
Andy (07:21):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (07:22):
really important to us.
And as a result, we have notdeveloped a culture of security
doors as exists in Europe.
That market, thatindustry never developed.
We don't have a culture of security doors.
We ha we do have a gun culture.
Which they do not have overseas, butwe don't have that culture of security
(07:46):
doors, which is the type of productthat we make and are selling, but
it's a very underdeveloped markethere in the US compared to overseas.
Andy (07:56):
All right, so let me ask you, you talk about, you know, the culture that we
have here in the US of not wanting to lockour doors of living in safe neighborhoods.
What are things like in Europe, becauseyou're kind of referencing that.
I wanna know what's.
What's the, what's the otherpart of the globe doing?
What's their culture?
Samuel (08:12):
So if you go to any middle class apartment in Europe,ill find a steel
door with a multi-point lock on it.
And usually a decorative woodskin to make it look pretty
Andy (08:27):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (08:27):
you walk up to the door, none the wiser.
This is.
You will find it almost everywhere inEurope, Western Europe, Eastern Europe.
This is a normal product.
A new apartment building gets built.
Those are the type of doors thatgo in, even on older buildings.
I mean, I, I remember, uh, my, mygrandmother, my great-grandmother,
(08:49):
uh, they were Italian.
I remember on the doorsin their apartments.
were 20 locks on them goingup in every which direction.
It took half an hour to unlock thething because there were so many bolts.
Culturally, that's just whatexists, and we do not do that.
We do a one inch deadbolt.
(09:11):
Maybe occasionally you'll find two oneinch deadbolts, but other than that.
Security doors in the US outsideof the industrial and commercial
space have always been the domainof, uh, safe rooms, panic rooms,
celebrities, uh, wealthy individuals.
(09:32):
the, uh, market for security doorsthat's existed in the US compared
to Europe, where it's a prettynormal middle class product.
Andy (09:42):
Okay, so you, you talked about a safe room just a second ago.
Um, now I remember the, I think itwas a movie with Jody Foster that had
a safe room in it, and that was like.
My, I think it was actually calledSafe Room, but like that was my
first introduction to the concept.
'cause you know, growing up Ididn't have a safe room in my house.
It just wasn't like somethingthat I would've, would've done.
(10:03):
But like, what does that mean to you?
Tell me what a safe room is.
Samuel (10:07):
A safe room.
Safe rooms come in manydifferent shapes and sizes.
primary purpose of asafe room is to buy you
Andy (10:18):
Hmm.
Samuel (10:19):
in an
a safe room is not where you are goingto seek refuge in a zombie apocalypse.
That's not what it's there for.
safe room is there that ifsomething, God forbid, happens.
where you're going with your family.
Locking the door.
And calling the cops or callingfor help or retrieving a weapon.
(10:41):
Whatever you are gonna do in anemergency, you're going into your
safe room to buy yourself time.
That's the purpose of a safe room.
And it's also why when we do securitytesting on all on our doors, we
test everything to a US StateDepartment, forced entry standard,
which means our doors meet the samesecurity levels as what go into
(11:04):
US embassies all around the world.
They are always time rated, so the
Andy (11:10):
Mm
Samuel (11:11):
level is a five minute door.
Andy (11:13):
Got it.
Samuel (11:13):
it means in a five minute test is that door is subjected
to 30 man minutes of attack time.
The 15 minute test, that's four anda half man hours of attack time.
So everything is always a matter oftime because if you have enough time,
right tools and the right skills.
(11:34):
You will get in anywhere.
It's
Andy (11:37):
Right.
Samuel (11:37):
of time.
I will get into Fort Knoxif I have enough time.
So that's the underlying concepthere for people to understand.
rooms, security doors are all about buyingyou time to call the cops, to retrieve
a weapon, to assess what's going on.
Andy (11:57):
Right, and you make such a great point about it being, you know,
measuring this in time, not in weight,not in inches thick or things like that.
I make the joke, uh, to my friends thatI can break into any house in America
with two things, and number one isa chainsaw, and number two is time.
So like.
You can get in anywhere.
And I'm glad that you're making thatpoint, and I'm glad that you're, you're
(12:19):
helping people to understand it's notnecessarily about any of the other
metrics, it's about the time thatit buys you and what you of course
do with that time that you're given.
So, obviously we've talked about,you know, safe room, kind of like
in a Hollywood setting or somethinglike that, but can the average family
have a safe room in their home?
Samuel (12:39):
Yes, and they should.
That doesn't mean thesafe room has to have.
A highly armored specialized door.
It can be a hollow metal door thatyou're adding a few deadbolts to if
you want to DIY something, do it.
Uh, of course this reallycomes down to people's budgets,
Andy (13:02):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (13:03):
your budget is a hundred bucks, a hundred thousand or or 10 million,
you can do something to create thatsafe room for you and your family.
With a reinforced door, and itdoesn't matter who you are, it
doesn't matter if you're a celebrity.
It doesn't matter if you're apolitician, a wealthy business
(13:24):
owner, unfortunately, you may needthat room one day an emergency to
buy you time crime can be, uh, veryrandom and very opportunistic, and
Andy (13:40):
Yeah.
Samuel (13:42):
We don't really know that we are a target or at risk until something happens.
Andy (13:50):
Yeah, and that's, that's a lot of people's wake up call is they, they think,
oh, I live in that nice neighborhoodlike we were talking about earlier.
And oh, nothing would ever happen hereuntil all of a sudden it's happening.
And I usually caution people that whenthose things happen, I. You would have the
thought, I would pay any amount of moneyfor this problem to go away right now.
(14:11):
And that's the preparedness aspect ofthis, which I think is really important.
So what are some things that weneed to consider when designating
a safe room in our home?
What are some things thatwe need to think about?
Samuel (14:25):
Ideally, you want it to be a room that only has one access point,
Andy (14:31):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (14:32):
door into it.
if it's on a second floor and there'sa window, okay, that's not the end
of the world because most likely.
Whoever is trying to get intoyour home isn't gonna be scaling
a ladder to get into the window.
It's possible it happens, butfor the vast majority of us, you
(14:53):
want to have one access point.
So it may even be somethinglike a mechanical room in your
home where you already have afire rated hollow metal door.
That's a great starting point,especially if it's an outswing door.
That's even better if we're talking about.
Working what you with,what you already have.
(15:15):
Uh, so one access point,preferably solid walls.
Uh, very often clients will sayto us, okay, uh, I'm doing the
door, but what about the walls?
Andy (15:29):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (15:29):
yes, walls are very often a vulnerability.
However, if you are the type ofperson that has a legitimate fear.
Of someone coming through yourwalls, then you're in a different
class of threat and risk.
(15:50):
You're not just a, a normal personwho wants to make sure that, oh,
if someone ever broke into myhome in the middle of the night to
steal my tv, how am I gonna react?
Because people breaking in to steala TV or to steal jewelry, they're
not coming to go through walls.
Andy (16:07):
Right.
Samuel (16:08):
are opportunistic criminals who are looking for an easy target.
They're looking for an easy
I. Break in, and if your houseis not that easy place, they're
going onto your neighbors.
