17 Easy ways to Protect your Home from Intruders
“As a group, victims of burglary reported post-traumatic stress symptoms at a medium level of severity, while 41% met the cut-off for the high level of severity.”
Victims, especially those at an impressionable age, can have a very hard time dealing with a burglary.
Here, then, are 17 tried-and-tested methods that can help YOU avoid a home invasion, keeping your home, your possessions and (by far the most important thing) your family, safe.
About half a million UK homes are broken into ever year. The potential costs of a burglary run to many thousands of pounds.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, less than 15% of burglars are ever caught or convicted.
In addition to hitting your wallet hard, home invasions can be psychologically devastating. According to an article in the ‘Journal of Traumatology’,
- How a Simple Timer Can Save you from Being a Victim
- Why you Should be Careful where you leave your Keys
- Build a ‘SAFE’ place for you Belongings
- How to Make you Home seem Less Attractive
- Keep Ladders and Tools Locked Away
- Why a Dog isn’t always a good Deterrent
- Motion-Activated Security Lights
- Install a Smart Security System
- How Tall Hedges might not be the Protection you Think it is
- Why a Fence might be the Answer
- Why you Should have Strong Doors and Locks
- More about Deadbolts…
- Why its a Good Idea to Get to Know you Neighbours
- How to Setup a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme
- Is the Royal Mail Keepsafe Service a Good Idea
- How not to Advertise you new TV
- How Social Media could make you a Victim
1. How a Simple Timer can Save you from being a Victim
Burglars, like bullies, are always looking for an easier target – and, like bullies, they are easily discouraged once their target starts to resemble any kind of challenge.
Forget the Hollywood myths of slinky black catsuits and bright red laser lines, burglary is about taking whatever you can get and escaping before you get caught. In reality, all thieves are opportunists.
While there certainly are some burglars who will watch a house for a few nights, getting a sense of its comings and goings and general level of security, this type is very rare compared to the average burglar, who is just looking for easy money. They would far rather break into an unoccupied house than an occupied one. Who wouldn’t?
A brief night drive down any street, anywhere, will quickly reveal which homes are occupied and which are not. Honest people recognize this fact and do nothing with it, but to a robber, this must be a bit like catalogue shopping.
As such, a simple, effective method of home protection is to make it look like somebody is at home. You can accomplish this by leaving the lights, radio or television on when you go out, but this is much better accomplished by purchasing a timer.
A timer is a relatively affordable device that can turn your lights or other devices on automatically at a set time in the evening. The better ones allow for multiple cycles, which really helps to give the illusion that somebody is home. You can set different timers to different lights, so that the bedroom lights come on at bedtime and etcetera. Setting your radio to a talk station and then programming the timer to turn the radio on at a certain time can actually be an excellent deterrent.
This approach may seem hopelessly optimistic, but, as discussed above, burglars aren’t looking for a challenge. Think back to our dark street. If there’s one house that is definitely occupied, one that might be occupied and one that definitely isn’t, which one is likely to be the target?
2. Why you Should be Careful where you leave your Keys
Having a key really is the easiest way into any locked building and, if you’ll remember, our burglar is always looking for the easiest payday.
Make sure that you only leave your spare house keys with trusted people. DO NOT hand them to neighbours that you barely know, or friends of friends. Be careful if copying keys for your children. Always be aware of how many keys there are to your home at any given time – and for goodness’ sake don’t put your home address on them!
It may seem surprising, but keeping your keys within easy reach of the door (as most of us do) is probably not as safe as you think. If your keys are easily viewed from a window, or even through the letterbox, they can probably be stolen.
Thieves have ingenious ways of obtaining your keys, even when you are home. Some have even gone as far as to construct simple hooks or magnetic devices that can be fed through the letterbox and used to pick keys up (even if they happen to be in handbags). This is known as ‘the fishing method’.
Sometimes, only car keys are taken, with the thieves simply turning up, stealing the keys through the letterbox and driving the car away as the victim sleeps!
When you move into a new home, it is important to change the locks as soon as possible. Unless you change the locks, you actually have no idea who may still have access to your house.
