Security Grilles - do they work?

Had 2 burglaries while in UK, all windows with grills. First the bathroom reja was pulled away from wall for access, 2nd a bedroom reja was expanded to allow slight person access. Wouldnt be without them though ,thought of someone getting in while in the house is terrifying. At least with rejas on they must create a noise and take time. My tip though other than get an alarm(we,ve got 2, securitas, monitored battery type and an english electrically wired one too that phones my keyholder), you can buy persiana bolts from ferreteria which fit into the bottom of the persiana and you drill a hole into your brickwork to pass the bolt into. You have to unroll persiana at top to access the channel to slide bolts in but its not difficult. They make it more difficult to get persiana up, create noise and take time, then with time to access the reja off or expand then they might just give up. If you get your rejas make sure you have a strong metal bar welded accross the middle on the inside to stop them being prised apart(burglars use car jacks to split apart). After no.2 we had bars put on all the rejas.

Hope this helps, you dont want to be the only one without to make it easy for a burglar, you,d be a sitting target

Kind regards

Pauline.

A spade easily removes them as do many other garden tools.

Unfortunately, grilles to at least all ground floor are mandatory to get insurance cover.

We have them, we are resident's too  would not buy a house/apartment without them. They deter burglar's who usually move on to the next insecure property.

Plus they make you feel more secure when sleeping cos the make a bit of a din during unauthorized removal and you can buy grill alarms as an added precaution as we did.

Thanks for your input - didn’t know you could get grille alarms. 

We live out in the campo with no permanent neighbours. Our house has very strong rejas, very difficult to bend. About 10 years ago we were out for about 45 minutes, came home to find big holes in the wall of our house where the cabrones had smashed into it and removed the whole reja in it's frame. 

Since then, we have had an alarm system installed but also hung padlock alarms on each reja. They are made by Kabrus, batteries need changing every six months or so. Any vibration of the reja causes them to beep 3 times, touch again and they send out 110 decibels.

Definitely worth having rejas, they cannot be removed quietly so on summer nights with all the windows open, we can sleep soundly.

Thanks Kalli, again - good sound advice.