You Must Take These Precautions To Protect Your Home From Burglars

Home invasions are incredibly frightening.

Even if you’re not home when it happens, a break-in can shatter your sense of security.

Here are some tips in order to protect your home from burglars.

The Department of Justice states that roughly 3.7 million home invasions happen every year.

About one million of them occur when someone is home, which is truly terrifying, and approximately 70% of invasions take place when the house is empty.

Most break-ins happen during the day because burglars are trying to minimize the chances of an encounter and assume adults will be at work and children at school.

It’s not a bad idea to familiarize yourself with your immediate neighbors so they’ll be aware of who should and shouldn’t be entering your house.

This is particularly true if you live at the end of a street.

Burglars like to target these homes because there are only neighbors on one side, which means fewer potential eyes watching.

Next, a dog that barks at strangers is an excellent deterrent.

Most robbers don’t want to draw attention to themselves, especially during the day when they don’t have as many places to hide.

Having a “beware of dog” sign isn’t enough because savvy criminals will test to see if there’s a noisy dog on the premises.

The same goes for alarm systems.

Having the alarm sticker won’t suffice.

If your system isn’t active, a burglar will quickly discover that when he shatters a window or kicks in the front door.

However, visible cameras on your exterior will dissuade many thieves because they don’t want to run the risk of getting captured on video, and obscuring their face during the day makes them look suspicious.

Even cameras inside the house might scare off a thief.

Some burglars have actually been apprehended due to active webcams while the house was empty.

Doorbell services that alert you when someone is at the front door are not a bad tool to have at your disposal either.

Make sure all your windows, doors, and gates are locked.

Some burglars won’t be deterred by having to break a window, but the more your house looks like a hard target, the better.

Don’t leave out stools or chairs that could be used to hop your fence or reach a second-story window.

Also, having roses around your gate or fence can act as an obstacle since thieves won’t want to climb through thorny plants to gain access to your home.

If you’re out of town, be sure to suspend newspaper and mail services.

Some thieves might even look at the discoloration of your newspapers to get an idea of how long you’ve been away.

Finally, try not to have anything obviously valuable within eyesight through a window.

If you apply these rules, you’ll have a much better chance of keeping your home safe when you’re away.