Prevent Residential Burglary
To prevent your home from becoming burglarized, there are several steps you can take to deter burglars or make it difficult for them to break into your home. You can alter the appearance of the outside of your home or hide valuables in secure locations inside your home to prevent burglars from stealing your personal property. Continue reading to learn how you can set up your residential home to prevent burglary.
Steps
- Perform routine tasks and clean up the outside your property on a regular basis to show you are occupying your home.
- Empty your mailbox on a regular basis, collect old newspapers from your driveway, or pick up discarded trash that has landed in your yard.
- Install timed lights or leave a radio or television playing if you are traveling or will be absent from your home for long periods of time.
- You may want to enlist a trusted friend or neighbor to keep an eye on your property and to collect your mail while you are traveling away from home.
- Lock all your doors, windows, garages, and sheds when you leave your home to make it difficult for burglars to enter without attracting the attention of others.
- Test your locks for their durability by trying to open your doors and windows from the outside.
- Install sturdy deadbolt locks on your doors to prevent thieves from breaking in easily.
- Make your doors and windows visible to the neighborhood and to the street.
- Cut away tree branches or high shrubbery that can hide burglars when they are breaking and entering your home.
- Store your valuables away from windows or doors where they can easily be seen from the outside.
- You may want to hang privacy curtains over windows to make it difficult for others to see inside.
- Hide or destroy any outside trash that may advertise your personal belongings to the rest of your neighborhood.
- For example, you may want to break down or destroy boxes that contained valuable, expensive electronic devices you may have just purchased, such as a large television or stereo system.
- Leave spare house keys with trusted friends, family, or neighbors instead of placing them outside on your property.
- Burglars may be familiar with common hiding places for spare keys.
- Park your vehicles inside a closed garage if you have one to make it difficult for burglars to determine if you are home or not.
- Install a home alarm system to deter burglars and to alarm authorities if there is a break-in.
- Consult with your home insurance provider to seek discounts for alarm systems.
- Stray away from routine schedules to make it more difficult for burglars to predict when you will be absent from your home.[[Image:Prevent Residential Burglary Step 10.jpg}}
- Only use fully shielded neighbor-friendly lighting that is equipped with motion or infrared detectors. Don't create a nuisance or safety hazard with glaring lights that impair vision. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design recommends lighting that does not create glare, light trespass, or deep shadows. Lighting only has potential to act as a deterrent if witnesses are present and can counter-productively attract attention to a target and assist a burglar. FBI statistics demonstrate that the majority of residential break-ins occur during daylight hours.{{fact|center]]
- Alter your outside landscaping to make it difficult for burglars to navigate your property without being seen or heard.
- You may want to surround your windows or home with loose gravel, stones, or rocks that will make noise when stepped on.
- Place plants or shrubbery under your windows or on your property that is difficult to navigate around, such as rose bushes with lots of thorns.
Tips
- You may want to consider purchasing or adopting a dog that will bark when burglars enter the property and deter potential burglars.
- Get a good chance and take a photo of the burglar, and call the police for help showing them the photo.
- Clean up anything which may help burglars gain access to your home, such as loose bricks and rocks.
Warnings
- Do not use forms of social media on the Internet to tell people when you are going on vacation or performing routine tasks such as visiting the gym or going grocery shopping.
- Do not leave a personalized answering machine greeting telling callers when you are traveling or on vacation because burglars may call you to see if you are home before coming over.
