Simple Tips to Protect Your Home from Burglary

The last thing I want is to confront a faceless masked monster, robbing me of my valuables at knife-point. Recent burglaries in the city have been unnerving to say the least. An uneasy fear creeps into my mind whenever I hear news about burglaries in the neighbourhood. This is a grim reminder that anyone can be burgled any time.

Most burglaries are preventable and all you have to do is follow a few basic security measures to protect your home. (Wrestling them to the ground like in movies is not possible most of the times!). And for this, you don’t have to turn your property into a high security fort. All it requires is a little amount of common sense. Read on these practical tips to protect your home from those prowling burglars.

• Burglars look for easy targets. When you move into a new home, change the existing locks first. Do not share your house keys with anyone, except in dire emergencies. If you lose your key, ensure that you change your locks again. (I have seen many of them even carelessly leaving the keys on the door). It is always better to be safe than sorry.
• Closing windows and doors when you leave your house is another step towards protecting your house from burglars. Though a lot of people are aware of this, they do not check and ascertain if all the windows and doors are locked during their absence. (I have a balcony at home and I make sure that I close the doors at night as well)
• Use thick curtains to prevent outsiders from peeping into your house. Exposing your home to onlookers will intrude your privacy and help them see where you have placed your furniture, expensive materials etc.
• Be smart. Do not follow a set routine every day. Burglars often break open a house after noticing the timings of occupants moving in and out of the house. Be a little unpredictable. For example, you can park your vehicle a little away from your home for a few days of the month and stay at home to show people that the disappearance of your vehicle does not mean you are not at home. Buy and install a light timer in your house. You can adjust the light timer such that it automatically turns on the light when you go outside.
• Keep the radio and/or light on in any room when you are going out late evening or at night. Burglars will assume that you are at home.
• You can install low voltage security lights outside your house and at strategic points, if you have a lawn. Burglars are less apt to break into a house that are well-lit.
• Keeping pets like dogs at home will keep the thieves at bay. (Even if you don’t have one, put up a fake board on the gate with a ‘Beware of Dogs’ notice. I follow this at home and many strangers are in fact scared to even open the gates!)
• If you have a lawn in front of your house, mow the grass and trim the plants and trees regularly. Do not give thieves an opportunity to use your garden as a hiding place.
• Installing a burglar alarm at home will alert you if someone breaks into your house and deter the thieves from going on with their plans.
• The most important warning – Do not share your plans in social media sites. Most of the people have this habit of sharing their holiday, dinner plans in these sites giving tips to burglars.