They're not coming afteryou of who you are.
They're coming after you.
Maybe you live in a nice neighborhood,maybe you live in a nice home and they're
(16:29):
just looking for an easy target becausethe lights are off you fit the bill.
Andy (16:34):
Exactly.
Or you've got a nice carparked outside and they wanna
come inside and get the keys.
That's, man, that's a growing one rightnow that you know you're advertising,
oh, you've got a BMW outside.
Well, the keys areinside, let's go get 'em.
That seems to be the, themindset of a lot of people.
So when we're talking about.
Picking a room in our home tobe our designated safe room.
(16:55):
You know, a lot of people think, oh,well my, my interior door, it's got like
one of those little thumb blocks on it.
Um, but like the most doors inpeople's homes today are these hollow
wooden doors that aren't really gonnaoffer you any sort of protection.
Right.
Samuel (17:14):
That is right.
The vast majority of doors that we'regonna find in homes zero security.
Very often when we are replacingsome interior doors, I will ask a
client, alright, send me a picture ofwhat your existing door looks like.
'cause what I want todo is match the design.
I don't want your safe roomdoor to stand out in any way.
(17:41):
I've long believed that the, the,the, the most important door in any
home is the master bedroom door,
Andy (17:49):
Hmm.
Samuel (17:50):
because in an emergency, that's typically where we're gonna seek refuge.
That's where we're gonna run to.
And maybe it's also a matter of,okay, grabbing your kids running
into one of their bedrooms.
Depending on the layout of some homes, it
Andy (18:07):
Right.
Samuel (18:07):
be a hallway door.
That leads to your bedrooms.
Part of the trick to though to thisthough, is also being in the habit
of locking that door at night.
Maybe it's a question of lockingyour bedroom door at night,
locking your master bedroom door.
For people with young kids,that's not always possible,
although there's upside to lockingyour master bedroom door at night, uh,
(18:31):
when you have young kids coming to wakeyou up 'cause they, uh, can't sleep.
Andy (18:36):
Right.
Samuel (18:36):
benefit as well.
Andy (18:37):
Yep.
Samuel (18:38):
but
that situation, if you are in the habitof locking a master bedroom door at night,
we've all had our home alarm system gooff in the middle of the night, wakes
you up usually from the best part of yoursleep, and it's a very disorienting, it
takes time to figure out what's going on.
(18:58):
Oh, did the neighbor's cat trip?
The alarm?
Did a gust of wind?
Uh, blow open a door thatwasn't properly secured.
Is someone trying to break into the house?
What's going on?
You need time to figure thatout, especially when you're
being woken up from a deep sleep.
need time to retrieve a weapon.
You need time to call the police.
(19:19):
So if you are proactively puttingyourself in a secure environment with
a locked bedroom door, you aren'tworried about someone busting in
through your door You've bought yourselfthe time that you need to react.
One of the, uh, examples of the veryunfortunate examples that really
(19:40):
illustrates this, uh, a couple yearsago, Paul Pelosi, uh, husband of
former house speaker Nancy Pelosi.
He was attacked in bed.
the Pelosis are not clients of mine.
I have zero firsthand knowledge orinformation about, I would bet a lot
of money that they have a safe room.
(20:04):
So why didn't it help them?
went wrong?
Well, we now know there werea series of security failures.
The alarm wasn't set.
Glass sensors didn'ttrigger, as they should have.
Cameras weren't beingmonitored because, uh.
Pelosi at the time wasn't there.
Her security detail wasn't there.
There were a series of failuresand uh, Paul didn't wake up
(20:30):
until someone was standingover his bed with a hammer,
Andy (20:34):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (20:35):
had his bedroom door been the secure door, and he was in the
habit of locking that at night.
He would've been perfectly fine.
There would've been an intruder in thehouse, but he would've called the cops
and they would've arrived long beforewould've gotten into the bedroom.
Andy (20:53):
Right.
And that's, that's a great point thatthere was a lot of things that failed.
I'm of course a big proponent of alayered home security strategy, and
that's the core layer right there.
That's if everything else breaks down,if you've got a strong door that is
locked, that's that's gonna be thereand that's gonna work for you no
matter what, whatever else happens.
So when you're looking at a safe room,what are some things that we should have
(21:16):
in that room to help us in a crisis?
Samuel (21:21):
If you have a weapon, a great place to keep it because it's also a
secure space for a gun safe, a door thatyou can lock that adds an extra layer
of control and security around that andaround people you don't want getting
their hands on it, able to reach it.
So weapon, ensuring that if itis, uh, a, making sure it's a
(21:45):
room where you have cell signal.
Andy (21:48):
Mm.
Samuel (21:48):
it's great if you are putting this in a mechanical room in your
home with concrete walls and a and apreexisting steel door, outswing door.
But if you don't have any cellsignal in there, it's gonna be
a lot harder to call for help.
as I was saying earlier, a safe roomis not really where you're gonna ride
(22:12):
out a zombie apocalypse for that.
You need a bunker.
Andy (22:15):
Right, right.
Samuel (22:16):
It, it's a place, it's a, it's a space that's going to
keep you safe and calm for 5, 10,30 minutes until help can arrive.
So, yeah, you might wanna havesome water in there as well.
You might want to have a toiletalso, you people react very
differently in these circumstancesand some people need the bathroom.
Andy (22:39):
Sure.
No, that, no, that's,that's a great point.
Um, I actually advocate that peoplestill have a landline, uh, at their home.
Even if it's 10 bucksa month, I say pay it.
Uh, we have one and it'sreally just for calling out.
Like, it rang yesterday and I'm like,I don't give this number to anybody.
I don't know who this person is.
I'm not answering it.
So it's really just for me to be ableto call, you know, for, for help in an
(23:02):
emergency, you know, that sort of thing.
Um, but yeah, we need to.
Samuel (23:06):
is always, uh, the best fail safe there, uh, because you
can also have cell signal jammers.
Andy (23:13):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (23:14):
that if here we're talking about a, a more determined, more planned
Andy (23:19):
Correct.
Right.
Samuel (23:21):
or, or, uh, home invasion than the opportunistic, that is
what 99% of us are worried about.
Someone isn't coming after usbecause of who we are, our hope
high profile or things like that.
It's, you live in a nice home,in a nice area, and it looks
like a, an interesting target.
(23:42):
Uh, but all that to say yes, uh,a landline those who still have
one, uh, a great place to putthat phone is in your safe road.
Andy (23:51):
Right.
And, uh, like a lot of homes todayare not, they're not including,
you know, telephone wire inany of their stuff anymore.
So that's, you know, if you have a, youknow, a, a house that's been around for
a little while, that's gonna be there.
And in most states, you, even ifyou plug an old landline phone
in, you don't have service.
You can still call 9 1 1 from it.
(24:12):
That'll be the onlything that you can reach.
You can, uh, I don't know how muchlonger that's gonna be around.
Um, but for now, in someplaces that does work.
So you might wanna, um, ask somebodyabout that if you're listening to this.
So we've, we've talked alot about safe rooms here.
Um, of course I'm a hugeadvocate for something like this.
