The MyKey 2300 site has some bold claims about their system. First, would you trust a door-knob that calls itself “The World’s Most Advanced Security Device”? Not bad for only $330.

Second, does a radio controlled door to your house really achieve their objective?

Get ready to simplify life and start enjoying your new found freedom from keys.

Is life really that much simpler just because you have to wave a key instead of inserting it into a hole? What makes life with a traditional key-based doorknob so complicated? They explain more on their “advantages” page:

What sets the MyKey 2300 head and shoulders above the conventional door lock? A great deal. Specifically, you will no longer be tied down to a metal key to open your door, and as a result, will have a door lock that is far more secure. With no keyholes, you have no worries for would-be intruders trying to pick your door lock.

Note that they just say you have no worries about “trying to pick your door lock”. I have to say that I don’t consider that the same as saying you will have no worries about someone opening your door without authorization.

The same page calls their RFID technology “unbreakable”. I said the site was bold, didn’t I? The FTC loves that kind of assurance from security product vendors.

Third, their answer to the question “What happens if someone tries to break in?” is really amusing:

The feature that significantly sets the MyKey 2300 apart from conventional door locks is the removal of the common metal keyhole. Metal keys, no matter how complex, can be picked by an expert and are vulnerable as a result. The MyKey 2300 eliminates the possibility of lock-picking from the start by removing the conventional keyhole, and allowing only authorized RFID cards, or a single pin code to gain access to the door. If someone attempts to use the wrong pin code or RFID card three times in a row, the lock will automatically shut down for 30 seconds before allowing another attempt at unlocking the door!

30 seconds? That will certainly deter the most hardened criminal who wants to use “brute-force” to enter your home. Their script might not sound as good if they wrote the more honest version. It could go something like “removing the conventional keyhole changes the risk from the metal key in your pocket to the PIN in your head/wallet, as well as the adhesive-backed RFID tag in your pocket” or “RFID signals, no matter how complex, can be picked by an expert and are vulnerable as a result”. I’m just saying…

Just in case you weren’t already worried about the government using surveillance to monitor you, now you have to wonder about your neighbors. To be fair, this is a story about a family that was trying to track down the people that maliciously defaced their property. Not surprising, then, that they used everything they could to find the perpetrators.

What appeared to be a common teenage prank has led to felony vandalism charges against a handful of Norco teens.

They toilet-papered the wrong house — the home of a woman unwilling to let them get away with it.

After months of investigation and suspect interviews — spurred on by homeowner Katja Base’s own investigating skills — Norco sheriff’s deputies sent the case to the Riverside County district attorney’s office to decide whether to charge the teens and one adult.

That all seems fairly straightforward, but what’s really interesting is the data they actually managed to get for their investigation:

Katja Base decided she couldn’t expect sheriff’s deputies to work around the clock on a toilet-paper investigation. Armed only with two sneaker imprints on wads of moist toilet paper, she started her sleuthing. She persuaded store managers to average daily toilet-paper purchases for the week to spot the anomalies.

Just two days before the vandals struck, Stater Bros. on Hamner Avenue had a run on bathroom tissue.

The store manager reviewed the day’s receipts to find who bought so much toilet paper.

At 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, someone bought 144 rolls of toilet paper, cheese, dog food, flour and plastic forks — the same items that ended up on Base’s house and lawn. The cash transaction left no easy way to trace the purchaser, but Base was on a roll. She asked if the store had video surveillance.

The footage showed four teenagers making the purchase: one of them wore a Norco High School letterman’s jacket with a name stitched across the back. The store’s parking-lot surveillance camera caught the truck the kids were driving.

Norco sheriff deputies didn’t take long to figure out who was responsible.

However, when the case stalled, Base nudged it along. She borrowed a Norco High yearbook and used online databases to get the name spellings, phone numbers and addresses of the kids on the store tape.

Seems like a case of her becoming a deputy or at least a concerned-citizen and helping carry along the investigation, with the blessing of her local law enforcement agency, in the interest of justice.