Except none of us can use this now that's it's been posted on AT.

Riiiiight. A remote control left on my porch doesn't look out of place at all. I mean, sure this could be a good hiding place for things you want to hide INSIDE your home but I think that leaving a remote control on your porch just seems kind of odd.

My only fear would be that I would somehow forget that there's something hidden inside the old remote and recycle it to free myself of old clutter. D:

@MISSCYNTHIABELL: good point. lol

hahaha wait, a tv remote OUTSIDE on someone's porch is not conspicuous?!

A remote outside is...odd. Great idea though!

My husband is a retired police officer. Sometimes, the burglars like to enjoy watching your tv!

I think hiding cash or maybe a small piece of expensive jewelery and putting it in the living room might work. But placing it outside? So strange.

if someone is going to rob your house and steal your TV... would they not scoop up the remote on the couch on the way out? that'd just be an extra bonus for them haha

i would ... those universals are a pain to program!!!

I like to hide my valuables at the bottom of a box of tampons. Burglars are more likely to be male and from my experience, anything related to feminine hygiene tends to freak guys right out. Of course, you probably wouldn't want to leave a box of tampons hanging out on the porch either...

also --- i know it says "in and around your house" but im sure they don't mean on the porch or under the matt.... "dusty remote control left on a porch or counter top"

I used to keep a spare house key taped to the inside of my (unlocked) mailbox. When I had a break-in, the person didn't bother hunting around for a spare key--he just smashed a window.

This just seems like a crazy idea. If you really need to stash important things around your house, the best thing to do is get a safe that's bolted to the floor of your closet or invest in a safety deposit box at a bank.

Don't do it! When we were robbed they stole every remote, not the TV's (to large) but the remotes, every last one. Weird.

I don't see this working at all. While in theory the idea is good, it has too many possibilities for failure.

1) Someone who doesn't know its there to hide keys is likely to carry it inside.
2) A remote is not that big and a dog or an animal could carry it off.
3) Unless your patio/porch/deck has lots of other junk left on it, it will look very conspicuously out of place and make a quick entry for a burglar. (I mean come on now, which of us who read this post if we see a remote outside on our friends porch are not now going to wonder if its got a key in it?)
4) Some of us might live in a condo or apartment where this would never work.

If you have a deck/porch/patio chances are you have at least a couple planters there with either blooming flowers, or dirt. You can stick a key in one of them, or underneath it, and no one is going to think about it being out of place.

Bad, bad idea. When my apartment was robbed a few years ago, they took my remote, but not my TV. Someone told me later that thieves often don't make off with TVs (at least, not the old kind that I had) because they're too cumbersome, but DO take remotes because they can still resell them.

People are really so un-creative that they can't find a good spot outside to hide a key? Really? That's pretty sad.

I think a locking hide-a-key box is a better idea - that way if someone found it they still couldn't get at the key inside. Leaving a remote outside would look so strange that I wouldn't be surprised if it actually attracted attention. When we lived in an apt building, we had a set of keys with a neighbor we liked, but if she had ever moved, we were going to hide some keys a few blocks away in the park. Again - if someone found them, they wouldn't be able to do anything with them.

@wallflowerpower
I don't know about hiding your keys but it sounds like it would make one hell of a party favor.

We have one of those key safes that real estate agents use: looks like a heavy combination lock and is hooked discreetly on our porch railing behind some plants. Works fine.

They'd take the remote when they take your TV. The best advice I've gotten was to keep valuables in a tampon box. Burglars want nothing to do with that.

How about in a ziplock bag at the bottom of the litter pan? ;)

I installed a safe in my house (built into the wall). A burglar would have to set off dynamite to break into that thing!

Yeah, anybody remember To Catch a Thief on TLC (way back when there were things other than "lifestyle reality shows" on TLC)? The former-burglar on whom the show said at least once that he and other professionals he knew often took remotes out of spite - a sort of raised middle finger in addition to violating your home, I guess...

At our old house, I used to hide a key in a magnetic hide-a-key tin hidden underneath the back side of our air conditioner unit (on a concrete slab on the ground) behind the house. Nowhere near a door, nowhere it could be seen by chance. Got locked out by accident once in winter and had to slog through the snow to retrieve the thing, but it was great to have the access, and I'd have been amazed if a burglar could find it.

We had a metal fire resistant front door, so the only likely way to break in would have been the sliders on the deck -- fortunately that didn't happen, although we DID have some contractors who were rebuilding the deck (carpenter ants) simply REMOVE the locked slider from the outside so they could plug some power tool into the 220 socket for the dryer! (We were at work at the time.) After that, I used more security for the sliders -- it was too easy for them, but who knew!?

a remote outside the front door of my apartment would create an issue in my building. maintenance would probably end up knocking on my door asking if i dropped my remote or something.

not practical for every home. but i can see hiding cash in an old remote, but like others, i would end up throwing the remote away to relieve myself of clutter.

i will stick to a savings account, tyvm

I like the tampon box idea! That hadn't occurred to me before but from a psychological point of view it makes a lot of sense.

I keep my spare housekey stashed among the heaps of old pots and boxes of Miracle-Gro I have outside, since I'm a gardener....I think the tv remote is a terrible idea for your keys. Too conspicuous.

I was burglarized twice; both times, the thieves made sure to scoop up all of the remotes for the electronics they stole. This would be a goldmine for somebody.

I just don't have money... its a strategy I have been trying...

Also, I know a ton of people in college that used to get drunk and steal remotes, should we reward binge drinking stupidity?

Thanks to all the clever posters for the laugh. I aways thought there was a cliche about remote controls getting lost all the time anyways.

i did this very same thing with an old computer mouse...you can strip the guts and it pops open easily for storage

Inside a TV remote isn't that great of a hiding spot. :-(

I think the $30 for a pop-a-lock is worth less than the hassle of the hiding of the key and the anxious feeling someone will find the key.