Wow, so many stories! I've had my car broken into several times over the years. When I lived on the East side of Vancouver the hookers, junkies, and the property crime that goes with it caused grief. We'd keep nothing in our cars and never locked them because the "entreprenneurs" would bust a window just to look. Sometimes I'd get in the car and it would stink of someone else's BO.
Once I confronted a fellow who woke me up as he came into my place but
he ran...Before that I never locked my doors when I was home. It was sure hard falling back to sleep after that.
The family shops had hardened doors and window bars but we never had troubles, but once I was doing some work on the facade of a commercial building in North Vancouver and we had tools stolen right from underneath our feet!
I'm not comfortable utilizing weapons or attack animals but will say that relatives in the UK had geese and NOBODY could sneak up on them....in addition to security they provided meat and eggs!