3. Build a 'SAFE' place for you Belongings
According to the FBI, the average burglary in the states lasts between 8 and 12 minutes. Unless their robbers are doing it differently, it seems safe to assume that our UK-based home invaders are taking about the same amount of time.
Reformed burglar-turned-TV-presenter Michael Fraser asserts that breaking into a place is a swift, efficient process – and often takes place during the day while the occupants are out at work. He says that a quick knock on the door will ascertain whether anybody is in or not and, after that, it is simply a matter of finding a way in.
A swift kick to the bottom right corner of the door will expose the presence of a deadlock. Cobwebs or dust on an alarm system, back door keyhole or front door deadlock are all seen as “invitations”, by burglars and could also help them find a way in.
Peering into the window, a burglar can potentially even read your calendar, which may tell him when you’re next leaving town.
According to Fraser, an effective burglar can easily remove a glass window from your front door and then open it from the inside. To passers-by, it’ll just look like you’re having some work done, if anyone notices at all. An unlocked shed or garage in the garden would likely contain all the tools an intruder would need to gain access to your property.
So, how much can a burglar get in just under a quarter of an hour?
Quite a lot, as it turns out. A lot of the things in our home that are of the most monetary value are also the things we use most often (that way, they justify the hefty price tags).
However, a burglar may not be after your stereo, TV or laptop. In fact, they’re more likely going to steal any personal documentation you have. Doing this will enable them to steal your identity, or even clone your credit cards. Grabbing a travel bag or carrier from inside the house, the thief will then stock up on anything else of immediate value (often with an eye toward blackmail) and leave.
An experienced burglar will use their time extremely efficiently, searching out common targets such as medicine cabinets (there is a strong demand for controlled substances), bedrooms (where valuables such as jewellery are often kept), home offices (for documents or portable tech) and playrooms (usually for video game systems and etc).
Many people feel safer by simply hiding things before they go out. Usually this doesn’t work because those people are not as imaginative as they think they are. A career burglar has probably robbed and ransacked a lot of homes. He knows about the keys under the mat, the money hidden under the mattress and even valuables stored in freezers and toilet wells. He’s seen it all.
One solution to this problem is to get yourself a home safe.
‘…But hold on’, you may ask, ‘if the burglars would steal my computer, what’s to stop them stealing a safe and opening it by force when they get home?’
Nothing at all. That’s why you buy two, a hidden safe and a decoy safe. In the hidden safe, you can store your real valuables and, in the decoy, well, you can store whatever you damn well please.
Obviously, you then hide the hidden safe, but keep the decoy somewhere plausible, like the office, where it looks like it might just contain everything the burglar is looking for.
According to Fraser, the safest storage space for valuables (including your hidden safe) is the loft, because burglars can’t make an easy escape from up there. He also recommends watermarking your valuables and putting a sticker in your window to advertise this fact.
4. How to Make you Home seem Less Attractive
Visible deterrents outside your house can be really effective. The burglar is looking for a quick, easy payday – so don’t give them one.
Timers and window stickers are cheap, effective methods of discouragement, as are automatic security lights and a visible alarm system. If an alarm is too expensive, then a dummy alarm (in reality a simple model that looks like an alarm) can be purchased for under £20 online.
The dummy alarm won’t stand up to close scrutiny (burglars are aware of them and can identify them easily enough), but it may just provide that extra deterrent if you happen to be on a tight budget.
On the whole, you want it to look like you’re very security conscious. The rub is that, in order to show potential burglars that you take your home security seriously; you actually have to take your home security seriously.
Here are a few general tips (some of which will be expanded upon later):
- An internal or external CCTV system is a turn off, but not a deal breaker. If the intruder can cover his/her head (for example, with a hoodie) and avoid the lens, then they may still attempt to gain access. Still, a house with highly visible CCTV is far less appealing than a house without it.
- If your windows lock, you should be sure to keep them locked. Robbers will check to see if they are locked before attempting to gain access.
- Always lock your shed or garage and keep your vehicle dash cam charged, it may pick-up unusual activity.
