Why Leave Valuables Unprotected?

In today’s article we will share with you stories of people who did not protect their valuables at home. Why not? Who knows the answer for that? Read on to find out why you should protect them.

This article comes to us from Great Falls, Montana and is written by columnist Richard Ecke who writes for the Great Falls Tribune. The story is about homeowners who have lost valuable collections of coins, cash and jewelry that the author knew about.

One such person was Zollie Kelman who operated vending, pawn and gaming businesses in the 1970s. Apparently he had an affinity for coins, but he also liked to talk about collecting them. His bragging style led to a robbery at his farm in 1976 that almost got him killed.

One of the points that Ecke makes is that keeping large amounts of valuables at home doesn’t make sense. He feels they should be kept in a safe deposit box in a bank or in a home safe. He wonders out loud why people keep large amounts of cash around anymore when it makes such a lucrative target. Sooner or later someone will find out, and the temptation for theft will prove to be irresistible-sometimes with the deadly consequence.

He also cited statistics from Farmers Insurance that claimed in 2012 there were more than 2 million home burglaries leading to $4.7 billion in property losses.

Here are several ways to try to prevent home crimes or mitigate losses:

• Keep very little cash on hand at home; it’s rarely needed anymore.
• Hide your small valuables in one of our diversion safes! We have a large selection of 89 different Diversion Safes to choose from. Some are big enough to hide a handgun!
• Jewelry rarely used and valuable coins can be kept in a safe deposit box at a bank.
• Insurance policies tend to discourage keeping large amounts of cash, jewelry and coins at home.

In a story from England a series of burglaries in Stafford have led police to spark a call for residents to step up home security. It seems burglars have hit homes by forcing windows and entering homes through insecure patio doors to steal cash And jewelry. Police are unsure if the burglaries are linked together.

In Boone County, Missouri the Sheriff’s Department there is investigating a string of home burglaries that happened in the Harrisburg area in the last month. Burglars seem to go for cash, jewelry and handguns because they are easy to transport after they are stolen and very easy to convert into cash at any number of pawn shops.

In Chicago, Illinois police are cautioning Westside residents after a series of burglaries of apartments where burglars took jewelry and cash.

In our final story Lacey, N. J. detectives are investigating a burglary where the residence was broken into through a rear window. Cash and jewelry were taken from the home. They were not protected in any way.

Do you keep large amounts of small valuables in your home? If so, why? Share your story with us so others may learn!