How putting tin foil on doorknobs and handles helps keep burglars away

A new security hack is catching people’s attention, putting aluminum foil on doorknobs and handles as a form of home protection. The method is simple enough, take a piece of tin foil and wrap it around your doorknob or handle.

It’s cheap and easy, not requiring any special skills or tools, and can be done in a snap. But is there any truth behind it keeping burglars away?

How putting tin foil on doorknobs and handles supposedly helps keep burglars away

Across the internet there are a few reasons why people say that putting aluminum foil on your doorknob will make your home more secure. The only one that is barely plausible is that it works like psychological deterrent for burglars.

Supposedly, they will see it and think that you’ve taken other steps to secure your home. It sounds like a lot of baloney.

Burglars will try to strike the easiest targets or the one where they have a pretty good idea that the effort will be worth it, and a thin piece of flimsy metal paper isn’t going to stop a determined thief, nor play to many tricks on their mind.

It may, however, make you feel safer, but that may be a problem if you don’t take other more effective steps to secure your home.

Where did the tin foil security hack start?

Bobvila.com says that this security hack can be traced back to an online clickbait ad. The video that it takes people to actually uses wrapping doorknobs in tin foil to protect it when painting your door, not for home security reasons.

The website lays out why it is not a good security measure for some of the other touted ways that it helps with home security like being able to know if someone has attempted a break-in, that it makes it harder for intruders to open your door or that the sound of the foil crinkling will alert you that someone is trying to break in.

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