Four practical manuals · written for the British home

The 4 Book Safe House Collection

Four manuals on the same house: how a burglar chooses it, the hundred tricks used to get inside, and the cheap, dull fixes that make them walk on by.

716 pages from a working life spent around doors, locks and frames. Every fix is costed. Every chapter says plainly what the method will not do.

Burglary in Britain is not a skilled crime. It is a quick one. Almost every break-in is done by somebody local, in under fifteen minutes, through a door or a window that was easy, and usually while nobody was in.

That means almost every useful defence is cheap and within reach of anybody with a screwdriver and a free Saturday. These four books show you which ones, in what order, and what each one costs.

“You are not building a fortress. You are buying time and noise.” — Roy Ashworth

Real Voices

“I bought The Burglar-Proof Home Manual for the chapter on euro cylinders and ended up reading the whole thing. Changed both locks the same weekend for under sixty quid. I had no idea our back door could be snapped.”

David H.63, Leeds

“Got How To Stop Being An Easy Target for my mum. The Doorstep Card is now stuck inside her front door, and when a ‘water board’ man turned up last month she asked for his ID and rang the number herself. He left.”

Sarah M.61, Bristol

“Upgrade 1 took me twenty minutes, exactly like it said. The Three Weekends plan in 25 Cheap Upgrades is the first security advice I’ve actually finished. Tricks 41 to 55 are the ones that stuck with me.”

Gareth P.67, Cardiff

★ 4.9 / 5 stars · over 8,000 British householders

Get the 4 Book Safe House Collection — $68.00 $29.99

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239Entries

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Most houses are chosen in ninety seconds

Somebody knocks at your door and asks for a name you have never heard of. He apologises, says he must have the wrong house, and goes. Thirty seconds, and you never think of it again.

That is the first entry in 100 Tricks Criminals Use To Get Inside, and it is number one because it is the most common piece of reconnaissance there is. Whether anybody answered, how long it took, whether a dog barked, what was visible in the hall behind you: all of it was information.

Roy Ashworth spent a working life around doors, locks and the people behind them, in terraces, semis, bungalows and flats across Britain. Most of what he knows he learned by being called out afterwards. These four manuals are that knowledge written down, so you can act on it before.

A hundred tricks are really about six ideas. Once you have seen their shape, you will recognise the ones nobody has written down yet.

01Find out whether anybody is in.

02Get out of sight.

03Get you to open the door, or look the other way.

04Use what the household left lying about.

05Go for what is small, quick to sell and near the surface.

06Rely on nobody paying attention.

Every chapter in the collection answers one of them, and almost all of them are stopped by something cheap, dull and quick.

The difference

	Free videos & leaflets	A security salesman	The Safe House Collection
Written for	Anywhere, usually America	Whatever is in the van	British doors, windows, standards and law
Costs of each fix	Rarely given	Given after the survey	Every upgrade costed and timed in sterling
What it won’t do	Skipped	Never mentioned	A “Limits” section closes every chapter
Order to do it in	Random	Most expensive first	Ranked by value — the first job costs about £30
Renters & flats	Ignored	Ignored	What you can do without permission, in every upgrade
Scams & doorstep callers	Scattered	Not their business	A whole manual for seniors, in large print
Fire & escape	Rarely	Rarely	Overrides everything: escape always wins
Price	Free, and scattered	Hundreds of pounds	$29.99 once for all four

III

What’s inside all four volumes

Book One

How To Stop Being An Easy Target (Seniors!)

The UK home safety manual for seniors: doors, locks, doorstep callers, phone scams and what to do if the worst happens.

199 pages · 24 chapters · large print · illustrated

“Burglars and doorstep criminals are not brave. They are lazy, and they are in a hurry. Everything in these pages is about taking the ‘easy’ away.”

Start here

The Quick-Start: five things to do this week, for under twenty pounds

How they choose you

Nine things that tell a burglar you live alone
The thirty-second walk-past
Your daily habits are a timetable

The front door

Never open blind: the doorstep rules
Bogus officials: the water board, the gas man and the police
Rogue traders and the roof that didn’t need doing

Locks, doors & windows

The lock most British homes get wrong
uPVC doors: lift the handle, turn the key
Key safes done properly

Crimes that need no crowbar

The phone call from “your bank”
Texts, emails and “Hi Mum”
Cash machines, bags and the walk home

If the worst happens

Someone is in the house: the first minute
After a break-in: the first day and the weeks after
Doorstep Card, walk-round checklist, useful UK numbers

Get How To Stop Being An Easy Target — $17 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99

Book Two

The Burglar-Proof Home Manual

Every door, window and weak spot a thief checks first, and the cheap fix for each.

192 pages · 90 chapters · 7 parts · illustrated

“Does this buy me time? Does this buy me noise? If it does neither, put it back on the shelf.”

How a burglar reads your house

The ninety-second decision
Occupancy signals: what says nobody’s home
Reading your own house from the pavement

Doors

Lock snapping: the attack that changed British doors
Reading your euro cylinder in sixty seconds
Door frames: the weakest part of a strong door

Windows

How windows actually get opened
Sash windows and the meeting rail
Film, laminated glass and secondary glazing

The ground outside

Side access: the alley that costs you everything
Wheelie bins as climbing platforms
The driveway, the car and the relay attack

Light, noise & watching · Inside

Dusk-to-dawn versus movement sensors
Alarms: bells-only, monitored and police response
Safes, hiding places and escape from fire

When it happens, and afterwards

If you hear someone downstairs
Reasonable force and the law — England, Wales, Scotland & NI
Insurance, claims and the weeks after

Get The Burglar-Proof Home Manual — $17 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99

Book Three

100 Tricks Criminals Use To Get Inside

How each one works, how to spot it, and what to do about it.

