According to the latest National Multifamily Housing Council Housing Statistics there are 122 million occupied housing units in the United States that are either rented or owned. Two thirds of them are freestanding homes while the other one third are apartment units. Both homes and apartments are equally subject to home burglary.
When you consider that a home intrusion occurs every 13 seconds according to the 2010 FBI Facts you begin to understand the scope of the problem.
You should also know that it’s a very lucrative crime to commit. Most burglaries happen in the space of 10 minutes or less and gain an average of $2000 in loot from a victimized home. And burglars know this: the chance of getting caught is less than 15%. It’s a high reward and low risk crime which is why it is so popular with burglars. Fewer than 5% of all burglaries are committed by what police consider professionals. Most burglars are committing the crime for the first or second time which is one of the reasons why simple window or door alarms are so effective. The loud noise they make when entry is attempted will usually scare a novice burglar away.
To understand why it happens so often all you need to do is probe those statistics to discover that about 30% of all burglaries happen through open or unlocked windows or doors.
In this blog post we will take a look at the most effective home burglary deterrents, that way you can decide which one you want to employ to improve your home security in the hopes of preventing burglars from gaining access to your home.
- The first on the list are obvious Signs and Decals that warn of a security system in place or of a guard dogs on the property. Believe it or not, burglars, are very cognizant of external advertising a homeowner may have by way of a sign in the front yard. When a burglar sees these signs they pay heed and choose another target.
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Motion Activated Lights are an effective deterrent to home burglary that occurs at night. Burglars thrive on darkened areas so a bright motion activated spotlight can work wonders. The problem is, the vast majority of home burglaries occur during daytime hours when burglars believe the homeowners are away.
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Dogs are a burglar’s number one enemy. When a burglar hears a dog yapping as he approaches the house, he is likely to do an about-face and target someone else. The only problem with this is that many people don’t want to be associated with all the worrisome troubles of having a dog.
- Fortunately there is a motion activated alarm that makes realistic sounding series of a Barking Dog when someone enters the protected area and it doesn’t have to be walked, fed or potty trained.
- Other motion activated alarms work by using passive infrared sensors that set off a loud alarm when motion is detected, but in this blog post we are talking about home security products that keep burglars out of the house.
- Another effective deterrent is Fake Security Cameras. Installing realistic-looking fake security cameras will deter crime and prevent property damage by fooling criminals into believing you have a real surveillance system. Most of them are so realistic looking that they have blinking LED lights
Most home security systems will send burglars on their way, but they are expensive and require monitoring which is unreliable and adds to the cost. These methods described above will prevent burglars from getting into your house in the first place. That is far more preferable. Learn more about the Benefits of Real and Dummy Security Cameras
The Home Security Superstore is one of the oldest and largest independent distributors of high quality home security, surveillance, spy, self-defense, survival and safety products. We carry a wide range of self-defense products including tasers, stun guns, pepper sprays and other nonlethal weapons that can save your life in the event of an attack.