Security tips for the Home

Following on from blog #1, here are some very simple tips to help you stay safe in and around the home.

You know, the average burglary is done & dusted in less than a minute? The burglar will go in, conduct the search and be gone in 60 seconds on average. Then again, some will take their time and those that do will almost always have left themselves an escape route. The better burglars (for want of a better term) will go to a window or door as soon as they enter the premise and open it to allow for a hasty escape.

A burglar will often look for signs of an unoccuppied house, such as uncollected mail in the box, no lights on inside the house, no car in the carport. Simple enough to fix two of those, a cheap timer for the lights available from all good hardware stores, have a neighbour collect the mail or empty it yourself.

Pay attention to what is happening in your environment, who is that walking around the cul de sac in the dark, why is that car still parked across the road, why is that person walking around the rear of the neighbours house?

Don't fall into the trap of leaving the front door open or unlocked while you work in the rear yard thinking because you are home no one will enter the house. I can tell you from experience that this type of opportunist theft is more common than not. I have Investigated many burglaries where people have been asleep in bed as the burglar prowled the house, one I went to recently was on the first floor of an upmarket apartment block where the theives stole and extension ladder, carried it to the scene of the burglary and climbed onto the first floor balcony of the victim's unit. He had, as was his custom, left the balcony sliding door open to allow the sea breeze in, thinking no one would climb up to get in. WRONG! What's more the offender/s took time out to consume the better part of a bottle of Tequila on the balcony before leaving. A burglar is nothing more than a rapist or murderer who has not been presented with the opportunity or has not been caught in the act.

Women, if you live alone don't advertise the fact. Put a pair of old men's workboots on the front porch or by the door, but dust them off occassionally as dust will be a give away as well. Don't keep weapons near the bed, unless you fully intend to, an know how to, use the damn things. A burglar will be hyped up if not drugged up and won't respond to reason a lot of the time and I have seen many stand and look at you after they have received what you might think to be an incapacitating blow to a part of their body. Then they hit you back!

If you go down the Martial arts route, consider an evasive discipline rather than an offensive one. Aikido is excellent in that it teaches you how to evade and remain outside a strike zone, or how to use the the offender/s mass or weight against them.

When not at home, leave some lights and a radio on and close the blinds or curtains before you go out, but don't leave windows open. Never keep a key for the door under the mat or a nearby rock, that's the first place they look.

Have you considered an alarm? I will give you some hints about alarms in my next blog.

Until then, stay safe
Best wishes
Biggles