Social networking sites such as YouTube are fuelling home burglaries across the UK as they feature detailed footage of how to break into a property in seconds, using the new ‘bumping’ and ‘molegrip’ methods.

The growing threat of Lock Bumping and Molegrip Entry, has been highlighted by Swish’s latest information campaign on How To Protect Your Home, having being brought to the attention of these online videos and seeing how easily any home can be threatened by using these techniques.

Using molegrips to snap off cylinder locks from doors or simply buying a skeleton key over the internet and bumping the lock, burglars can gain access to your home within seconds. Social networking sites, like YouTube, who feature worrying and detailed videos of these methods, are making it easy for a new generation of burglars to learn the tricks of the trade.

YouTube link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwTVBWCijEQ

According to police crime prevention experts, millions of homes in the UK are at risk because of a weakness in cylinder locks which are almost universally fitted to PVCu doors throughout the UK.

The ‘bumping’ method uses a skeleton key readily available and bought cheaply over the Internet to gain access to the cylinder lock mechanism. There may be a risk that a householder’s insurance won’t cover the break-in if the lock has been ‘bumped’ as there will be no evidence that the householder didn’t just leave the door unlocked. 

Another method uses mole-grips to snap off the cylinder lock once the handle cover has been removed. The forcing of cylinders which protrude from the lock is now beginning to rival the number of sneak-in burglaries.

The doors and windows industry is constantly looking for new security innovations to beat savvy burglars. Anti-bump cylinders are one of the most advanced new security measures developed in response to this latest household security threat. Previous advances to benefit consumers include internally beading windows to prevent burglars removing the whole pane of glass from the outside.   Original window and door locks have also been improved by adding more locking points or shoot bolts to make it harder to break or lever them off.