How Safe Do You Feel in Your Home?

by Avi Ben David

How safe do you feel in your own home?  Your home should be your "island of sanity" for you and your family. It is the one place in the environment where you should feel that you are the "King of the Castle"; where you have complete control over who is allowed to approach you or your family. Creating a secure safe haven for your loved ones should be your highest priority.

Burglary

The most common threat to your home is burglary. Recent FBI statistics report that a burglary occurs in the United States every 15.4 seconds. A burglar enters your home when you are not there, and takes your possessions. Even though you are not at home when the crime occurs, it makes you feel vulnerable to harm.  

Important facts regarding burglary:

• Burglaries ordinarily occur during the daytime when most people are away at work or school.
  
• July and August are the "big" burglary months. February has the least. 
  
• Most burglaries are committed by young males under 25 years of age.
  
• The burglar generally wants small expensive items that can easily be turned to cash. Jewellery, watches, guns, laptop computers, and small electronic devices are high on the list. Quick cash is needed for living expenses and drugs.
  
• Basic home security is a must. About 70% of the burglars use some amount force to enter a dwelling, but their preference is to gain easy access through an open door or window. Ordinary household tools like screwdrivers, channel-lock pliers, small pry bars, and small hammers are most often used by burglars.
  
• Burglars continue to flourish because police can only clear about 13% of all reported burglaries and rarely catch the thief in the act.
  
• Burglars carefully select their targets. The checklist for a typical burglary? Unoccupied home. Good cover around the house with poor or non-existent outdoor lighting. Have the escape route all planned out in advance.

What can you do about it? Make your home "inhospitable" to crooks! The criminal mind is always looking for "something for nothing". If you make your home hard to break into, you are being antipathetic to the criminal mindset!

When you make your house hard to break into, you make "work" for the prospective burglar. And work is something that the criminal does not like to do!

The remaining articles in our series will go over the basics in making your home "burglar proof".