“WHEN” most burglaries take place

… 58% of burglaries take place in the evening or night and 34% occur at the weekend …

• Make your home look like someone is living in it, e.g. don’t close your curtains. In daytime this shows your house is empty. Also, use automatic timer-switches to turn your lights and radios on when it goes dark.
• Visible burglar alarms, good lighting and security lighting can be great idea. Particularly  the recessed areas and doorways have good security lighting. Make sure that lights don’t disturb your neighbours and that alarms turn off after 10 minutes
• Walls and solid fencing around your house may let a thief break in without being seen. Trees and shrubs can also be hiding places. Chain-link fencing or trellises with prickly shrubs can be a better compromise.
• Cut the lawns and trim back any plants that thieves could hide behind.
• Make sure that garden tools or ladders that could be used to force entry into your home are not left lying around.
• Neighbourhood Watch and other ‘watch’ schemes are excellent ways for communities to fight burglary
• NB. Make sure that any security improvements you make to your house don’t stop you getting out as quickly as possible if there is a fire

Tags: burglar alarm, home security