Tips To Protect Yourself And Your Family
Personal Home Safety
Home invasion robberies are scary and most of the victims have been seniors. The crime itself threatens our belief that we are safest in our homes. This page will help you improve the safety of your home and neighborhood. If you need more information on home invasion robbery prevention call your local Law Enforcement agency. They will be glad to help.
Criminals generally look for opportunities that require the least effort and offer low risk and high gain. Here are some examples how you can make your home and neighborhood less attractive to home invasion robbery.
- Safety At Your Front Door
- Never automatically open your front door. Make sure you know your caller's identity before admitting him.
- If the person at your door is a stranger, ask for identification to be passed under the door. If he is unable to do this, do not admit him. If you do, you are asking for a home invasion robbery.
- It is advisable to have a wide angle viewer (peep-hole) in the door so that you can check a person's identity without unlocking your door.
- Home Invasion Safety
- All doors in your home leading to the outside should have dead-bolt locks. A must for robbery prevention.
- When away at night, leave a light burning.
- Do not leave a key over a door or under a mat.
- The single lock on a garage door is inadequate to keep home invaders from prying up the opposite side and crawling in. Use a padlock. But never leave it unlocked. This is an invitation to have the padlock removed so that a key can be made, and the lock returned to its position. Later, the burglar returns when no one is home and enters at his leisure, using "his" key.
- Mark your valuables and keep an accurate record of all your most valuable possessions.
- When leaving on a trip:
A. Stop all deliveries.
B. Connect a light to a timer.
C. Notify the police and have a neighbor check your home periodically.
D. Have someone maintain your lawn.
- Be a concerned neighbor.
If you see a suspicious person, car or situation, contact the police.
What if it happens to you?
If you are a victim of a home invasion robbery remember the following:
STAY calm.
COOPERATE. No amount of cash or property is worth getting hurt over.
DON'T fight back unless you determine that you are in danger of being killed.
Instead, concentrate on getting information so you can be an effective witness.
LOOK carefully at the intruders, even if they are masked.
Is there something unique about them such as scars, tattoos, large nose?
What are they wearing? Listen to everything they say, and how they say it.
Catch any distinguishing odors such as tobacco, alcohol, or aftershave.
Personal home safety means taking charge of your security at home and in the community. Involve your whole family in creating a personal home safety plan that fits your family needs. Get to know your neighbors and work with them to keep your neighborhood safe.
The police are committed to making your city a safer place to live. But they can't do it alone.
To keep our communities safe, we all have to work together.
Protection From a Home Invasion
If you have a lot of jewelry, valuable documents, cash or other negotiable items, consider installing a safe or a burglar alarm. Don't leave notes for service people or family members on the door, these act as a welcome mat for a burglar.
Trees located near windows or shrubbery that might shield a burglar from view can be major flaws in your home-protection plan. Consider your landscaping plan in light of your protection needs. Keep shrubs trimmed below windows to reduce cover. A burglar would rather enter through a window that is hidden from view than one where he is exposed.
A door with too much space between the door and the frame is an invitation for the burglar to use a jimmy. Reinforce the door with a panel of 3/4-inch plywood or a piece of sheet metal. It is also easy for a burglar to pry through rot. Replace rotted door frames with new, solid wood. When installing a window lock, drip some solder on the screw heads. It will stop a burglar from unscrewing the lock after cutting a small hole in the windowpane.
When you are away or traveling have neighbors, friends or family pick up your mail or even better contact the post office to hold your mail. Employ someone to mow your lawn, use your garbage cans, and park in your driveway when you are away. Even if a burglar knows you are away, the activity around your home will act as a deterrent. Consider an investment in a monitored home security system as they are a very effective deterrent against crime. The home security system that you install need not be a state-of -the art. For the most effective alarm system, conceal all wiring. A professional burglar looks for places where he or she can disconnect the security system.
Some individuals even will place a home security system sticker in their window even though you don't have a security system. The sticker may be enough to cause a thief to pass your house. Put up a security system sign or beware of dog sign and make it visible from the road. Believe it or not it is a proven deterrent.
Use simple safety systems to protect your home. Use locks and other mechanisms to lock the doors that are difficult to break. The longer the burglar takes to break into the house, the greater the chances that he will be caught. Use multiple locks for the doors and windows. At minimum utilize a double locking system for all doors and windows.
If there are door hinges on the outside of your house, take down the door and reset the hinges inside. Otherwise all a thief has to do to gain entry to your home is knock out the hinge pin.
It's simple for a thief to break glass panels and then reach in and open a doorknob from the inside. A door with glass panels should be either fortified, replaced, or secured with dead bolts that can only be opened with a key. Secure sliding glass doors with bars or locks, or put a wooden dowel or broom handle in the door track.
Dogs are good deterrents to burglars. Even a small, noisy dog can be effective burglars do not like to have attention drawn to their presence. Be aware, however, that trained guard dogs do not make good pets. Obedience training and attack training are entirely different, and only the former is appropriate for a house pet.
Think like a burglar. Put yourself in his shoes and find out the weak spots in the house from where the burglar can enter the house. When you do this you will be able to find the weak spots and can protect your home better. For example stand outside the window of your living room. Look at all the valuables in the room that a burglar can take. See how you can hide them, from view or rearrange them, in other rooms where they are not visible. Use hasp with protective covers for locks. This mechanism will make it more difficult for the burglar to break into the house. Have a home burglar alarm security system fitted in your house to protect your home.
Plan to "burglarize" yourself. You'll discover any weaknesses in your security system that may have previously escaped your notice.
