10 Simple Burglar Protection Tips
Keep Burglars at Bay and Away
There is a home robbery in this country every 15 seconds. Thankfully, there are several simple steps you can take both inside and outside your home to provide you with some sound burglary protection. The following 10 steps will make a robber think twice before attempting anything on your property.
1. Illuminate your exterior doorways at night. By keeping your entryways bright, it makes it difficult for anyone to sneak in undetected. Lights with motion detectors are a plus with regards to burglar protection. The light stays off until the would-be robber’s movement triggers it to come on, likely startling the robber and drawing more attention to your door.
2. Install reliable locks and, well, lock your doors. Sounds too simple, but over 30 percent of home invasions show no sign of forced entry. Exterior doors, along with any door leading into the garage, should have a high quality, dead-bolt lock. Doors that are close to windows will require a special double-bolt cylinder lock for extreme burglary protection. This lock requires a key to unlock the door from both the outside and the inside, so no one can break the glass and reach inside to unlock your door.
3. Landscape for safety as well as beauty. A well-placed prickly bush under your windows makes your home far less inviting. At the same time, watch for oversized trees and shrubs that create hiding places or climbing opportunities.
4. Purchase a home alarm system. According to a study conducted by Temple University, a monitored home security system can provide up to 66 percent greater burglar protection over a home without such a system.
5. Putting your lights and electronics on a random timer also offers additional burglary protection. And this tip isn’t just good for vacations; if you work outside of the home, it is likely that the burglar has watched you come and go regularly. Have your lights, radio and television turn on and off at a variety of times to give outsiders the impression that someone is still in the house.
6. Solid wood or steel doors provide burglar protection by creating a nearly impenetrable barrier to your home. Many older exterior doors are thin or even hollow, making forced entry as simple as a few key strikes.
7. Keep the blinds and curtains closed. Open blinds allows people to window shop your home for valuables. By keeping the contents of your home a mystery, you are more likely to be passed over should a burglar enter the neighborhood—the best burglar protection of all.
8. Skip the key-hidden-inside-a-fake-rock-trick. Trust me, if I know about this trick, so does everyone else. The same thing goes for hiding keys under a doormat or over the doorframe. You are better off giving a spare key to a nearby family member and dealing with the laughter when they come to let you in to your own home.
9. Take your name off the mailbox and don’t hang up any plaques outside displaying your name. By using your last name, a robber can find your phone number and then call to make sure no one is at home.
10. Stash that trash! You’ve gone to the trouble of taking the name off your mailbox, so don’t leave junk mail flowing out of your recycle bin either. And, take the time to cut up that computer box or anything else that might clue people in to what new goodies you have at home. Again, one of the best burglar protection methods is making the contents of your home unknown.
The bottom line: Don’t make it easy for someone to take what is yours. A little bit of effort, mixed with a lot of common sense, can be all it takes to give your home the burglary protection it needs.
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