Safety First
Burglars and Your Home
During the best of times household burglaries are common. However this is even more true in times of economic recession when household burglaries soar as a result of now unemployed people growing desperate. Your house probably won't be burgled, but it's better to put your mind at ease by putting a few simple precautions in place to protect your home. After this for the ultimate security the next step would be to install a security system.
Simple Methods to Improve Home Security
- Keep your doors locked at all times. Maybe obvious, but a lot of burglars will just test their luck randomly checking if a door has been left unlocked.
- When you're not home, make your house appear occupied. This will help to discourage burglars. Radios or light timers are a good idea.
- Deadbolts on all exterior doors. Burglars are well practiced at picking or breaking all sorts of simple locks. Aside from a battering ram, they will not get through deadbolts.
- Be vigilant when allowing general workers or salesmen into your home. Whether it be an electrician or a door to door salesman, be very careful who you let into your house. A lot of burglars will use the guise of a salesman to get into your house and scout it out. Hide valuables if people are working in your home.
- Outdoor motion detection lighting. If you hear someone outside your house at night, you want to be able to see them when you look out. This is essential.
- Dogs. Especially dogs which bark when they hear or see an unfamiliar person. Dogs are a big discouragement for burglars.
- Clearing your mail when on holiday. If you are on holiday and there is a big pile of mail at your house, you may as well put up a sign telling burglars that there is no one home. Organise for a friend or neighbour to clean up your mail.
Security Systems - The Ultimate Defense
While these tips will help to make your home more secure, the ultimate security is obviously a security system. The most basic and perhaps most important system you should have to protect your home is an alarm system, so that if a burglar did actually manage to get into your house everyone will certainly hear about it when the alarm starts to shout. Alarm sensors should be fitted to all exterior doors and windows. An alarm system should also only be fitted by a professional to ensure that the system is not by-passable by an experienced burglar. Another recommended feature of an alarm system is indoor motion sensors. So if a burglar does happen to delicately breach a door or window without setting off the alarm, then the sensors will absolutely catch them and set the alarm going.
Lastly we have indoor and outdoor security cameras. These have several different features depending on brand, wireless digital live video, night vision, network streaming, motion detection, email alerts and so on and on. These act as a major discouragement for burglars, and can also provide evidence of burglary. As well as this, many of the brands also offer 2 way intercom systems with their security systems and cameras from the monitor where the image is viewed to the camera recording the image so you can easily and safely talk to a stranger about their business before answering the door.