Without giving away any detailsor anything like that, can you
(24:34):
tell us a scenario where a saferoom really helped somebody?
Samuel (24:38):
There are, uh, few, every few months you'll typically hear, uh, a call.
Um, an emergency call.
Often it's, uh,celebrities in Los Angeles.
Uh, this one came out publicly andshe's not a client of ours, so I, I
feel comfortable talking about it.
Uh, Sandra Bullock had a situation
Andy (25:00):
Hmm.
Samuel (25:00):
home invader,
it was probably a couple years agonow, and she's talking to the police
dispatch, and telling them I'm in.
I closed my safe door.
Uh, but she had a stalker.
She had a home invasion.
And, uh, that safe room kepther safe until the cops arrived
(25:21):
and apprehended the suspect.
Um, so that's a very real worldexample of something happening.
Now, far more often we hear thestories of where a safe room would have
made a difference, where it would've
Andy (25:38):
Yeah.
Samuel (25:39):
where it would've prevented a tragedy.
Those are the stories that we hear aboutmost often that keep me up at night and
that I carry a sense of guilt with becauseI look at these situations and say, we
could have prevented a tragedy here.
Uh, one story that, that I talkabout often, uh, is that of a, a
(26:03):
young girl in, uh, rural Wisconsin.
Her name is Jamie Kloss, andshe was followed home one day.
Uh, from school.
Later that night, the guy cameback to her house, knocked on
the door, her Jamie's father.
Jim came to the door.
He was shot and killed immediately.
(26:26):
The guy then broke into the house,found Jamie and her mother hiding in a
bathroom, which is a natural instinct.
They were looking for a safe place.
It was a locked bathroom door, butthat didn't stop him Very long.
He proceeded to take Jamie's mother.
Denise killed her in front of Jamie andthen kidnapped Jamie and held her for 88
(26:50):
days until she built up the courage totry and escape, to run away, which she did
successfully, and, and he was apprehended.
This is the type of, uh, story that reallyhighlights crime can be very random.
And you don't have to be a millionaireor a celebrity to be touched by it.
(27:17):
This type of situation, we cantalk about Sandra Bullock all we
want, but at the end of the day,
that's not who the vast majority ofus are gonna be able to relate to.
Andy (27:27):
Right.
Samuel (27:27):
Uh, the story of Jamie Kloss and her parents, Jim and Denise, that's
something that we can all understand.
Rural Wisconsin, middle classfamily, uh, both her parents
worked at the local, uh, meat, meatpacking plant, I believe it was.
These are ordinary people and ifthey had, had a room, doesn't have to
(27:51):
have a, a specialized drawer on it.
Just a, a slightly safer placethat they could have gone, the
door and called the cops, itwould've bought them a few minutes.
For help to arrive and it would'veprevented tragedy that's what it all
comes down to, preventing tragedies.
Andy (28:13):
Um, think about the average front door that's on the home of a, you
know, a middle class suburban house.
Um, what makes, tell me thedifference between an the
average door and a security door.
What's different?
What are the upgrades?
Um, kind of walk me through that process.
Samuel (28:33):
So the difference is I would say,
one, having multiple locking points.
A one inch deadbolt is great,multiple deadbolts is much better.
So.
Multi-point locking systems, or even ifyou're just adding additional deadbolts
into your existing door, that you'redoing is gonna be an improvement.
(28:58):
So we don't have to strive for perfection,we're just trying to make things stronger.
Improving the resistance.
So one locking points, two steel framingor reinforced jam kits at very least.
You don't have to totallyreplace your door frame with the
(29:21):
steel frame, if you can, great.
Do it.
You won't regret the decision,maybe that's not an option.
Add a reinforced jam kit that's gonnastrengthen is otherwise likely a wooden
door jam, wooden door frame, make it alot more secure, uh, when you can have an
(29:43):
outswing door rather than an inswing door.
The basic physics of an outswing door aremore resistant to trying to kick it in.
Someone trying to use a, a batteringram, which obviously people aren't
carrying around lightly, butsledgehammers axis, things like that.
And Outswing door is gonna be moreresistant to a basic attack an
(30:10):
inswing door, just because of physicsof the direction that a doorways.
are typically the three mostimportant starting points.
Uh, additional locking points, strongerframing, and if you can, an outswing door.
look at those as really being the lowhanging fruit of where you can start.
(30:34):
If you have glass in your door.
I often, uh, recommend window.
Uh, the 3M security film.
it as good as.
Uh, a high security glass,bullet resistant glass.
No, but it helps, it's makingyour door more entry resistant.
(30:55):
other point I wanted to touch on, becauseas I was saying earlier, we have a gun
culture, not a security door culture,when Americans do think of security
doors, typically the first thing thatcomes to mind is, oh, a bulletproof door.
That's what we think of whenwe think of security doors.
(31:16):
Now the reality of it is bullet resistanceis not the most important criteria
when it comes to a security door.
far more important?
What is forced entry resistance?
How hard is it to break?
In the example I give,we can build a fantastic.
(31:38):
Uh, level eight securitydoor, UL level eight.
That will stop a 7 6 2 round.
But if I can pry thatdoor open in 15 seconds,
Andy (31:48):
Right.
Samuel (31:49):
what good is it?
It's not gonna stop anybullets when it's open.
Forced entry resistance for the vastmajority of us is the most important
security criteria in our doors.
How difficult is it to break in?
How difficult is it to break through?
And that's the State Departmentforced entry testing that we do.
(32:10):
Some of our clients also doneed bullet resistance, but we
always offer that as an option.
Doors don't have to be bullet resistantwhen we test them, we test doors that
are not bullet resistant so that we know,hey, if our doors are passing the test
without that additional hardened steel,when you do add 'em in, they're going
(32:33):
to be exponentially stronger for that.
Attack.
Uh, but sure that you're focusingon forced entry resistance.
How hard is it to break in ratherthan just saying, oh, I'm adding
a bullet resistant fiberglass orbullet resistant steel into my door.
I'm good now.
(32:53):
Not necessarily forced entry.
That's the, that's where weshould all start thinking we
talk about security doors.
Andy (33:03):
I like that.
Yeah.
And, and lots of great points in there.
You brought up the, uh,the glass in the door.
I remember watching a new story from,gosh, maybe eight or nine years ago,
somebody had kicked in this poorlady's back door out in California,
so she had a locksmith come andput a second deadbolt on the door.
So great, wonderful.
But the whole top halfof the door was glass.
(33:25):
Like, there were thumb locks on theother side, so you could just punch
through the glass and then click,click and you were, you were in.
And so I think it's, we talked abouthaving the, the door locking culture.
We can have like a wonderful securitydoor and a great plan, but unless we
execute it and we are prepared for it,um, like you said in the, in the Pelosi
example, it's, it's not going to work.
(33:47):
So, um, so yeah.
Samuel (33:49):
use the tools that we already have.
Let's start with using what we alreadyhave, and that'll make a big difference.
Andy (33:56):
So Samuel, you know, home security is not just one particular thing.
There's a holistic approach to it.
What are your thoughts on like amulti-point home security system?