152 pages · 100 entries · 8 parts · 6 appendices

“This book names methods; it does not teach them. The countermeasure is always the longer half of the entry.”

The knock at the door · 001–014

The Wrong Address, The Clipboard, The Water Leak
The Parcel for Next Door, The Return Visit

Getting you to open it · 015–026

The Uniform That Is Not One
The Grandchild in Trouble, The Courier for Your Card

Reading the house · 027–040

Curtains Closed in the Afternoon, Post on the Mat
The Key Safe by the Door, The Ladder Down the Side

The door itself · 041–055

Snapping the Cylinder, Splitting the Frame
Fishing for the Keys, Reaching the Thumbturn

Windows, gates, sheds & vehicles · 056–080

The Night Vent Position, The Blade Between the Sashes
The Relay Attack on the Drive, The Camera Pointed at a Scalp

Keys, the digital door & after · 081–100

The Key Cut From a Photograph, The Fake Delivery Text
The Thirty-Second Search, The Second Visit
Appendices: The Doorstep Script, The Index of Tells

Get 100 Tricks Criminals Use To Get Inside — $17 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99

Book Four

25 Cheap Upgrades That Make Burglars Skip Your House

What each one costs, how long it takes, and exactly how to fit it.

173 pages · 25 upgrades · 8 appendices · illustrated

“Do the first one this weekend. It costs about thirty pounds and takes twenty minutes.”

Part one · The doors

01 Fit an anti-snap cylinder
02 Long screws in every keep and hinge
03 Letterbox guard, and move the keys

Part two · Glass & windows

06 Key-lock every ground-floor window handle
09 Anti-lift blocks and a patio bar
10 Better glass in the openings that matter

Part three · The ground outside

11 Lock and raise the side gate
12 Gravel on every approach
15 Plant the thorny barrier

Part four · Light, noise & watching

16 One movement light on the side passage
17 Three smart plugs on a random routine
19 One camera at the back, at face height

Part five · Inside, and after

21 Bolt down a safe — not in the bedroom
24 Build the property record
25 Fit and test smoke and CO alarms

Every upgrade includes

Cost, time, skill and tools on one card
Common mistakes · In a flat, or if you rent
Checking it worked · The Limits

Get 25 Cheap Upgrades — $17 Instant download · or take all four for $29.99

About Roy Ashworth

Roy Ashworth has spent a long working life around doors, locks, frames and the people who live behind them, in terraces and semis and bungalows and flats up and down Britain. He writes from Yorkshire.

He writes the way he would talk it through standing in your hallway: plainly, without scaring anybody into buying anything. He has no commercial relationship with any manufacturer, retailer, installer, insurer or trade association, and he is paid by nobody named in these books.

Two rules run through all four volumes. The first is fire: every measure that makes a house harder to get into also makes it harder to get out of, and where security and escape conflict, escape wins, every time. The second is never confront anybody. If you think somebody is in your home, get everybody into one room, shut the door and ring 999.

Questions

Isn’t this just scaremongering?

The opposite. Most houses in Britain go their whole lives without anybody trying the door. These books aren’t a forecast. They describe how the small number of attempts that do happen actually work, and almost all of them are stopped by something cheap and quick. Every chapter ends by saying honestly what its method won’t do.

Doesn’t a book of 100 tricks help burglars?

No. 100 Tricks names methods that every crime prevention officer, insurer and locksmith already knows. It never teaches them: there are no lock-defeating procedures, tool specifications or step-by-step entry methods. In every entry, the countermeasure is the longer half.

There are free videos and police leaflets. Why buy this?

Free advice is scattered, often American, and rarely tells you what a fix costs, how long it takes, or what order to do things in. These four books are written for British doors, windows, hardware standards and law. Every upgrade is costed and ranked, with a section for renters and flats in each one.

Why only $29.99 for all four?

Because the point is for the books to get used. Four manuals, 716 pages, for less than the price of one anti-snap cylinder. Bought separately they’re $17 each ($68.00 in total). The collection saves you $38.01.

Can I buy just one?

Yes. Each book is $17 on its own, and every one stands alone. If you’re only going to read one, pick How To Stop Being An Easy Target for an older relative, 25 Cheap Upgrades to start fitting things this weekend, or The Burglar-Proof Home Manual for the full picture.

What format is it, and how do I get it?

High-quality illustrated PDFs, delivered instantly through Gumroad as soon as you pay. Read them on a phone, tablet, laptop or Kindle, or print them. Book One uses large type and is designed to be printed and written on. They’re yours to keep.

I don’t live in the UK. Is it still useful?

The principles carry over anywhere: how a house gets chosen, the doorstep tricks, the time-and-noise test. The hardware standards, prices and legal chapters are British, so treat those as a guide rather than as rules.

I rent, or I live in a flat. What can I do?

Plenty. Every upgrade in 25 Cheap Upgrades has an “In a Flat, or if You Rent” section covering what you can do without permission, what to ask about, and what not to touch. The Burglar-Proof Home Manual has chapters on communal doors and tailgating.

Buy yourself time and noise

Four manuals, 716 pages, 239 entries. Start with the first upgrade this weekend. It takes twenty minutes.

Get all four books — $29.99

Instant download · Yours forever