Tips on preventing burglaries
From Tip Sense
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Tips on Preventing Burglaries
- Burglaries are a common form of criminal activity.
- While you cannot make your home impossible to break into, you can make your home hard to break into.
- This article is designed to help reduce the chance, and severity of potential burglar attacks on a private home.
- Feel free to add, or modify information in this tip as you feel appropriate.
- Feel free to share this imformation with friends.
- Feel free to link associated information to this article.
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Don't be the best target
- Burglarizing homes is one of the least rewarding, and most risky undertakings a criminal can engage in. Almost all other targets are less protected, and more accepting of losses from crime.
- A burglar will seek out the home which appears most private, most accessible, and most full of items that can be carried away, and sold.
- A burglar will often walk, or drive by neighborhoods in search of a likely home.
- To avoid a burglar, you often need only make your house less appealing than others on your block.
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Make good neighbors
- No matter what you do to protect your home, the biggest deterrent against a burglar is another person. You won't be around the house all the time, and police, or private security takes time to get there. Give neighbors a reason to care about your home.
- Be especially friendly with the (usually) eight houses closest to you, the two on either side, the one across the street, the one behind you, and the four at either corner. They will be closest to any burglary.
- Be kind to retired individuals, stay at home mothers, day-sleepers, and other individuals who are likely to be present and alert when you are not. About 52% of burglaries occur at night. Most of the other 48% occur between 9-5, when people are at work.
- Try to get on good terms with neighborhood kids. The average burglar is male, under 22, unemployed, antisocial, and strikes homes of strangers or enemies within a 6 mile radius of his home. If you know these potential burglars, they will be unlikely to attack you. If you help them become self-sufficient, or instill good morals in them, they will be unlikely to change from a potential burglar into an actual burglar.
- Trim bushes and trees so your neighbors can have a clear view of the doors windows and fenceline a burglar is most likely to use.
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Don't let them know when you are out
- Burglars don't like to get caught in the act. If they have trouble telling for sure whether or not you are around, they will probably look elsewhere.
- Use light timers on lights, radios, and TVs, so that the home has the look, and sound of being occupied. Change the timers a bit every once in a while.
- Turn the ring tone on your home phone down low enough that it cannot be easily heard from outside. Also, get an answering machine, so the ringing doesn't go on and on forever.
- Park in the Garage: A car outside means someone is home, but when the car is almost never outside, you can't be sure what it means.
- Close curtains so they won't know when people are, and aren't in a room.
- Invite friends (and neighbors) over on your days off to keep them guessing on how many people even live there.
- Have yardworkers, or other hired hands come when you are out, to further complicate things.
- have the yardworkers get a key from a trusted neighbor to enter the backyard. The neighbors could be watching!
- When you are away, be sure to put a hold on your mail at the post office, and on your newspaper at the paper's office. Also have someone roll out the trash bins, and check to be sure the mailbox, and driveway doesn't get filled with stuff. Mail and newspaper holds don't always work, and advertisers sometimes toss their own things in these places.
- Have a pet to make random noise from inside.
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Don't let them know what you have
- Arrange furniture so valuables are not visible from outside the house.
- Keep first floor curtains closed so they cannot scope out the rooms ahead of time.
- When throwing out boxes from valuable purchases, bury them under other garbage.
- Shred receipts.
- If you have a fireplace, paper and cardboard (but not styrofoam) can be burnt in it to destroy evidence of purchases.
- be careful when transporting particularly valuable items, such as guns, or laptops.
- Do not put your valuables on display when guests are over. Sad to say, but they may talk about your percieved wealth to untrustworthy types.
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Don't look accessible
- A fence around the front yard, or a gate before the front door means they cannot haul items right out the door as easily.
- Security screen doors usually mean they would have to break through twice as many locks.
- Back gates left open mean they can get into the back yard, and take their time in private...without a dog.
- Beware of dog signs, alarm signs, and neighborhood watch signs are almost as good as actually having the items the signs warn about... Especially if you go a bit farther, and make the sign seem plausible, with dog dishes, etc.
- Thorny plants around windows and fences will make getting in and out look painful.
- Gravel around windows and fences will make getting in and out seem noisy.
- Lights around windows and fences will make getting in and out very obvious to anyone watching.
- trees and bushes that are trimmed so there is good visibility around doors and windows will make getting in undetected much harder.
- Blinds on first floor windows can make getting in through a window seem noisy.
