Kryptonite makes good locks, some even come with a insurance policy.
Check out the site.

bushman... i appreciate that perspective.

i'm asking about the best lock to secure a detached garage. i can't exactly put a thorny hedge in front of it. that said, the onion analogy is great.

one of these works great

http://www.taylorsecurity.com/assets/item/regular/6270-770%20Combo.JPG

I'd just like to voice support for Bushman's point: Locks cost time to bypass, but no lock is impenetrable. Anything you build somebody else can destroy. Assuming the thief has time to work with, no lock can resist methods such as being frozen and smashed with a sledgehammer, or cut with a torch. I think a lot of people, with their focus on door locks, do not fully appreciate that the side of their house is made of half an inch of siding, a couple sticks, styrofoam, and a sheet of drywall. Forget the door, an ambitious thief with a sawzall could be through your wall in a couple of minutes (also bypassing any fancy intrusion systems you might have; did you buy interior motion detectors?)

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Hmmm, I guess I hadn't posted as much as I thought. Anyway, here's some stuff:

Safe man - history of safes and safe cracking

Car Alarm - The Tesla Anti-Theft Device

The M.I.T. Guide to Lockpicking

Also Google "Key Bumping" & "padlock shims".


LOL! They need it.

Twist a Pen, Open a Lock

There’s tons of lock picking info on YouTube & the net. It’s scary how easy it can be for someone who’s trained. My brother had a standard (non-electric) pick set, and he practiced until he could open our front door in less than a second! I timed him!

Or melted with thermite, or cut through with a pressurized air tank hooked to a cut off tool with a diamond wheel. Why, I've even heard of prisoners in prison using floss dipped in glue & sand to cut through bars & escape. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Someone can even see your key from 200 feet away & copy it: Keys Can be Copied From Afar, Jacobs School Computer Scientists Show

Does it have to be a padlock? Can you switch to keyed deadbolts?

There's also biometric, RFID, etc locks.

i ended up ordering an abloy lock for the garage. just seems like the right thing to do. every other lock i looked into is very easily picked or bypassed. i'm shocked at how easy it is to bypass the lock i have on there. the more i looked into "bumping" and "lockpicking" the more padlocks i notice around. the good news is that as low security as those locks are, people aren't being ripped off left and right.

i hate thieves. the only time i've ever had anything stolen, other than my car being broken into twice, was after our fire. little piddly things went missing... why? why steal from someone who has already lost so much?

oh well... life goes on.