Samuel (34:07):
Security doors and windows are one part of the equation and they're
an important part, and I'll come toit afterwards, but lighting, alarms,
those are all very important partsof a comprehensive security system.
On their own, they are tools.
(34:29):
For example, cameras, unless they'rebeing monitored 24 7 are really
an investigative tool to try andcatch the bad guys afterwards.
a camera probably isn't gonna stop.
A determined intruder fromgetting in lighting will good.
(34:49):
Lighting motion sensors canbe a very effective deterrent.
For opportunistic crimes, we've, we've allseen, uh, security camera clips of someone
walking around a backyard trying tobreak in motion sensor goes off, lighting
turns on, and they're out of there.
Lighting is important.
(35:09):
Cameras are important.
Alarm systems are important that aDT sign on your front lawn can help
deter some opportunistic criminals.
But when you're talking about adetermined someone who is not just
opportunistically going around aneighborhood looking for the easiest
(35:32):
home to hit, when we're talking aboutdetermined intruders there, you need
more than just cameras lighting an alarm.
That's where things like securitydoors, that's what's going to stop.
determined intruder fromgetting into your home.
That's what's going to keepyou and your family safe.
If someone is determined to get inlighting, cameras, alarms, they all help.
(35:58):
They are, uh, essential partsof comprehensive security.
But at the end of the day, what'sgonna stop a determined intruder
more often than not is a steel door.
Andy (36:10):
And that's a very good point.
Um, Samuel, I've had a reallygood time talking to you.
Uh, today.
Uh, this kind of takes me back to myroots in starting The Secure Dad with
talking about home security so much.
And it's nice to sit here and talk withsomebody who's an expert, who, who has,
uh, who understands things li like I do.
We share a lot of the same opinions.
So this was really cool.
(36:30):
So if, uh, if.
Samuel (36:32):
is mine and, and thank you for the opportunity to, to be on.
Andy (36:36):
Yeah, man.
Um, so if people wanna know moreabout you and your business,
where can they find you online?
Samuel (36:42):
So first at our website, shield security doors.com, uh, on Twitter at
uh, shield Sec Doors, I believe it is.
Um, we try to blog, uh,at least once a month.
Uh, but for your audience, whatis so valuable us is hearing.
(37:02):
Real world, day-to-day examples andstories of their experiences with home
security and what happens in the courseof, uh, unfortunately a home invasion.
How they reacted, what they did, whatthey didn't do, which instincts kicked in,
(37:22):
what was helpful to them and what wasn't.
Uh.
We will often hear from someof our clients, uh, when we're
fabricating products for them.
Uh, one for example, said to us,I want a door that I can lock from
the inside that no one can get into.
Otherwise, even if they had a key,particular client was concerned
(37:43):
about bodyguards turning on him.
Andy (37:46):
Mm.
Samuel (37:46):
so we, we developed a, a lockout system whereby he can lock the door from
the inside, turn an additional thumb turn.
That mechanically disengages the lock.
So even if someone came with the key,you can also apply this to a husband
and wife situation, uh, with a maritaldispute that goes horribly wrong, uh,
(38:07):
where one is trying to kill the other.
Uh, it allows us to have to providesomeone inside with the peace
of mind to know no one's gettingin, even if they have the key.
Those are very niche examples, but hearingfrom people about their experiences, that
is the most valuable thing that we canlearn from in how people react, what's
(38:31):
happening, and also what's not happening.
Sometimes we think a particularfeature will be very helpful, very
useful, and the reality is it's not.
So hearing from people, that's themost, that's very valuable for us.
So please get in touch if you havestories, experiences of things that
you have lived through, or peoplethat you know have lived through.
(38:54):
I would love to hear about it.
Andy (38:56):
That is awesome.
So Samuel, thank you somuch for your time today.
I appreciate what you're doing and,and being able to create a product
that's gonna help so many people.
Man, God bless you.
I appreciate you.
Samuel (39:07):
Thank you, Andy, and have a good rest of the day.
Andy (39:13):
That's all we have for The Secure Family Podcast for today.
Thank you friend for listening.
Thanks again to Samuelfor being on the show.
For more on him, visitShieldSecurityDoors.com.
Take
back your privacy and personaldata with help from DeleteMe.
Get 20% off our privacy plan whenusing the code Dad at checkout,
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(39:36):
If you are a DIY person and youwanna secure your home, then I have
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My Family Home Security Assessmentwill walk you through how to
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Download your copy right nowat the link in the description.
I'm Andy Murphy reminding youthat our safety is our own
(39:57):
responsibility, especially whendanger comes to the front door.
This is The Secure Family Podcast.
Welcome friend, I'm AndyMurphy, the host, and I'm also
the founder of The Secure Dad.
This show is all about empowering parentsto protect themselves and their family.
I believe that security is thefoundation of happiness, and I want
your family to be safe and happy.
The information that I shareon this podcast is for general
(00:33):
information purposes only.
My goal is to empower you to makesafer decisions for yourself and
your family because our safetyis our own responsibility.
Today, I get to talk with a securityexpert about how we can make a
safe room in our homes to use inthe event of an emergency, like a
break-in all of that and more comingup on The Secure Family Podcast.
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My guest on the show today is Samuel Fish.
He's a third generation security expertin the door lock and key industry.
(02:06):
He started Shield Security Doors in2013 with a mission of introducing
residential security doors commonthroughout Europe to the US market.
In addition to manufacturing,he consults for governments
and corporations on fortifyingbuildings, offices, and residences.
He recently completed the processof onshoring, his manufacturing from
Eastern Europe to North Carolina.
(02:28):
But most importantly, he's a dad.
Here's my conversation with Samuel Fish.
So Samuel, thanks fortalking with me today.
Introduce yourself to everybody.
Samuel (02:46):
First Andy, thank you for having me on.
My name's Samuel Fish.
Uh, I'm the founder of Shield SecurityDoors, and we manufacture custom high
security doors, mainly for residential.
Also some commercial, but anywhere thatthere is demand for both aesthetics.
security.
That's really our niche.
Andy (03:07):
That's cool and it's good that you mentioned like aesthetics and security,
because I think some people when theythink security door, they think of like a
vault from a movie or something like that.
But it, this is, you're talkingabout like a door that you could put
on the front of your home, right?
Samuel (03:21):
Bingo.
The first thing that comes to mind for themajority of us when, when we talk about
security doors is a big ugly steel door.
Andy (03:31):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (03:32):
That's what it conjures up.
Um, our doors are designed tolook like virtually anything.
Uh, one of the best secrets good security.
I. keeping it a secret.
if your security door doesn't look likea security door, if it looks like a nice
custom residential door or a four paneldoor, a six panel door, uh, perhaps
(03:56):
whatever was on your home before or thatmatches the other interior doors in your
home doesn't attract any attention to it.
Andy (04:04):
And that's great.
And that's a very good point.
So, uh, what got you startedin the security industry?
Samuel (04:11):
My grandfather was a locksmith.
Uh, my great uncle was a lock distributor.
My father grew up in, in my grandfather'slock shop, and he went on to, uh, start
what one of the largest, uh, lock and keycompanies in the world called Ilco Unican.
