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We all want to feel safe in our homes. Our home is our castle, and ensuring our loved ones and treasured belongings are protected is essential to home protection. However, what lengths would you go to in order to ensure you are protected? If you’re a celebrity with seemingly unlimited funds, you might go to slightly more extreme measures than simply installing a hidden safe in your home.

Walk-in safes

For high-profile businessmen, celebrities and government figures, installing safe rooms – otherwise known as panic rooms – is usually the answer. Earlier this year, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom hit headlines after police arrested him at his $18 million New Zealand mansion. After police were forced to break into his lavish panic room, the multimillionaire was allegedly found cross-legged next to one of his safes, as well as various extravagant possessions including a to-scale statue of the creature from Predator.

Hi-tech panic rooms

Getting Ready to Buy a Safe? Need Some Advice?

A home safe can give you peace of mind by protecting important documents, computer data and valuables. But there’s a range of home safes to choose from, so it’s essential to choose the right one for your requirements.

What will your home safe be used for?

First, you need to determine what your home safe will be used for. If you are mainly concerned with fire protection, then you will want to choose one that’s fire-resistant. It’s important to note that fire-resistant home safes have different ratings. If you want to protect documents, the home safe should be rated to not get any hotter than 177°C (350°F). If you plan to protect materials such as 35mm slide film or tape recordings, it should be rated to not get any hotter than 66°C (150°F). If you want to protect data storage devices, such as computer discs and DVDs, it

If you’ve decided to buy a safe to protect your valuables, the task is already half done. The next critical step is to select the right safe for the right job. From Budget Safes to top of the range Consider the value of the items you want to protect. Budget safes can be used as simple, inexpensive guards against opportunistic theft and are suitable for general items that don’t require specialty safes.

If you have been burgled before, or have items of high value, you’ll need to guard against determined thieves using a strong, heavy-duty safe. Chubb Safes, Yale safes and CMI safes are all fit for purpose in this category and are best for sensitive documents, jewellery and cash. Different safes for different needs.

Check if your insurance company specifically requires you to safeguard against the risk

There’s nothing quite like the immediate sense of affront, violation and outrage that being burgled invokes, but don’t let it cloud what needs to be done. There are ten important steps that should be undertaken to a) handle the aftermath correctly and b) avoid a repeat occurrence.

1. Call the police. If you think the burglar is still inside, call from a neighbour’s phone. Don’t attempt to confront a burglar.
2. Don’t touch or move anything in the house until the police have arrived. They will need to inspect the scene and collect evidence. 
3. The police will give you a case number. Keep it safe – you’ll need to quote it to the insurance company.
4. Check what valuables are missing: cancel cards and report loss of passports.
5. Secure the building. Get emergency contractors to repair damaged locks and broken windows. Check with your insurer first as they may wish to engage specific contractors.
6. Make a list of what’s missing for the

Australia’s overall crime rate has fluctuated over the past five years but Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have reported a steady decline in property offences over the same period. In Sydney, property offences are down five per cent but the incidence of theft from a dwelling is neither up nor down, being described as “stable”. It’s a word that can lead to complacency.

To avoid becoming a “stable” statistic, preventive measures are essential. Using burglar alarms is one measure, but neighbours tend to ignore alarms and response teams can’t arrive immediately. Rental homes (typically without alarms) are twice as prone to burglary as owned ones. For everyone, keeping valuables in safes is the best measure of last resort against determined thieves. Cash and jewellery are the most common targets, but identity documents and passports are just as valuable when fenced to sophisticated rings of criminals. Most victims know immediately when money or

If you’ve never considered purchasing safes for your home or workplace before, these shocking statistics should ring a few alarm bells.

The numbers

• 335,700: Number of burglaries between 2009 and 2010 in Australia.

• 19 per cent: Proportion of goods taken that was money.

• 2.5 per cent: Incidence of burglary in proportion to international rates.

• 5: Australia’s position as the world’s fifth most burgled country.

• 29 per cent: Proportion of robberies occurring in a residential dwelling.

• 30 per cent: Proportion of robberies occurring in a retail environment.

• 36 per cent: Proportion of Australians who believe their home is likely to be burgled within the forthcoming year.

Source: www.aic.gov.au/

The locations

Not all of the statistics have a bleak outlook. In general, property theft

Though people buy rifles for varied reasons, most of them make the purchase out of the necessity to protect themselves and their loved ones. Owning a rifle is a great idea and no one should shy away from it, however, if you already own one or are planning to buy one, then you have to consider investing in rifle safes to ensure that you store them safely. There are various types of safes available in the market and as such, before making a purchase, there are several things that you have to take into consideration.

The key among them is the storage capacity of the safe. In this regard, consider how many rifles you own at the present time and how many more you'd think of buying in the future. There are times when you might consider storing other things in your safe apart from the rifle, take this into consideration too. In addition to this, you have to make sure that you know the measurements

Having a gun safe is mandatory for any gun owner. You don't want to be charged for faulty firearm storage. However, you also don't want to spend too much on a safe and still want to be assured that you have your firearms stored properly. It isn't particularly hard to find a safe in Sydney, because the demand is there: about 2 per cent of Sydney's population own shooting licenses, and a significant portion of that population owns private firearms. At first, you need to clarify some things in order to find a cheap and reliable gun safe.

For starters: how much protection do you think you need?

Fire-proof safes, for example, offer a lot of additional safety but add to the costs. Safes with thicker walls can also cost more, depending on the composition material. You should also think about the height of the safe; typically, about 1500mm height is recommended for storing 800mm long rifles, as room for a top-shelf

Gun policies are harsh in Australia.

Due to these – pretty reasonable, one might say - policies, Australians have to keep their guns in a safe. The ammunition has to be kept in another safe or in a locked section of the same safe. The most obvious reason a gun owner needs a safe is that others (especially children and teenagers for that matter) will be denied access to the firearms.

However, a gun safe is a reasonable investment for many other reasons. First of all, consider the worth of your firearms. Not only storing your firearm in a drawer is illegal, but it can also prove to be quite costly, too. In worst cases, faulty firearm storage can get you in a bunch of legal trouble. Furthermore, a good hunting rifle costs anywhere from $1000 to $5000; put that against the grand for a good safe and you'll realize that having a gun safe can actually save a lot of money. For antique firearms, which cost a lot more, not having