I was reading an article the other day on this subject and thought it was worth revisiting. Of course there are some obvious things about keeping our homes safe from burglars such as always locking your doors when you leave the house and be creative when it comes to hiding the spare house key (you don’t really hide it under the front door mat, do you?).

Burglars look for homes that appear to be unoccupied so when you go on vacation have someone pick up your newspapers and mail daily. Have them move your car to different places in the driveway and put your interior and exterior lights on timers.

You don’t ever want to leave an outgoing message on your home phone message machine stating that you will be out of town. For that matter, you don’t want to shout it to the world on your Facebook page either!

Keep in mind that burglars want to get in and out as quickly as possible so you might want to think about fencing in your yard or planting low shrubs or hedges around your property to cause a barrier. Burglars know where you keep your jewelry (jewelry box, bedroom or bathroom counter, hidden in your sock drawer…) so even though it may be an inconvenience, lock up your valuables in your safe when you’re not using them. Which brings up another point; burglars also know that safes are often set to open with a half turn or an easy 123 access code for convenience sake so it’s in your best interest to use a difficult password or change it frequently.

Finally, if someone comes to the door and says they are with the phone company, for example, don’t just let them into your home, and always check their identification. Call their company for verification. The same thing goes for someone claiming to be with the police department. Get their badge number and call the station to make sure. It’s much better to be safe than sorry.

Stay safe and take care.

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff Barnett