So, uh, if you are orany of your viewers have
(04:33):
any keys in your pocket, I guaranteeyou some of them came out of, uh.
Came out of his factories.
Andy (04:41):
Wow.
That's cool.
Samuel (04:42):
the environment that I grew up in.
When I had a day off school, was in thefactory and I thought that's what all
school kids did when they had a day off.
You go to the factory and work.
Uh, so that's, for me,that's, uh, where it started.
It, it's one of those thingsthat's always been in my DNA, uh,
(05:03):
one of my brothers works in theindustry as well, and for myself.
doors was the direction thatI went in, uh, personally.
And of course it's not theexact same as, uh, keys and
locks, but, uh, a very integral
Andy (05:19):
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (05:20):
product.
Um, and so that's how I gotstarted in this business,
uh, very much, uh, in my DNA.
Andy (05:28):
Yeah, I would say so.
So you're like third generationand, and, and dealing with this.
I think that's great.
So let me ask you this, you know,with all the experience that you
have, what do you think are someof the biggest misconceptions
when it comes to home security?
Samuel (05:44):
The biggest misconception that, uh, that I come across, and this is
really a cultural issue for us, uh.
love it.
And you've talked about this before.
You've talked about a, a culture oflocking your doors when the reality is we
have a culture of not locking our doors.
Andy (06:03):
Right.
Samuel (06:03):
all have friends who say, oh, I live in such a safe neighborhood,
or, oh, I live in a gated community.
I don't lock my doors at night.
it's one of the biggestmistakes we could possibly.
Make.
So from, uh, in terms of what's thebiggest misconception or mistake,
(06:24):
it's just not utilizing the toolsthat we already have available.
Not locking your doors,
Andy (06:31):
I, I, I agree.
And like I used to get made fun ofbecause, uh, I would lock my car in front
of my apartment when I was in collegeand people are like, you lock your door.
And I'm like.
Yeah, like why don't you, this is justweird 'cause I grew up, I imagine like
you in, in your household, the door wasalways locked when you weren't using it.
That was just normal for me.
(06:52):
And there were people who I guess thought,you know, that, you know, they, they lived
in simpler places or whatever and theydidn't worry about that sort of stuff.
But man, like that was just a kindof a culture shock to me when I
realized that man, people are not, whyaren't you locking your front door?
This is just weird, but yeah.
Samuel (07:09):
and, and it.
For, for, for Americans.
That's, uh, it's something that weclinging to for our own peace of
mind and safety, telling people, oh,I live in such a safe neighborhood
Andy (07:21):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (07:22):
really important to us.
And as a result, we have notdeveloped a culture of security
doors as exists in Europe.
That market, thatindustry never developed.
We don't have a culture of security doors.
We ha we do have a gun culture.
Which they do not have overseas, butwe don't have that culture of security
(07:46):
doors, which is the type of productthat we make and are selling, but
it's a very underdeveloped markethere in the US compared to overseas.
Andy (07:56):
All right, so let me ask you, you talk about, you know, the culture that we
have here in the US of not wanting to lockour doors of living in safe neighborhoods.
What are things like in Europe, becauseyou're kind of referencing that.
I wanna know what's.
What's the, what's the otherpart of the globe doing?
What's their culture?
Samuel (08:12):
So if you go to any middle class apartment in Europe,ill find a steel
door with a multi-point lock on it.
And usually a decorative woodskin to make it look pretty
Andy (08:27):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (08:27):
you walk up to the door, none the wiser.
This is.
You will find it almost everywhere inEurope, Western Europe, Eastern Europe.
This is a normal product.
A new apartment building gets built.
Those are the type of doors thatgo in, even on older buildings.
I mean, I, I remember, uh, my, mygrandmother, my great-grandmother,
(08:49):
uh, they were Italian.
I remember on the doorsin their apartments.
were 20 locks on them goingup in every which direction.
It took half an hour to unlock thething because there were so many bolts.
Culturally, that's just whatexists, and we do not do that.
We do a one inch deadbolt.
(09:11):
Maybe occasionally you'll find two oneinch deadbolts, but other than that.
Security doors in the US outsideof the industrial and commercial
space have always been the domainof, uh, safe rooms, panic rooms,
celebrities, uh, wealthy individuals.
(09:32):
the, uh, market for security doorsthat's existed in the US compared
to Europe, where it's a prettynormal middle class product.
Andy (09:42):
Okay, so you, you talked about a safe room just a second ago.
Um, now I remember the, I think itwas a movie with Jody Foster that had
a safe room in it, and that was like.
My, I think it was actually calledSafe Room, but like that was my
first introduction to the concept.
'cause you know, growing up Ididn't have a safe room in my house.
It just wasn't like somethingthat I would've, would've done.
(10:03):
But like, what does that mean to you?
Tell me what a safe room is.
Samuel (10:07):
A safe room.
Safe rooms come in manydifferent shapes and sizes.
primary purpose of asafe room is to buy you
Andy (10:18):
Hmm.
Samuel (10:19):
in an
a safe room is not where you are goingto seek refuge in a zombie apocalypse.
That's not what it's there for.
safe room is there that ifsomething, God forbid, happens.
where you're going with your family.
Locking the door.
And calling the cops or callingfor help or retrieving a weapon.
(10:41):
Whatever you are gonna do in anemergency, you're going into your
safe room to buy yourself time.
That's the purpose of a safe room.
And it's also why when we do securitytesting on all on our doors, we
test everything to a US StateDepartment, forced entry standard,
which means our doors meet the samesecurity levels as what go into
(11:04):
US embassies all around the world.
They are always time rated, so the
Andy (11:10):
Mm
Samuel (11:11):
level is a five minute door.
Andy (11:13):
Got it.
Samuel (11:13):
it means in a five minute test is that door is subjected
to 30 man minutes of attack time.
The 15 minute test, that's four anda half man hours of attack time.
So everything is always a matter oftime because if you have enough time,
right tools and the right skills.
(11:34):
You will get in anywhere.
It's
Andy (11:37):
Right.
Samuel (11:37):
of time.
I will get into Fort Knoxif I have enough time.
So that's the underlying concepthere for people to understand.
rooms, security doors are all about buyingyou time to call the cops, to retrieve
a weapon, to assess what's going on.
Andy (11:57):
Right, and you make such a great point about it being, you know,
measuring this in time, not in weight,not in inches thick or things like that.
I make the joke, uh, to my friends thatI can break into any house in America
with two things, and number one isa chainsaw, and number two is time.
So like.
You can get in anywhere.
And I'm glad that you're making thatpoint, and I'm glad that you're, you're
(12:19):
helping people to understand it's notnecessarily about any of the other
metrics, it's about the time thatit buys you and what you of course
do with that time that you're given.
So, obviously we've talked about,you know, safe room, kind of like
in a Hollywood setting or somethinglike that, but can the average family
have a safe room in their home?
Samuel (12:39):
Yes, and they should.
That doesn't mean thesafe room has to have.
A highly armored specialized door.
It can be a hollow metal door thatyou're adding a few deadbolts to if
you want to DIY something, do it.
