Home Security
How to avoid attracting the attention of criminals
Today home property theft is on the rise. However, in most cases, the theft is an opportune theft - little or no planning has gone into it. To prevent this, the following are 15 simple points you can adopt as home security measures to avoid attracting the attention of criminals.
- Make sure any ground level windows, or windows that can be easily reached by a short climb, are locked if you are not in the room.
- Make sure any sliding doors you have are firmly locked at all times.
- Whenever possibly, use glass that is not easy to break and make sure any locks you have on your glass windows or doors cannot be reached by simply putting your hand trough a broken window.
- If possible, use dead bolt locks - also make sure that you have locks on all your doors, including your garage, cellar, patio, etc.
- Make sure you use timers to activate devices such as lights in your home, radios, etc. to give the appearance that someone is home.
- If you are going away for any length of time, make sure you cancel any delivers, such as newspapers, that you get regularly. Nothing is a give away as much as built up post, so again, if you are going away for more than a couple of days, ask someone to tidy up your post.
- If you have a neighborhood watch scheme in your neighborhood, join it. If there is no neighborhood watch scheme, think about setting one up.
- Make sure your garden is always nicely trimmed, that there are no "blind spots" where someone could easily hide and always make sure the exterior of your home has lots of lights.
- Install a home security and burglar alarm system and make sure that it is prominently displayed.
- Never, ever open the door to anyone you don't know. To avoid having to do this, make sure your front door has as wide angle viewer lens installed so you can read their ID - and phone to check it - before you let the person into your home.
- If you see any strange people or cars in your neighborhood, don't be afraid to call the local police to check them out.
- If at all possible, try not to keep to a schedule that is easy to catch on to after watching you for a few days - for example, if you normally take the dog out at 7:00 a.m., mix this up a little.
- Never display any valuables, such as TV and stereo, that can be seen from the exterior of your home or by looking through your windows.
- Check to see if there is any area near your home where it might be able to easily park a van unnoticed. If there is, try to make sure that you add lights here so that someone would not feel comfortable loitering in this area.
- Finally, never, under any circumstances, leave a spare key to your home outside your house; for example, under the door mat or in a flower pot!
Hopefully following these simple rules will help you to make sure you don't attract the attention of any unwanted criminals.