Creating a Harder Target

Picture yourself a criminal.  Prowling your neighborhood looking for an easy buck.  Look at the houses around your house and look at your house.  Which one would you steal from? And why?

By definition criminals are lazy.  They will go for the easiest thing they can find.  If criminals worked hard, they wouldn’t be criminals.

So look at your neighborhood again.  Which house would you steal from?  Who would you try and follow home to get money?  Which house would you invade for money?  If the answer to any of these questions is yours, you need to do something about it. 

Here’s some simple and easy things you can do:

• Put an alarm sign in the yard.
• Cut down big bushes that cover entry points to the house or yard.
• Keep outside lights on.
• Don’t open the door for people you don’t know, or when you aren’t expecting people.  Talk to people through the door.
• Don’t leave expensive stuff open, or the garage open showing off your prize Shelby Cobra (my personal dream car).
• Motion lights are a great step.  Put them at any point someone would try to walk up to your house.
• Go different ways home at different times.
• Get longer screws for your door jam. 
• Always use dead bolts.
• Limit access to areas of your house when you have anyone over.  Put away anything really valuable (Burglars will always take money, guns, and jewelry). 

Put some of these into practice to make your home a safer place.

Stay Safe,

Ben

Comments

[Kevin Rowles]

I have a manequin overlooking the window above my door. I've had visitors ask who I have living upstairs. And I just laugh.

[ExpatBen]

That's awesome! I never thought of that.

[garage equipment]

Instead of keeping a spare key in a mailbox, under the doormat, or on a nail behind the garage, wrap the key in foil -- or put it in a 35mm film can -- and bury it where you can easily find it if you need it.