- Knicknacks on windowsills can make getting in through windows seem noisy.
- Window bars can also be a bit of a deterrent, but there are safety issues involved here.
- Do not leave your keys inside where they can be seen from the window.
- Do not use key hiding rocks, or other devices. There are only a few shapes. Criminals will know what they are.
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Reduce accessibility
- Make sure all exterior doors are secure.
- Use a deadbolt with a solid metal throw of 1 inch or more. Select locks with mushroom pins.
- Have at least one other locking device on all exterior doors.
- Make sure exterior doors have at least three hinges.
- Secure all knobs, hinges, and other hardware on doors with extra long screws.
- Make sure the doorframe around hinges and strike plates is solid.
- Make sure weather stripping around doorframes protects lock throws, and hinges from the outside.
- Use hinges with non removable hinge pins.
- If a pet door, or mail slot is present, make sure it can be locked separate from the door, and use additional locks that cannot be reached from the extra opening.
- Consider all doors for the garage to be exterior doors.
- Make sure all first floor windows are secure.
- Sliding windows can be secured with a wooden dowel in the track, or with a nail through a hole drilled in the panes.
- Hinged windows should be locked onto the frame.
- Windows should be double paned, and security film can be applied over the glass for added protection.
- Sliding glass doors, and second story windows that can be reached by climbing should be secured in the same way that first floor windows are secured.
- Secure the fence to the back yard.
- Thorn plants can be grown at corners, where climbing the fence is easiest, and trained into arches over gates, where the fence may be lowest.
- gates should always be locked.
- Lock up any tools that are stored outside, or in the garage. A burglar could use them to help break in.
- Chain up valuables that are stored outside.
- Do not hide a key. Burglars know where to look. If you need a spare outside, put it in a key locker, and hide that.
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Protect your property
- Mark items with your state's abbreviation, and driver's license number. Most police stations or libraries can rent, give away, or sell either an engraver, or a UV marker.
- Secure valuable electronics that don't need to move by locking them together. Cable locks can be purchased specificially for computers or home entertainment centers.
- Get locking cabinets, locking file cabinets, and safes to store valuables in.
- Look into alarm systems. Cheap basic home alarm systems that sound a horn are available at some electronic stores. Your neighbors are likely to check on such a noise if you don't have too many false alarms. Professional jobs generally require monthly fees, and surcharges for false alarms, but are available as well.
- Have rare valuables appraised, and possibly insured.
- Make a list of valuables, and where you keep them. Store it in a safe place. This can be useful for insurers, and police interested in reconstructing the crime.
- Photograph valuables you cannot mark.
- Consider pets. Dogs, and most birds can make a lot of noise if surprised. Many other animals can attack. Burglars generally consider them to be at least an annoying setback.
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Recovering from a burglary
- Over 2/3 of all burglaries occur in a home that has been burglarized before.
- the tips in previous sections may have seemed like too much work, but to prevent future victimization, more security should be incorporated into your home, especially wherever they came in from.
- Many police agencies will provide assistance in buying locks, fixing doors, fences, warning stickers, etc. if you have been burglarized.
- Be sure to repair damage right away. Call up local companies capable of repairing doors, fences, and windows. Find out which ones can do emergency work at odd hours, or on weekends.
- Give a trusted neighbor limited power of attorney, authorizing them to hire workers as needed to repair damage caused by a burglary if you are out. Give them the information on companies that can do emergency work.
- the tips in previous sections may have seemed like too much work, but to prevent future victimization, more security should be incorporated into your home, especially wherever they came in from.
- When a burglary occurs, make sure the damage will get repaired right away, put up protective measures until they do get fixed, and clean up the mess... In that order.
- Never put up a "nothing left to steal" note. That tells others that it's easy to break in to your house, and chances are there really still is something to steal.
- A majority of burglaries go unsolved because the stolen goods cannot be recovered, or when recovered by the police, cannot be proven to belong to the victim of a specific crime.
- Make sure your property was marked, photographed, and receipts were kept. Make three copies. One for the police, one for the insurance, and one for you.
- Police agencies are understaffed. You may need to go on your own investigation.
- have a look around pawn shops, antique stores, and anyplace else that your stolen items might logically have been sold.
- If you trust the owner, tell them you are looking for stolen goods.
- Never accuse the owner of having knowingly purchased stolen property.
- if you find your stolen property, you can buy it, talk to the store owner, or contact the police.
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