What are some tips for making your home safe from burglars?
Improve the Locks on Your Doors
For starters, check your doors. You can buy/install a heavy-duty “deadbolt strike plate” with 3-inch long screws and attach it to the door frame. This helps prevent burglars from easily getting into your house. Also, consider having solid hardwood doors or doors made of steel, rather than lightweight, hollow-core doors. Strong and secure doors keep burglars out of your house. Oh, and one more tip: for sliding doors/windows, put a dowel or shower curtain rod in the track so burglars can’t easily get them open.
Utilize Your Lights
Next, use timers to turn lights on and off in the house at night. This way, it looks like someone is living there, inside, and using lamps to light various rooms. Burglars love dark houses with no lights on, so it makes sense to leave a couple on while you’re away, and install motion-detector lights for your yard, too. You can also go so far as to leave a TV or radio on so there’s noise coming from inside your house. Burglars would rather steal from a house where they assume no one is home– if your place is lit up and noisy, they’re likely to move on to another house.\
Strategically Placed Signage
Thirdly, post signs that warn burglars to stay away– a “beware of dog” sign, even if you don’t have a dog, is a great way to deter burglars. You can also use real or fake alarm service stickers on your windows and doors.
Using a Safe
Should a burglar end up breaking into your house while you’re away, it’s a smart idea to keep your valuables locked up in a safe. You can find out more about safes from JC Security here. It’s also a good idea to periodically change the locks on your doors just like you’d change the passwords for your computer accounts.
Be Careful of Social Media Posts
Finally, when you decide to go on vacation be careful about posting that you’re away from home. While you might be dying to post pictures of your beach resort on Facebook or Instagram, remember that many people you don’t even know can and will end up seeing those pictures. The more people know you’re away from home, the more likely burglars might target your house. Therefore, wait ‘til you get home to post pictures from your vacation.