Uh, of course this reallycomes down to people's budgets,
Andy (13:02):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (13:03):
your budget is a hundred bucks, a hundred thousand or or 10 million,
you can do something to create thatsafe room for you and your family.
With a reinforced door, and itdoesn't matter who you are, it
doesn't matter if you're a celebrity.
It doesn't matter if you're apolitician, a wealthy business
(13:24):
owner, unfortunately, you may needthat room one day an emergency to
buy you time crime can be, uh, veryrandom and very opportunistic, and
Andy (13:40):
Yeah.
Samuel (13:42):
We don't really know that we are a target or at risk until something happens.
Andy (13:50):
Yeah, and that's, that's a lot of people's wake up call is they, they think,
oh, I live in that nice neighborhoodlike we were talking about earlier.
And oh, nothing would ever happen hereuntil all of a sudden it's happening.
And I usually caution people that whenthose things happen, I. You would have the
thought, I would pay any amount of moneyfor this problem to go away right now.
(14:11):
And that's the preparedness aspect ofthis, which I think is really important.
So what are some things that weneed to consider when designating
a safe room in our home?
What are some things thatwe need to think about?
Samuel (14:25):
Ideally, you want it to be a room that only has one access point,
Andy (14:31):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (14:32):
door into it.
if it's on a second floor and there'sa window, okay, that's not the end
of the world because most likely.
Whoever is trying to get intoyour home isn't gonna be scaling
a ladder to get into the window.
It's possible it happens, butfor the vast majority of us, you
(14:53):
want to have one access point.
So it may even be somethinglike a mechanical room in your
home where you already have afire rated hollow metal door.
That's a great starting point,especially if it's an outswing door.
That's even better if we're talking about.
Working what you with,what you already have.
(15:15):
Uh, so one access point,preferably solid walls.
Uh, very often clients will sayto us, okay, uh, I'm doing the
door, but what about the walls?
Andy (15:29):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (15:29):
yes, walls are very often a vulnerability.
However, if you are the type ofperson that has a legitimate fear.
Of someone coming through yourwalls, then you're in a different
class of threat and risk.
(15:50):
You're not just a, a normal personwho wants to make sure that, oh,
if someone ever broke into myhome in the middle of the night to
steal my tv, how am I gonna react?
Because people breaking in to steala TV or to steal jewelry, they're
not coming to go through walls.
Andy (16:07):
Right.
Samuel (16:08):
are opportunistic criminals who are looking for an easy target.
They're looking for an easy
I. Break in, and if your houseis not that easy place, they're
going onto your neighbors.
They're not coming afteryou of who you are.
They're coming after you.
Maybe you live in a nice neighborhood,maybe you live in a nice home and they're
(16:29):
just looking for an easy target becausethe lights are off you fit the bill.
Andy (16:34):
Exactly.
Or you've got a nice carparked outside and they wanna
come inside and get the keys.
That's, man, that's a growing one rightnow that you know you're advertising,
oh, you've got a BMW outside.
Well, the keys areinside, let's go get 'em.
That seems to be the, themindset of a lot of people.
So when we're talking about.
Picking a room in our home tobe our designated safe room.
(16:55):
You know, a lot of people think, oh,well my, my interior door, it's got like
one of those little thumb blocks on it.
Um, but like the most doors inpeople's homes today are these hollow
wooden doors that aren't really gonnaoffer you any sort of protection.
Right.
Samuel (17:14):
That is right.
The vast majority of doors that we'regonna find in homes zero security.
Very often when we are replacingsome interior doors, I will ask a
client, alright, send me a picture ofwhat your existing door looks like.
'cause what I want todo is match the design.
I don't want your safe roomdoor to stand out in any way.
(17:41):
I've long believed that the, the,the, the most important door in any
home is the master bedroom door,
Andy (17:49):
Hmm.
Samuel (17:50):
because in an emergency, that's typically where we're gonna seek refuge.
That's where we're gonna run to.
And maybe it's also a matter of,okay, grabbing your kids running
into one of their bedrooms.
Depending on the layout of some homes, it
Andy (18:07):
Right.
Samuel (18:07):
be a hallway door.
That leads to your bedrooms.
Part of the trick to though to thisthough, is also being in the habit
of locking that door at night.
Maybe it's a question of lockingyour bedroom door at night,
locking your master bedroom door.
For people with young kids,that's not always possible,
although there's upside to lockingyour master bedroom door at night, uh,
(18:31):
when you have young kids coming to wakeyou up 'cause they, uh, can't sleep.
Andy (18:36):
Right.
Samuel (18:36):
benefit as well.
Andy (18:37):
Yep.
Samuel (18:38):
but
that situation, if you are in the habitof locking a master bedroom door at night,
we've all had our home alarm system gooff in the middle of the night, wakes
you up usually from the best part of yoursleep, and it's a very disorienting, it
takes time to figure out what's going on.
(18:58):
Oh, did the neighbor's cat trip?
The alarm?
Did a gust of wind?
Uh, blow open a door thatwasn't properly secured.
Is someone trying to break into the house?
What's going on?
You need time to figure thatout, especially when you're
being woken up from a deep sleep.
need time to retrieve a weapon.
You need time to call the police.
(19:19):
So if you are proactively puttingyourself in a secure environment with
a locked bedroom door, you aren'tworried about someone busting in
through your door You've bought yourselfthe time that you need to react.
One of the, uh, examples of the veryunfortunate examples that really
(19:40):
illustrates this, uh, a couple yearsago, Paul Pelosi, uh, husband of
former house speaker Nancy Pelosi.
He was attacked in bed.
the Pelosis are not clients of mine.
I have zero firsthand knowledge orinformation about, I would bet a lot
of money that they have a safe room.
(20:04):
So why didn't it help them?
went wrong?
Well, we now know there werea series of security failures.
The alarm wasn't set.
Glass sensors didn'ttrigger, as they should have.
Cameras weren't beingmonitored because, uh.
Pelosi at the time wasn't there.
Her security detail wasn't there.
There were a series of failuresand uh, Paul didn't wake up
(20:30):
until someone was standingover his bed with a hammer,
Andy (20:34):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (20:35):
had his bedroom door been the secure door, and he was in the
habit of locking that at night.
He would've been perfectly fine.
There would've been an intruder in thehouse, but he would've called the cops
and they would've arrived long beforewould've gotten into the bedroom.
Andy (20:53):
Right.
And that's, that's a great point thatthere was a lot of things that failed.
I'm of course a big proponent of alayered home security strategy, and
that's the core layer right there.
That's if everything else breaks down,if you've got a strong door that is
locked, that's that's gonna be thereand that's gonna work for you no
matter what, whatever else happens.
So when you're looking at a safe room,what are some things that we should have
(21:16):
in that room to help us in a crisis?
Samuel (21:21):
If you have a weapon, a great place to keep it because it's also a
secure space for a gun safe, a door thatyou can lock that adds an extra layer
of control and security around that andaround people you don't want getting
their hands on it, able to reach it.
So weapon, ensuring that if itis, uh, a, making sure it's a
(21:45):
room where you have cell signal.
Andy (21:48):
Mm.
