Safe rooms are the single most important means for reliably separating the home owner from intruders while providing a safe place to await the arrival of police or on-site security.

The technicians at McCoy's Home Security specialize in new safe rooms and conversion of existing closets or bathrooms or other suitable rooms into safe enclosures while leaving interiors virtually unchanged.

Providing a safe place to wait out an intrusion emergency is always a key part of any safety plan.

When you hear the words "panic room," you might think of the 2002 flick in which Jodie Foster hides in a fortified room in a town house. Foster's character has a bevy of surveillance equipment and supplies, but thieves terrorize her and attack the room until she is forced to come out and confront them.

But panic rooms are generally less dangerous and exciting than they sound. For one, they're usually called "safe rooms," which makes them seem a little less dramatic.

We can also trace their origins much further back than any Jodie Foster movie. Medieval feudal lords, for example, used safe rooms as protection from siege. But how close does Hollywood come to capturing a real panic room?

Today's panic rooms can be extremely high-tech. Most security experts say that with basic communication equipment, occupants should have to hole up in the room for only an hour or two in case of a home invasion.

To understand the panic room, we have to understand why people want them.

Besides basic provisions and a good lock panic rooms can include any number of features, from a battery of artillery to a fully stocked wet bar. But details are hard to come by -- because people are paying for privacy, most panic-room builders are unwilling to disclose much information.