Something that concerns most homeowners is the safety of their home while they’re not there. Burglary is very common in most parts of the world. The good news is that it’s not as common as you might think. And there are ways to decrease your risk.
In the US there are 340 burglaries for each 100,000 people. That doesn’t sound like much but it still equates to many millions of burglaries. Below we’ve got some tips on how you can improve your chances of being among the 99,660 people per 100,000 who do not get burgled.
Secure Your Doors And Windows
Many burglaries are crimes of convenience. With these crimes, we’re not talking Ocean’s Eleven here, a team of experts plotting how to compromise the defenses of your home and steal your white goods. What we’re talking about is a man or woman who sees your home is available and looks for a point of entry.
Streets are full of homes and if yours is fully secured, the likelihood of this man or woman moving on to the next is high.
With that in mind, don’t leave open windows and doors for them. Don’t leave ladders or other devices that will facilitate entry readily available for them.
Burglars don’t want to spend too long gaining entry to your home. Make it hard for them.
Get An Alarm
Having a professionally fitted security alarm is another great way to secure your home. If you’re trying to remove expensive items from someone else’ home, you don’t want an alarm screaming it’s head off. Burglars value discretion when they’re taking stuff from your home. A 100dB siren is not discrete.
Top tip: Bob from Brisbane Security Alarm Systems advised us to set our alarms even when we’re leaving the home for a few minutes. He told us it was remarkable how many homes he attended that had been burgled when the homeowner was just ducking out for groceries or to drop a child at school. This advice can also be applied to securing doors and windows, mentioned above.
If you do have an alarm, make sure it doesn’t experience false alarms. If it does, call in a professional alarm installer to have it fixed. False alarms are the little boy who cried wolf of home security.
Related to alarms are motion activated lights. If you have an area like we do, a shed accessed via a laneway, then that sort of area is a good place to put motion activated lights. The convenience will be great for your own purposes. And it’ll be a pain in the neck for anyone trying to discreetly access your shed to steal your tools.
Get Social
Knowing your neighbours and being friendly with them increases your security. If they know your habits and are concerned for you, they’re much more likely to report suspicious activity or challenge people snooping around your home. Let them know when you’re going on holidays and if you’re having anyone stay while you’re away. That way, if someone does enter your home who is not supposed to be there, your neighbours will have greater certainty that they’re intruders.
Make It Look Like You’re Home
While you’re away from your home, leave on some lights, a television or radio. Smart switches are cheap enough these days. You can use these to program lights to turn on and off. We have them in our home and use them even when we’re home. Combining them with a smart speaker lets us turn the lights on and off by voice command.
If you’re away for a longer period of time, get a gardner to clean up the yard. Have a neighbour collect any mail that might collect in your letterbox.
With these tips you can lower your chances of having your home broken into. Remember to practice them each time you leave your home and you should return to find it just as you left it.