Samuel (21:48):
it's great if you are putting this in a mechanical room in your
home with concrete walls and a and apreexisting steel door, outswing door.
But if you don't have any cellsignal in there, it's gonna be
a lot harder to call for help.
as I was saying earlier, a safe roomis not really where you're gonna ride
(22:12):
out a zombie apocalypse for that.
You need a bunker.
Andy (22:15):
Right, right.
Samuel (22:16):
It, it's a place, it's a, it's a space that's going to
keep you safe and calm for 5, 10,30 minutes until help can arrive.
So, yeah, you might wanna havesome water in there as well.
You might want to have a toiletalso, you people react very
differently in these circumstancesand some people need the bathroom.
Andy (22:39):
Sure.
No, that, no, that's,that's a great point.
Um, I actually advocate that peoplestill have a landline, uh, at their home.
Even if it's 10 bucksa month, I say pay it.
Uh, we have one and it'sreally just for calling out.
Like, it rang yesterday and I'm like,I don't give this number to anybody.
I don't know who this person is.
I'm not answering it.
So it's really just for me to be ableto call, you know, for, for help in an
(23:02):
emergency, you know, that sort of thing.
Um, but yeah, we need to.
Samuel (23:06):
is always, uh, the best fail safe there, uh, because you
can also have cell signal jammers.
Andy (23:13):
Mm-hmm.
Samuel (23:14):
that if here we're talking about a, a more determined, more planned
Andy (23:19):
Correct.
Right.
Samuel (23:21):
or, or, uh, home invasion than the opportunistic, that is
what 99% of us are worried about.
Someone isn't coming after usbecause of who we are, our hope
high profile or things like that.
It's, you live in a nice home,in a nice area, and it looks
like a, an interesting target.
(23:42):
Uh, but all that to say yes, uh,a landline those who still have
one, uh, a great place to putthat phone is in your safe road.
Andy (23:51):
Right.
And, uh, like a lot of homes todayare not, they're not including,
you know, telephone wire inany of their stuff anymore.
So that's, you know, if you have a, youknow, a, a house that's been around for
a little while, that's gonna be there.
And in most states, you, even ifyou plug an old landline phone
in, you don't have service.
You can still call 9 1 1 from it.
(24:12):
That'll be the onlything that you can reach.
You can, uh, I don't know how muchlonger that's gonna be around.
Um, but for now, in someplaces that does work.
So you might wanna, um, ask somebodyabout that if you're listening to this.
So we've, we've talked alot about safe rooms here.
Um, of course I'm a hugeadvocate for something like this.
Without giving away any detailsor anything like that, can you
(24:34):
tell us a scenario where a saferoom really helped somebody?
Samuel (24:38):
There are, uh, few, every few months you'll typically hear, uh, a call.
Um, an emergency call.
Often it's, uh,celebrities in Los Angeles.
Uh, this one came out publicly andshe's not a client of ours, so I, I
feel comfortable talking about it.
Uh, Sandra Bullock had a situation
Andy (25:00):
Hmm.
Samuel (25:00):
home invader,
it was probably a couple years agonow, and she's talking to the police
dispatch, and telling them I'm in.
I closed my safe door.
Uh, but she had a stalker.
She had a home invasion.
And, uh, that safe room kepther safe until the cops arrived
(25:21):
and apprehended the suspect.
Um, so that's a very real worldexample of something happening.
Now, far more often we hear thestories of where a safe room would have
made a difference, where it would've
Andy (25:38):
Yeah.
Samuel (25:39):
where it would've prevented a tragedy.
Those are the stories that we hear aboutmost often that keep me up at night and
that I carry a sense of guilt with becauseI look at these situations and say, we
could have prevented a tragedy here.
Uh, one story that, that I talkabout often, uh, is that of a, a
(26:03):
young girl in, uh, rural Wisconsin.
Her name is Jamie Kloss, andshe was followed home one day.
Uh, from school.
Later that night, the guy cameback to her house, knocked on
the door, her Jamie's father.
Jim came to the door.
He was shot and killed immediately.
(26:26):
The guy then broke into the house,found Jamie and her mother hiding in a
bathroom, which is a natural instinct.
They were looking for a safe place.
It was a locked bathroom door, butthat didn't stop him Very long.
He proceeded to take Jamie's mother.
Denise killed her in front of Jamie andthen kidnapped Jamie and held her for 88
(26:50):
days until she built up the courage totry and escape, to run away, which she did
successfully, and, and he was apprehended.
This is the type of, uh, story that reallyhighlights crime can be very random.
And you don't have to be a millionaireor a celebrity to be touched by it.
(27:17):
This type of situation, we cantalk about Sandra Bullock all we
want, but at the end of the day,
that's not who the vast majority ofus are gonna be able to relate to.
Andy (27:27):
Right.
Samuel (27:27):
Uh, the story of Jamie Kloss and her parents, Jim and Denise, that's
something that we can all understand.
Rural Wisconsin, middle classfamily, uh, both her parents
worked at the local, uh, meat, meatpacking plant, I believe it was.
These are ordinary people and ifthey had, had a room, doesn't have to
(27:51):
have a, a specialized drawer on it.
Just a, a slightly safer placethat they could have gone, the
door and called the cops, itwould've bought them a few minutes.
For help to arrive and it would'veprevented tragedy that's what it all
comes down to, preventing tragedies.
Andy (28:13):
Um, think about the average front door that's on the home of a, you
know, a middle class suburban house.
Um, what makes, tell me thedifference between an the
average door and a security door.
What's different?
What are the upgrades?
Um, kind of walk me through that process.
Samuel (28:33):
So the difference is I would say,
one, having multiple locking points.
A one inch deadbolt is great,multiple deadbolts is much better.
So.
Multi-point locking systems, or even ifyou're just adding additional deadbolts
into your existing door, that you'redoing is gonna be an improvement.
(28:58):
So we don't have to strive for perfection,we're just trying to make things stronger.
Improving the resistance.
So one locking points, two steel framingor reinforced jam kits at very least.
You don't have to totallyreplace your door frame with the
(29:21):
steel frame, if you can, great.
Do it.
You won't regret the decision,maybe that's not an option.
Add a reinforced jam kit that's gonnastrengthen is otherwise likely a wooden
door jam, wooden door frame, make it alot more secure, uh, when you can have an
(29:43):
outswing door rather than an inswing door.
The basic physics of an outswing door aremore resistant to trying to kick it in.
Someone trying to use a, a batteringram, which obviously people aren't
carrying around lightly, butsledgehammers axis, things like that.
And Outswing door is gonna be moreresistant to a basic attack an
(30:10):
inswing door, just because of physicsof the direction that a doorways.
are typically the three mostimportant starting points.
Uh, additional locking points, strongerframing, and if you can, an outswing door.
look at those as really being the lowhanging fruit of where you can start.
(30:34):
If you have glass in your door.
I often, uh, recommend window.
Uh, the 3M security film.
it as good as.
Uh, a high security glass,bullet resistant glass.
No, but it helps, it's makingyour door more entry resistant.
(30:55):
other point I wanted to touch on, becauseas I was saying earlier, we have a gun
culture, not a security door culture,when Americans do think of security
doors, typically the first thing thatcomes to mind is, oh, a bulletproof door.
