I’d wager that no one leaves their home without being at least somewhat concerned about the belongings that they leave behind. Contained within most homes, is the sum total of the owner’s life, and not just in a material sense. There are plenty of items with sentimental value as well. And all of it is typically protected by little more than a few locks on the doors and windows. If someone really wants to break into your home and steal what you own when you’re not around, chances are that there isn’t much standing in their way.
But if you want to make it harder for any would-be burglar to enter your home, or at least make your home a less desirable target, don’t just buy an alarm system and call it day. You should really listen to people who are burglars and take their advice. An MSNBC affiliate out of Atlanta recently did just that. They sent letters to 86 people who had gone to prison for burglary and asked them a variety questions about their crimes. Their answers could tell you a lot about how to protect your home from this crime. What they told reporters included the following:
- Don’t advertise what you own. One burglar admitted to looking for homes that had cars with NRA bumper stickers, which would indicate that there are plenty of guns to steal there.
- Burglars don’t just look in obvious places. If they feel safe, they’ll tear everything up looking for hidden valuables.
- The best time to break into a house was between 12:30 and 2:30, because it’s rare for both kids or adults to be home at that time period.
- Not all burglars are intimidated by security alarm signs and cameras, and many admitted to knowing how to disable alarms. Some suggested that cameras would indicate that there are valuables in the home.
- As you might expect, burglars are terrified of large dog breeds.
- Burglars aren’t typically killers. They don’t want to a serious confrontation with a homeowner, so any sign that someone is home is a deterrent.
When asked what precautions homeowners should take to keep their homes from being burglarized, most of the inmates gave similar answers. For instance, many of them suggested that homeowners leave some sign that someone is home, such as parking a car in the driveway or leaving a TV or radio on.
But the biggest deterrent is visibility, and that applies in more than one sense. They suggested that you keep your bushes and trees trimmed so that your home is easy to see. Homes that were isolated, either by the distance from other houses or by being obscured by big fences and vegetation were definitely easier to rob. It seems that the things people build around their homes to make them feel safer have the opposite effect.
And of course, visibility means nothing if no one is actually watching your home. One inmate admitted to preferring homes in communities where the neighbors were very reserved and conservative, and others recommended that you get to know your neighbors. The implication is obvious. In neighborhoods where people don’t really know each other or care about each other, it’s quite easy to break into a home.
That’s because nobody wants to get involved when they see someone hopping your fence, nobody can tell if anything out of the ordinary is going on in your home if they don’t know you, and nobody is really paying attention. As a result, nobody calls the cops.
The bottom line is that neighborhoods, where people talk to each other and don’t feel the need to build barriers between each other, are safer. And that’s probably something that we’ve known intuitively all along.
My neighbor had security cameras….. Guess they weren’t so secure; when his house got burglarized, they took the cameras!
We live in a very low-crime rural area, but my neighbor has been robbed TWICE…both times by people he had had dealings with (People he had hired for agricultural work, and a former tenant).
The above proves what I’ve always known to be true: Be very careful as to who you hire or invite into your home- many burglaries are perpetrated by, or at least instigated by someone with whom you had dealings or who has otherwise been to your home before.
Delivery men who install water heaters, appliances and furniture movers have been arrested for robbery and even rape in my area. Plumbers and electricians less likely. Hide any valuables out of sight, incl. purse before someone comes over. Yes, even those you know as friends.
I’d want a plumber to install a water heater.
There is zero point in installing cameras that aren’t remotely monitored and recorded. While they may not deter a break in, they’ll capture identifying information that might lead competent investigators to the perps. If I had such cameras, they’d be aimed at places that wouldn’t present a security threat and I’d liberally distribute the URLs, which would multiply the number of eyes watching them. There are several software packages that automatically send emails and text messages when motion is detected, along with the images.
Shotgun Booby Trap! Illegal, but Effective!
While you sit on death row, where you’ll never be burglarized, but maybe sodomized.
Nope, never been in an 80 convict dorm. Knew there had to be a better reason not to go to Florida than the Cubans and the mosquitos.
Whats it to ya?
Kid Know it all??
Well Counselor! WHERE did you graduate Law School??
Apparently some place that was rated better than you attended.
Not Hardly! If you’re Moderator, this sites in trouble
Simplisafe is particularly entertaining with their commercials that say that they can’t be overridden by scissors cutting the wireline connection to the police. I called them up and asked them about their vulnerability to cellphone blockers. The agent told me that they weren’t invulnerable to cellphone blockers but they are illegal, at which point I pointed out that so is burglary, crickets.