- Keep your garden well tended, it helps to remind a burglar that you’re often at home.
- Notes to service people, delivery personnel and etc such as “back in 10” are a definite ‘no-no’. You may well be back in 10, but 5 is all the burglar needs.
- A standard Yale lock offers no protection at all from a seasoned burglar, better to get an additional five-lever mortise lock for the main entrance.
- A thin, flimsy door should be replaced as soon as possible with a thicker, more secure model.
- Ensure that your windows are double, or even triple glazed.
- Be aware of what can be seen through your windows. Go outside and have a look in if you’re not sure. Avoid keeping keys, calendars and valuables in plain sight. For that matter, you should ask a neighbour to collect your mail, as a pile of letters easily visible from outside is a sign that the occupants are away.
- Avoid flaunting your valuables. If you just had a new computer or phone delivered, put the box/accompanying paraphernalia away, don’t leave it where it can be seen from outside. Do not chuck the box straight into the recycling, either. All it does it sit outside overnight, advertising your latest purchase to burglars.
- Be aware that some ‘door-to-door sales’ and unsolicited phone calls are used by potential burglars to find out about your schedule, “Can I call back tomorrow around twelve?” should never be answered with, “no, sorry. I’ll be at work then” for example.
- Advertise some of your external security measures so the burglar knows what he is getting into.
What puts your home at a greater risk? Well, living in a high crime area for one (it seems obvious, but its true). If your home has been burgled before, or if other homes near to you have been, then you are likely to have been considered, or even lined up, as a possible target.
So, the perfect home for a burglar (to break into, not live in) is…
- Situated in a low traffic area (which means that there are less potential witnesses).
- Often unoccupied for extended periods of time.
- Surrounded by bushes, dark corners or overgrowth, (basically anywhere thieves can hide).
- Completely devoid of security systems.
- Full of old, single-paned windows, with minimum locks on doors.
- Slightly off the beaten track.
5. Keep Ladders and Tools Locked Away
Lets face it, no burglar wants to be caught walking down the street carrying a crowbar in an otherwise empty bag and wearing leather driving gloves, does he?
If he’s going to do it that way, he might as well be wearing a vest, a mask and a stripy shirt and carrying a bag marked ‘swag’!
Most burglars will simply find a bag in your closet, or on top of your wardrobe, fill it with whatever they can find, and then leave. Worryingly, the average UK shed contains more than enough tools to break in to the average house, if you know how. Hammers, chisels, even trowels can be used by skilled hands to quickly, quietly and cleanly gain entry into a locked house. Often, this process takes less than a minute.
Ladders are also dangerous things to leave out, even if it is workmen leaving them on your property when they finish for lunch. A ladder can offer entry into the upper floors of the house, a place where the windows are more likely to be open and therefore an easier access point for the enterprising thief.
A great idea is to buy a lock for your side door/garden gate. It’s not a last line of defence, admittedly, but it will help to put the robber off. Your garden is likely the easiest point of entry into your house, and an open gate makes your garage or shed all the easier to access.
6. Why a Dog isn't always a good Deterrent
We tend to think of owning a dog as being the best deterrent against break-ins. After all, they’re naturally protective; intelligent enough to know what’s up and, in most cases, will bark at intruders. In addition, no other deterrent on this list will take a bite out of your would-be home invader.
…But is having a dog really a deterrent?
A 2012 study, undertaken by the University of North Carolina and the Charlotte Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, interviewed 422 convicted burglars and asked them questions about their methods and motives.
Of the prisoners interviewed, just 34% said that a dog in the house was a deterrent. The presence of a dog fell far behind the presence of people inside the house (60%), a nearby police presence (55%), an alarm system (45%) and even people walking around nearby (35%). In fact, only steel bars (25%) were less of a deterrent. However, it should be noted that 51% of those asked did put the dog down as a factor to be considered when selecting a target.
Many burglars will actually bring dog treats along with them, in order to keep your ‘canine security system’ at bay.
Despite the US Department of Justice formally concluding that houses containing dogs are statistically less likely to be burgled, it seems that good old Fido might not be all you need after all.