That's what we think of whenwe think of security doors.
(31:16):
Now the reality of it is bullet resistanceis not the most important criteria
when it comes to a security door.
far more important?
What is forced entry resistance?
How hard is it to break?
In the example I give,we can build a fantastic.
(31:38):
Uh, level eight securitydoor, UL level eight.
That will stop a 7 6 2 round.
But if I can pry thatdoor open in 15 seconds,
Andy (31:48):
Right.
Samuel (31:49):
what good is it?
It's not gonna stop anybullets when it's open.
Forced entry resistance for the vastmajority of us is the most important
security criteria in our doors.
How difficult is it to break in?
How difficult is it to break through?
And that's the State Departmentforced entry testing that we do.
(32:10):
Some of our clients also doneed bullet resistance, but we
always offer that as an option.
Doors don't have to be bullet resistantwhen we test them, we test doors that
are not bullet resistant so that we know,hey, if our doors are passing the test
without that additional hardened steel,when you do add 'em in, they're going
(32:33):
to be exponentially stronger for that.
Attack.
Uh, but sure that you're focusingon forced entry resistance.
How hard is it to break in ratherthan just saying, oh, I'm adding
a bullet resistant fiberglass orbullet resistant steel into my door.
I'm good now.
(32:53):
Not necessarily forced entry.
That's the, that's where weshould all start thinking we
talk about security doors.
Andy (33:03):
I like that.
Yeah.
And, and lots of great points in there.
You brought up the, uh,the glass in the door.
I remember watching a new story from,gosh, maybe eight or nine years ago,
somebody had kicked in this poorlady's back door out in California,
so she had a locksmith come andput a second deadbolt on the door.
So great, wonderful.
But the whole top halfof the door was glass.
(33:25):
Like, there were thumb locks on theother side, so you could just punch
through the glass and then click,click and you were, you were in.
And so I think it's, we talked abouthaving the, the door locking culture.
We can have like a wonderful securitydoor and a great plan, but unless we
execute it and we are prepared for it,um, like you said in the, in the Pelosi
example, it's, it's not going to work.
(33:47):
So, um, so yeah.
Samuel (33:49):
use the tools that we already have.
Let's start with using what we alreadyhave, and that'll make a big difference.
Andy (33:56):
So Samuel, you know, home security is not just one particular thing.
There's a holistic approach to it.
What are your thoughts on like amulti-point home security system?
Samuel (34:07):
Security doors and windows are one part of the equation and they're
an important part, and I'll come toit afterwards, but lighting, alarms,
those are all very important partsof a comprehensive security system.
On their own, they are tools.
(34:29):
For example, cameras, unless they'rebeing monitored 24 7 are really
an investigative tool to try andcatch the bad guys afterwards.
a camera probably isn't gonna stop.
A determined intruder fromgetting in lighting will good.
(34:49):
Lighting motion sensors canbe a very effective deterrent.
For opportunistic crimes, we've, we've allseen, uh, security camera clips of someone
walking around a backyard trying tobreak in motion sensor goes off, lighting
turns on, and they're out of there.
Lighting is important.
(35:09):
Cameras are important.
Alarm systems are important that aDT sign on your front lawn can help
deter some opportunistic criminals.
But when you're talking about adetermined someone who is not just
opportunistically going around aneighborhood looking for the easiest
(35:32):
home to hit, when we're talking aboutdetermined intruders there, you need
more than just cameras lighting an alarm.
That's where things like securitydoors, that's what's going to stop.
determined intruder fromgetting into your home.
That's what's going to keepyou and your family safe.
If someone is determined to get inlighting, cameras, alarms, they all help.
(35:58):
They are, uh, essential partsof comprehensive security.
But at the end of the day, what'sgonna stop a determined intruder
more often than not is a steel door.
Andy (36:10):
And that's a very good point.
Um, Samuel, I've had a reallygood time talking to you.
Uh, today.
Uh, this kind of takes me back to myroots in starting The Secure Dad with
talking about home security so much.
And it's nice to sit here and talk withsomebody who's an expert, who, who has,
uh, who understands things li like I do.
We share a lot of the same opinions.
So this was really cool.
(36:30):
So if, uh, if.
Samuel (36:32):
is mine and, and thank you for the opportunity to, to be on.
Andy (36:36):
Yeah, man.
Um, so if people wanna know moreabout you and your business,
where can they find you online?
Samuel (36:42):
So first at our website, shield security doors.com, uh, on Twitter at
uh, shield Sec Doors, I believe it is.
Um, we try to blog, uh,at least once a month.
Uh, but for your audience, whatis so valuable us is hearing.
(37:02):
Real world, day-to-day examples andstories of their experiences with home
security and what happens in the courseof, uh, unfortunately a home invasion.
How they reacted, what they did, whatthey didn't do, which instincts kicked in,
(37:22):
what was helpful to them and what wasn't.
Uh.
We will often hear from someof our clients, uh, when we're
fabricating products for them.
Uh, one for example, said to us,I want a door that I can lock from
the inside that no one can get into.
Otherwise, even if they had a key,particular client was concerned
(37:43):
about bodyguards turning on him.
Andy (37:46):
Mm.
Samuel (37:46):
so we, we developed a, a lockout system whereby he can lock the door from
the inside, turn an additional thumb turn.
That mechanically disengages the lock.
So even if someone came with the key,you can also apply this to a husband
and wife situation, uh, with a maritaldispute that goes horribly wrong, uh,
(38:07):
where one is trying to kill the other.
Uh, it allows us to have to providesomeone inside with the peace
of mind to know no one's gettingin, even if they have the key.
Those are very niche examples, but hearingfrom people about their experiences, that
is the most valuable thing that we canlearn from in how people react, what's
(38:31):
happening, and also what's not happening.
Sometimes we think a particularfeature will be very helpful, very
useful, and the reality is it's not.
So hearing from people, that's themost, that's very valuable for us.
So please get in touch if you havestories, experiences of things that
you have lived through, or peoplethat you know have lived through.
(38:54):
I would love to hear about it.
Andy (38:56):
That is awesome.
So Samuel, thank you somuch for your time today.
I appreciate what you're doing and,and being able to create a product
that's gonna help so many people.
Man, God bless you.
I appreciate you.
Samuel (39:07):
Thank you, Andy, and have a good rest of the day.
Andy (39:13):
That's all we have for The Secure Family Podcast for today.
Thank you friend for listening.
Thanks again to Samuelfor being on the show.
For more on him, visitShieldSecurityDoors.com.
Take
back your privacy and personaldata with help from DeleteMe.
Get 20% off our privacy plan whenusing the code Dad at checkout,
DeleteMe is the official dataremoval service of The Secure Dad.
(39:36):
If you are a DIY person and youwanna secure your home, then I have
the ultimate checklist for you.
My Family Home Security Assessmentwill walk you through how to
protect your home without makingit look or feel like a prison.
Download your copy right nowat the link in the description.
I'm Andy Murphy reminding youthat our safety is our own
(39:57):
responsibility, especially whendanger comes to the front door.
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