He was inside their home for 50 minutes. Nobody heard a thing.

Five people asleep upstairs. Security cameras recording the whole time. One flyscreen between a stranger and the kitchen. What a Gold Coast family learnt about the soft side of a house.

A hooded figure lifting a car key out of an open handbag on a kitchen bench at night, the window open behind him — The keys live where they always live. On the bench.

It was an ordinary night at Hope Island in July 2020. The family went to bed. Five of them, upstairs.

Downstairs, a man cut through the flyscreen, took out the louvres and stepped inside.

A hooded man cutting a slit down a flyscreen on a louvre window at night — A flyscreen is mesh in a frame. It was built for mosquitoes.

The cameras caught all of it. As the homeowner told the Gold Coast Bulletin:

"From our security cameras, he was in and around our home for 50 minutes, which is extremely unnerving."

Five people were sleeping upstairs, one of them only metres away.

"None of us heard a thing."

The Hope Island homeowner, quoted in the Gold Coast Bulletin, 30 July 2020.

Fifty minutes. That is longer than most people spend cooking dinner.

A hooded figure carrying a bag and a case across a tiled room toward a sliding door at night — Fifty minutes is a long time to walk around a house.

The cameras did their job. That was the problem.

Cameras record. They do not stop anyone. The family got a clear recording of a man moving through their home. That is all a camera can give you.

The break-in is decided at the opening, not at the camera.

Crimsafe, the company that makes the security mesh, publishes two Australian figures on its own website: "40% of break-ins are via forced entry" and "32% of burglaries occur through an unlocked door". Those are the manufacturer's numbers.

Read the second one twice. A third of the time nobody had to break anything at all.

A hooded figure going through a bowl on a hall table while the bedroom doors stay shut — Upstairs, nobody stirred.

A flyscreen keeps mosquitoes out. It is not built to keep a person out. Neither is a louvre. On a warm Queensland night, half the houses on the street have one or the other open for the breeze. That is exactly why a burglar does not bother with the toughest house on the street. He picks the easiest.

Every house has a soft side

Walk around your own place tonight and you will find it. It is usually a window. The laundry. The bathroom. The one at the side of the house you never think about because nobody can see it from the road. That is the point. Nobody can see it from the road.

A hooded man reaching in through the gap left by one missing louvre blade, the blade on the ground below — One louvre blade out. One arm in.

Most people fix the front door and forget the rest. It is like sunscreen on one arm.

What would have stopped him

There are two honest answers. Guardian Screens & Shutters in Kingston makes both.

See how Guardian fits them, in Kingston

A genuine Crimsafe screen

Guardian became one of Crimsafe's original licensees in 1997. The mesh is plain, fine and black, in a slim frame. It looks like a flyscreen from the footpath. It does not behave like one.

Crimsafe publishes its own test result: "The Test requires a security screen to withstand five single impacts of 200 joules each." Crimsafe Regular withstood single impacts of 550 joules. Those are the manufacturer's numbers, from the manufacturer's testing page.

Black security mesh screens closed across a row of sliding doors on a covered patio — Security mesh across the sliding doors. From the footpath it reads as a flyscreen.

You can leave the door open all summer with the screen locked.

A lockable shutter

Guardian's SmartGuard shutters are made in their own factory at 21 Marble Drive, Kingston. Guardian's history page records the testing: "2012 Guardian Lockable Shutter Testing, Security Screens AS 5039, 5040, 5041".

Open the window. Angle the blades for the breeze. Lock the shutter. Sleep.

The same people, start to finish

Both are measured, made and fitted by Guardian's own team. The installers are Guardian employees on the payroll, not subcontractors. Blair Collins, who owns the place, puts it plainly: "The bloke who measures your doors works under the same roof as the team that fits them."

A Crimsafe licensee since 1997. Over 30 years in business.
National Security Screen Association, National Winner, Best Installation: Residential in 2018, Residential in 2023, Commercial in 2024.
4.9 stars from 260+ Google reviews.

Book a free measure with Guardian

What it costs to find your soft side

Nothing.

Guardian sends one of their own people to measure. They walk the house with you. Nobody asks you to sign anything on the day. Your quote comes in writing inside 72 hours, at a fixed installed price held for 60 days.

If a screen does not fit on install day, they remake it and refit it free. Your old screens go on the truck at no charge.

If you have a flyscreen on a window that opens, you already know which one it is.

Find your soft side: book a free measure with Guardian

Guardian Screens & Shutters Pty Ltd. QBCC Lic 1518 7718. 21 Marble Drive, Kingston 4114. The Hope Island break-in was reported by the Gold Coast Bulletin on 30 July 2020. Guardian was not involved in that incident. The pictures of the intruder are illustrations, not the family's footage.