Tag Archives: valuables

General Safety Issues

KEEPING YOUR HOME SAFE WITH KIDS (GUEST POST)

Having kids in the house makes it critically important to have good home safety measure in place. Besides needing good protection on account of being young and defenseless, kids can also pose a security risk by accidentally providing information about your home, your schedule, or your possessions.

Managing Kid-Related Risks

If you’re a family where both parents work, then not giving keys to your kids is obviously not an option because they’ll need to let themselves in after school. That doesn’t mean that you should give a house key to a child that’s too young to understand what is and isn’t safe to talk about in public, and might be prone to losing the key either on accident or through theft. Another thing to worry about is children accidentally leaving doors and windows unlocked, allowing easy entry to any would be burglars. The best way to deal with this is good old fashioned work. Before you leave for work and before you go to bed each night, go around your entire house and make sure that all points of entry are secure.

Keeping Valuables Safe

No matter what you do there is always the chance that someone will break into your house regardless of your efforts not to draw attention or make an obvious target out of it. Though you can’t very well lock up your TV, computer, or anything that’s supposed to be part of your décor, you can keep smaller valuables, important documents, weapons, and cash locked away in a safe. Unlike in the movies there is no need to hide your safe in a wall somewhere. Usually it’ll be bolted to the floor, and virtually impossible to break open quickly, which is all you need since normal burglars will be in a hurry and will snatch whatever is easy to grab and run with.

Alarms

Home alarm systems are effective not because they do much to catch criminals, but because they scare criminals into leaving your home as quickly as possible to avoid being apprehended. This helps you to protect yourself, your family, and your possessions, and helps to make you aware of forced entry if you were sleeping or not present inside the home at the time. Though they won’t stop someone who’s determined and ready for it, they make excellent deterrents for your average burglar.

Getting a Safe Room

If you’re dealing with someone who isn’t deterred by your home alarm you’ll want to have a place that you can retreat to. Confronting a potentially violent criminal in your home is not ever a good idea, regardless of what the NRA might want you to believe. The best way to deal with a situation like that is to get behind a locked door as quickly as possible and to wait until the authorities arrive. Building a basic safe room isn’t particularly difficult or expensive, simply install a heavy duty door and door frame on a large walk-in closet, or any room that doesn’t have windows and make sure that you have access to your phone.

Ben Thatcher is a DIY home security guy who lives in Idaho on a ranch with his loving wife. He writes security tips and tutorials for Protect America, a security systems provider.

General Safety Issues

A LOOK INTO THE MIND OF A BURGLAR (GUEST POST)

Burglar Reveals 15 Trade Secrets – A Look Into The Mind of a Burglar


Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a burglar? Well, SimpliSafe home security sent a team of us out to hit the streets for some raw data. We got the chance to sit down with burglary professionals and ask them some real tough questions. It wasn’t easy getting these questions answered but we got them! We gathered the most common answers and assembled them to give you an inside look into the mind of a burglar. It’s time for you to meet Bob, your local burglar.


“Hello, my name is Bob and I’m your local neighborhood burglar!”
First I’m going to tell you what I look for before breaking into your home, and then I’m going to tell you how I can break into your home. I’ll even tell you what I’m doing and looking for inside your home.  A lot of people ask me why I do what I do, and why I haven’t been caught yet. Do you know what I tell them? Because people don’t realize how easy they make it for me. I shouldn’t be doing this but I need a challenge!
Here’s what I’m looking for to make your house my next target:
Before picking a house I have to scope the whole neighborhood. To do this I’m not going to be walking in the traditional cat burglar uniform. I’m going to be walking around with a rake, dressed up as the cable, electric, or phone repairman. In some cases I even post a flier on your door for a closer look. Usually my work hours are from 8AM-11AM. I want to avoid any kind of confrontation.

 
· High privacy fences – This way your pesky neighbors can’t sneak up on me or call the police
· Any sort of high vegetation, like trees or shrubbery, covering your windows – this way they can’t see me break your window. I prefer lots of cover.
· Toys or playground equipment in your yard – Toys or playground equipment in your yard are signs that kids live there, which to me equals a mother lives there and “cha-ching” that means JEWELRY.
· I’ll post a flyer on your door to get a closer look of your home. I’m also checking to see if you have a burglar alarm.
Here’s how I break into your home:
· I’ll knock on your door to see if anyone is home. If someone answers the door I’ll just come up with some bogus story.
· I’m going to check if the front or back door is unlocked. Sometimes people usually hide a key somewhere easy to access. If I can’t find a key I will check the windows. If worse comes to worse I’ll just smash a window.
· I can also get into a home through your doors using my trusty crowbar.
· If I can’t make it into your house in one minute I just move onto the next one.
Now here’s what I’m doing once I’m inside your home:
· I always use the same search pattern. I go straight to the master bedroom. I look for cash, jewelry, or anything that might be valuable. People often make the mistake of leaving money or jewelry in the most common areas.
· I’ll even look under the bed and in your closets.
· I’m always listening for outside noises. It’s a 6th sense.
· I check your bathroom medicine cabinets for any narcotic prescriptions. Pills are easy money.
· I’m going to check your kitchen and living room for electronics, credit cards, car keys, and personal information.
· After I have gathered everything I need, I call my backup driver to meet me so we can load up all the goods in the car or van.
· Once I have loaded all the goods, my associate and I drive away to the next target. It’s a never ending cycle.

And that’s it folks. It usually takes me about 8-12 minutes to get in and out of your home. It’s as easy as that!
In closing, there are a lot of things that you can do to avoid someone like me. Home Security is Important!” A security system is a no brain-er. If that’s not an option, leaving a TV or stereo on during the day usually helps someone like me avoid your home. This usually indicates someone is home. Also most burglars won’t even attempt entry if they know there’s a large dog in the home.
So now you know my methods and secrets. Hopefully this will help you avoid bad guys like me. If not, I’ll be lurking around. “So, once again, I’m Bob, your local Burglar, and I’ll be coming to a city near you!”

Our thanks to Kevin Raposo, with another article from his series on home security.  Kevin Raposo is a writer for SimpliSafe-Live Safely, and can be contacted at kevin@simplisafe.com. He will be featured in upcoming articles.  Our homes are our castles; we don’t want Bob or any other bandit invading them!