Here we are going to discuss six little-known secrets about burglary and home security you really should know. When you stop to think about them will probably make common sense. Some of them come from the best experts in the business-convicted home burglars!
House Exterior
Believe it or not, burglars look at the outside the house to determine whether it is a potential target or not. This process is called “casing” a home or a neighborhood and is frequently done by the bad guys driving down the street. The burglar is looking for potential hiding areas around lower-level doors and windows because most burglaries are done during the day and hiding places are beneficial to concealment. He is also looking for signs that there is a security system in place or that there is a dog somewhere on the property or in the house.
Neighborhood Watch
The National Neighborhood Watch program was established close to 45 years ago by the National Sheriffs Association. To this day it is still the premier crime-fighting organization for private citizens.
“It has worked to unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations, and individual citizens in a nation-wide effort to reduce crime and improve local communities. Visible signs of the program are seen throughout America on street signs, window decals, community block parties and service projects. The National Neighborhood Watch program empowers citizens to become active in community efforts through participation in Neighborhood Watch groups.”
When a burglar is “casing” a neighborhood, if he sees signs that there’s a neighborhood watch program in effect, he knows that his chances of getting caught improve greatly so he moves on to another area.
Doors and Windows
Burglars look for simple things on homes that they are casing like open doors and windows. “FBI statistics show that 33.2% of all burglaries are called unlawful entries which means that there is no forcible entry noticeable. This translates to homeowners don’t lock their doors and windows.” One of the worst examples is to leave the garage door open especially in the summertime to let built up heat out.
Why Alarms Work
This may come as a surprise to you that a simple $10 window or door alarm, a.k.a. burglar alarm, can be one of the most effective tools to prevent home burglary that you can use. Here’s why! Less than 10% of all burglars are considered professional, meaning that they’ve done it more than two or three times and do it for a living. Close to 90% of all burglars are first or second time offenders and are doing it for some quick money that can be gained by pawning off stolen goods.
A first or second time offender would not be used to hearing the shrill, loud sounds of a window or door alarm and would easily be frightened away. That is what makes them so effective.
Advertise Your Deterrants
Part of what burglars look for when they are “casing” a neighborhood and your home are signs in your front yard or front windows that you have a dog or that your home is protected with a security system. It is a well-known fact that burglars do not like dogs and will do anything they can to avoid a home that has one. The same can be said of home security systems. And this doesn’t mean that you have to have a dog or even a home security system. Sometimes just the sign in your front yard will do the trick. We have heard from burglars that when they see a NRA sticker on a bumper of a car in the driveway or in the front window of a house they tend to avoid that house.
We have 19 different Home Security Signs that can help protect your property.
Security/Surveillance Cameras
Nothing will stop a burglar in his tracks any faster than the sight of the security/surveillance camera. Burglars may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they are smart enough to not want to get caught. That is why when they look for homes to burglarize, if they see a security surveillance camera, they move on to another home.
The interesting thing about burglary prevention is that the whole concept of it has changed in the last several years. With the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, images that are captured by home surveillance or security cameras of burglaries in the act can now receive instantaneous dissemination on a wide scale. Local police departments are catching on too. The combination of surveillance cameras and social media have formed a powerful prevention tool for burglary.
You can read more about this technique in our great article entitled the ‘High Tech Way To Catch Burglars.’ In that article we point out that “police usually only clear 13% of all reported burglaries due to lack of witnesses or physical evidence. There is another reason why so few burglary crimes are solved. There are so many of them that the police department just doesn’t have the manpower to pursue them.”
In some jurisdictions there are so many burglaries that police barely are able to even file a report and cannot do so unless there is property stolen that can be identified or if there is an eyewitness. Since most burglaries are done during the day witnesses are few and far between. As with self-defense, the burden falls to the individual, in this case, the homeowner, to do the prevention.
If you cannot afford a real security surveillance camera or cameras, may we suggest that you get one of our 44 different Fake Security Cameras that are so realistic looking that no one can tell the difference between them and the real thing. Many of them have blinking red lights and operate 24/7 and some even have motion activated movement all to lend credibility and fool the bad guys.
Feedback on these posts is appreciated. What do you do to prevent burglary? We want to hear from you.