It’s becoming more and more common for people to think about their own home security and also try to improve it. In this post, I have featured ten tips that are taken directly from the UK Gwent police force and they are all simple bits of advice, that if all followed will drastically decrease your chances of being burgled. But you don’t have to follow all of them, implementing just a few will do the trick…
Lock All Doors and Windows
Most people will lock the doors at night, but not everyone. But it is the windows that people often leave wide open. Yes, even the smallest of windows could be seen as a way into a burglar, or at the very least a sign that you are lacklustre in your home security tech niches.
Pop Out, Lock Down
You would be shocked at the number of properties that are burgled when someone has “just popped out” for something, like milk from a shop, or to pick up the children. 45% of all reported burglaries occur in the daytime with the rest being done in the darkness of night.
Don’t Provide a Menu
A car key burglary (also known as a creeper burglary) involves a house being burgled just for the car keys. But in over 70% of these cases, the car keys were on show via the letterbox or in a window somewhere. So put things like car keys, wallet and mobile phone in a draw, or at least out of the way of prying eyes.
Keep Your Rear Safe
It’s all well and good making sure the front door is locked, but simply leaving a back gate open could increase your chances of being burgled dramatically. Burgers don’t want to be seen by anyone and will often enter the property via the rear rather than front entrances.
Wheelie Bins
If you have your wheelie bins next to a way or gate a potential burger could indeed use those bins to get into the rear of your property. Some crimes have even be done in which a wheelie bin was used to get in the front windows as well. They might be a place to put your rubbish to you, but they are a potential step-ladder to criminals.
Mark Your Property
These days you can buy things like smart water or UV pens for pennies from sites like Amazon, so why not buy one and mark anything you can with it. If a burglar is caught even if it is by accident you will stand a much higher chance of getting your property back.
Home Not Alone
At the end of the day, an empty house with no lights on is an open treasure chest to a burglar. Using things like timers, or getting someone to pop in and turn them on will put most burglars off and it is something well worth doing if you are going away even if it is only overnight.
Consider Getting an Alarm
A good quality home security system doesn’t cost half as much as you might think with many wifi cameras being less than £100. That small cost will be worth its weight in gold when you can check on your property no matter where you are in the world and alert local authorities should you suspect something.
Social Media Aware
in over 20% of all UK burglaries the person who was burgled posted on social media that they were going away. Now, this doesn’t mean someone on your friend’s list was the one doing a burglary, it might mean other people besides your friend’s list can see that post. Also not flexing with images of your new TV, or laptop will decrease your chances of becoming a victim via this modern method of victim targeting.
Be Vigilant
Being neighbourhood vigilant doesn’t mean spying on your neighbours, it just means keeping an eye out for cars continually driving past at night time, or suspicious activity in a house but you know the resident has gone away. There is no harm in reporting things like this even if they often lead to nothing.
Do you have any other tips for improving your home security? If you do why not tell us about them in the comments below.