Five Tips to Keep Your Home from being Burglarized

I just read the latest F.B.I statistics on burglaries. A home in the U.S. is burglarized about every 15 seconds. The average monetary loss from a home burglary is around $2,000. Knowing that your home refuge has been compromised is unnerving to say the least. Your home where you felt comfortable and where you slept cozy and comfy every night being violated is quite unnerving. The good news is there are some simple safeguards we can all do to lesson the chance of a home burglary. Here are the five most important ones in my opinion.

· Lock your doors—You would be shocked if you knew how many people do not lock their house doors. Years ago, I worked a case where a nighttime serial burglar went from house to house and checked home’s doors. If he found an open one, he’d enter and burglarize it. He passed up every home that had locked doors. He did this for months and he was never caught. Imagine if he would have had rape on his mind rather than burglary. We live in a mobile society. With automobiles, a good neighborhood can be perhaps a 30-minute ride from a terrible neighborhood. Secure them up, and that includes those sliding glass doors too—day and night!

· Lights, lights and more lights—Light up your yard and house as much as practical. Consider getting motion detector lights that go on if someone walks by them. They are inexpensive and easy to install. I actually installed them at my house and I am the world’s most un-handy human being you’ll ever meet.

· Overgrown vegetation—Tall hedges and shrubs near your house create hiding spots for burglars to do their deed or worse yet, wait for you while you are walking into your home—trim them up.

· Consider getting an alarm system—Alarms are a deterrent. In some neighborhoods where police response is poor they may not be respected much by the bad-guy, however, I recommend you get an alarm that has a silent alarm to summon police and also a blaring loud alarm, placed on the outside of your home to let your neighbors know someone is breaking in. Burglars are like cockroaches, they do not like noise or light. Many quality alarms are inexpensive. Monthly home monitoring is around 25 dollars a month. If you can afford it, I recommend you get one.

· Make your home look occupied—When leaving at night, leave lights on. Switch them around. As an example: one time when you leave put a hallway light on, the next time you leave for the evening try leaving a kitchen light on and possibly your television. Alternatively, buy inexpensive timers that you put on lights and radios or televisions to go on and off at different times just as if someone at home would be doing.

There are many other good tips to burglarproof your home, some of which I address in my book that I wrote several years ago. Areas such as dogs, fences and asking your neighbors to keep an eye on your home and a host of others are helpful. However, the main five I mention above are very good basics. All are quite affordable. The most expensive is the alarm system, can be the last one on your list, and is not a prerequisite for your safety. Keeping your home safe and secure sometimes just takes a little attention.