Inside look at safe rooms or panic rooms and how they can keep you secure

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Homeowners across the Tri-state area are creating safe rooms or panic rooms to feel secure.

"The heavy duty door and the special lock," said Alan Wilzig, the homeowner.

Wilzig bought this townhouse in TriBeCa around the same time the movie "Panic Room" came out.

Wilzig said that he had good reason to install one. He has a lot of valuable things and the neighborhood was different 14 years ago.

"It's mostly empty warehouses that haven't been gentrified quite yet," Wilzig said.

But seems Wilzig's fascination with multiple dead bolts and bullet resistant glass is something that's become more and more of a thing lately.

"People think that police is not enough, the doorman's not enough, this is just an extra level of protection for them," said Victoria Shtainer, a real estate broker.

Tom Gaffney built check-cashing businesses for years and now he installs safe rooms of all kinds.

"This when you open the closet, you have a panic room behind the closet. This is a gun port for return fire," Gaffney said.

It may seem like a creepy scene from a movie, but not to Gaffney's well-heeled clients.

"Is there an up-tick right now?" Eyewitness News Reporter Stacey Sager asked.

"There is, there is, I'd say we're up 30% from this time last year," said Gaffney, of Gaffco Ballistics.

Customers are now asking for all kinds of upgrades, including rooms built to withstand dirty-bombs.

"I think the ISIS threat has become very real. I think Paris and San Bernardino are catalysts for a lot of people that said, 'Well, it's not just in the Middle East anymore,'" Gaffney said.

There's another new feature. You can call it the GoPro of all peepholes. Instead of looking straight out at the person behind the door, you can see about 178 degrees.

The bottom line: for some seeing is believing you are secure. The new safe room trend is part security, but perhaps also part status symbol as well.