It’s not like the good old days where you could leave your doors unlocked and didn’t have to think twice. Nowadays, it’s a different story. In 2014, there were an estimated 1,729,806 burglaries, with a burglary occurring every 18.2 seconds in the US (as per FBI 2014 stats).
I live in Canada out in the country where not much crime occurs, yet there are neighbours in the area who’s houses have been broken into. Plus, not too long ago there was a police chase where the suspects fled on foot. They went door to door in this area trying to break-in to get keys for a car to escape. A family had gotten roughed up in the process before the suspects got caught.
Just goes to show you, anything can happen at any time.
You should have measures in place to make it more difficult for anyone to break into your home.
Your home is where you and your family should feel safe, and secure…..always.
So, time to get prepared, and increase your home security.
NOT GIVING SOMEONE A REASON TO TARGET YOUR HOUSE
When purchasing anything that is worth stealing (which to a thief could be anything), be mindful of the garbage. You put an empty box for a 60 inch TV on the curb; you’re displaying to thieves what’s inside your house. Think about this especially during the holidays. Your best bet for something like a 60 inch TV box, is to fold it inside out, or cut it up so no one knows what it was for.
This also goes for when bringing the item home from the store. All it takes is that wrong person to see you carrying that 60 inch TV in the house. If you have a garage, maybe you would want to pull your vehicle in the garage before taking it into the house. If you don’t have a garage, maybe you would want to make the purchase in the evening and bring it in while it is dark.
WHEN SOMEONE IS LOOKING TO TARGET A HOUSE
When houses are being scouted to be broken into, the best defense at this stage is to have deterrents. Personally, I think a (mid-large) dog is the best deterrent. Other good options are, video cameras visible on the outside, a motion sensor flood light, alarm, alarm and/or beware of dog signs, leaving a TV or radio on loudly while away, and place objects (such as rose bushes) in front of easy accessible windows.
YOUR HOUSE HAS BEEN TARGETED AND THEY ARE COMING IN
Sometimes deterrents just won’t work and there is nothing you can do to avoid someone trying to breach your house. At this stage you need your house to be physically locked down to slow down or hopefully stop the invader(s).
The doors to your house should not have any glass windows near the locks, for if it was broken, they would have quick easy access to them. Just like, you shouldn’t have any windows directly beside your door for the same reason. Speaking about locks, you definitely want a deadbolt. You can add one of those chain locks for looks, because that is all they are good for.
Ideally, your door and frame should be made out of metal. This is much harder to break down than wood and other material (ie. particle wood) made doors and frames. But if you do have one of these less desirable doors and frames, you can add door reinforcement plates to strengthen the weak points. One example of a frame reinforcement is the Door Devil. (video from ITS Tactical)
Any sliding glass doors and windows should be locked, and a stick or pole placed in the tracks so it cannot be opened, both vertically and horizontally.
You can put bars on the outside of windows, but I personally don’t want my house to feel like a prison. Another option to reinforce windows from being easily smashed is to put on an anti-break window film.
For those that have an attached garage, you have another area to think about. The majority of people I know don’t lock the door leading into their garage. They think that the garage door being closed is sufficient. Well check out Samy opening almost any garage in under 10 seconds with a kid’s toy.
Another quick and easy way for an invader to gain access to your garage is by pushing in the top of the garage door and pulling the emergency release. This then allows them to open the garage door freely. One way to defend against that is to use thin zip ties or elastics to secure the garage door emergency release up out of the way of invaders. Thin so if you needed to use the emergency release yourself, you can still pull and break them.
Unfortunately, given enough time, invaders could bypass any of these. So with that in mind, have a plan in place on what you and your family would do if someone did gain entry into your home.
These are just a few ways you can increase the security of your home. I’m sure you’ve heard of some (or all) before, but I hope there is something you can take away from this to help secure your home.
Until next time