Nothing prepares us for the feelings we experience when we become a victim of a burglary: the sense of violation, helplessness, frustration and anger. We never think it will happen to us.
In Australia, nearly 420,000 burglaries took place last year, or one every 1.25 minutes. It is only a matter of time before a thief targets your home and valuables.
There are precautions you can take to help protect yourself, your family and the property you have spent your life accumulating. The following list is only a sample of what you can do to minimise the risk of burglary.
Outside the Home • Try not to leave empty packing boxes for appliances etc., outside your home for all to see. • Remove or trim trees or shrubs that obscure windows or doors from the street. • The frequency of thefts occurring while the occupant is at home is increasing, so it's a good idea not to leave valuable items such as lawnmowers and bicycles lying in the yard or on the nature strip, even when you're at home. • Motion sensitive external lights are worth considering and should be installed where a thief can't reach them.
Holidays • When on holidays arrange for a neighbour to remove mail from your mail box. Have your lawn mowed, and if possible,arrange for a car to be left in the driveway every few days. Burglars look for homes that are unoccupied and an unkept lawn and overflowing mail box is a giveaway. • Stop your papers and milk being delivered. • Put your lights, TV or stereo on a timer so that it looks and sounds like someone is home. • Arrange with a neighbour to bring your garbage and/or recycling bin off the nature strip. A bin left outside for days is also a sign for a thief that no-one is home. It is also a good idea to have your neighbour deposit some rubbish in your bin and bring it out on garbage collection day. • Leave your curtains or drapes slightly open. If they are fully closed for a length of time a thief will notice. • Don't tell strangers that you will be away.
Security • Replace all external hollow-core doors with solid doors. • Ensure the door jambs are in good condition and are constructed of a strong material. Quality locks are useless if the door or door jamb will easily fail. • Ensure door hinges are on the inside of the door and not the outside. A thief can easily remove hinge pins. • Add timber or metal rods to the tracks of sliding windows or doors. Install quality double keyed deadlocks to all external doors (key should be accessible by everyone in the house in the event of fire). • Install keyed window locks to all accessible windows. • Install patio bolts to sliding doors. • A quality alarm system is the best deterrent for thieves. •The alarm should have motion sensors, sensors on windows and doors, internal and external sirens and external strobe. Ideally it should be a monitored alarm with back to base response. • Security stickers should be prominently displayed on windows.
General • Lock doors and windows at all times when leaving the house. • Become an active member of your Neighbourhood Watch program. • Be on the lookout for people acting suspiciously in the street. • Consider engraving or marking your valuables with your driver's licence number. • Make a comprehensive list of your contents with serial numbers for easy identification if recovered. • Your valuables should not be easily seen through a window. • Install peepholes in the external doors. • Ask for identification from any stranger who arrives at your door. • Don't forget to lock your garage or garden shed. The frequency of thefts is increasing in these areas yet security is often poor. • Don't hide a key in the mail box, under or in a pot plant, an electricity box or under a doormat or rock.These are the first places a thief looks. • Don't attach an identification tag with your name and address on your keys. • If a former tenant or owner may have a key, change the locks.