When we install security equipment for our customers, we have a couple goals in mind. Of course, we always want to make sure any crime at your home creates an immediate reaction. In general, this should include both a blaring siren response and an automatic police dispatch. In addition to these things, we also want to create security that proactively addresses burglaries. In other words, we want to give you the best chance to address the threat of crime on your property before it even occurs! In this post, we show you how we help our customers with stopping attempted burglaries.
First, we’ll look at a couple things that burglars like to see when choosing a home to target. Having an understanding of these types of issues goes a long way towards addressing them. As part of this section, we’ll look at tips that address exterior security, as well as the security threat created by a visibly absent home. From there, we’ll turn our attention to installing security to catch burglars quickly. This will include some ways to add video security to your home, in addition to some burglar alarm installation advice. Now, let’s dive in by checking out what burglars like to see before breaking into a home.
Know What Burglars Want to See
Before thieves break into a home, they generally scout the house out in advance. By doing so, they can plan their entry point and time as safely as possible. In this section, we point to a couple important things burglars like to see while planning a crime. In doing so, we can also see how to proactively address them in a way helps with stopping attempted burglaries. Let’s begin with an overview of exterior home security tips.
Entry Points and Hiding Places
When burglars look to break into a home, they want to find a well-hidden entry with as little resistance as possible. Therefore, making your entrances foreboding and your home’s exterior visible and uninviting can go a long way towards stopping attempted burglaries. Guarding your doors with top-notch locking hardware can make them much less inviting.
Medeco deadbolts, such as the one pictured, offer homeowners robust security against lock picking and drilling, as well as from blunt-force attacks.
For example, installing our preferred Medeco deadbolts shows burglars that they cannot pick or drill their way into your home through the doors. Likewise, keeping your windows’ locks in working order, and keeping them free of shrubbery and other cover, can also make them less easy to breach and less likely to experience an attempted breach as well. Finally, keeping your entire yard well-lit and visible at all times lowers your risk of undesirable “guests” snooping through and looking to get into your home. Next up, let’s see how you can make your home look a little less “unoccupied” in your absence.
Evidence of Your Family’s Absence
One of a burglar’s top priorities when committing a crime is getting into homes when they are empty. While burglars often carry some type of weapon, they do not want to use it. Additionally, they do not want to come face-to-face with an armed homeowner either. Instead, they go to great lengths to break into vacant houses. When you take exended trips from home, make sure to take steps to make your home look occupied. For example, remember to hold your mail to keep it from piling up. Consider having a trusted neighbor park their car in your driveway at times. Furthermore, having a friend stop by to grab any dropped-off menus or flyers and spend send some time in the house goes a long way as well.
We also offer physical security devices that can help secure your home in your absence. For example, smart light bulbs can turn on and off at scheduled times or even at random intervals. Taking this concept one step further, some customers install smart plugs that can turn any device into a smart device. This allows you to have radios and televisions, for example, also turn on and off to make your home truly look occupied. Now, let’s check out some equipment that you can add to catch thieves if they do attempt to break into your home.
Install Security to Catch Burglars in the Act
As you can see, making your home less attractive to thieves greatly helps in stopping attempted burglaries. In this section, we’ll turn our attention to security equipment you can use to help better fortify your home’s defenses. This includes security that you can install both indoors and outdoors. Let’s start by checking out the security benefits of installing surveillance to monitor your home.
Keep “Eyes” on Your Property
When it comes to stopping attempted burglaries, adding surveillance should sit right at the top of your security checklist. Doing so provides a few layers of security. For starters, you can program exterior cameras to send you an alert upon detecting motion. This lets you then check your cameras’ video on your phone, thanks to our ability to connect a surveillance recorder to your home network. This lets you feel secure in the fact that you will know about any unexpected activity at your home immediately.
When we mention your “recorder,” we are referring to our recommended practice of installing a hard drive that stores several weeks’ worth of video. This allows you to review footage of any attempted crime, and even save it to a flash drive. Finally, installing cameras also adds its own form of crime prevention by acting as a deterrent. After all, thieves seeing cameras at your home will most likely choose another target. The ability to see live and recorded video, plus the nature of cameras to help keep crime at bay, makes them a powerful addition to any security plan. Now, let’s check out some alarm equipment that can catch burglars before they get into your home.
Install Proactive Alarm Equipment
Glassbreak detectors, such as this one by Interlogix, can detect thieves before they enter your home.
When we install a burglar alarm, we work with customers to complete the system design process. During this stage, we always highly recommend arming each individual entry door. This creates an alarm response as soon as a burglar attempts to enter a door. From there, we have a few potential approaches to secure areas with windows. Some customers simply install motion detectors in these areas. This provides the most cost-efficient security possible.
However, these detectors often do not catch a burglar until they enter a home. For this reason, we also recommend installing individual contacts on windows. This catches a thief the second they pry a window open. We also like to install glass break detectors to catch thieves breaking the glass on a window or a glass sliding door. Creating a burglar alarm response before your home is entered can go a long way towards stopping attempted burglaries at your home!
Putting it All Together and Stopping Attempted Burglaries
We hope this post helps you see how we stop attempted burglaries in their tracks. Moreover, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about this post. We will happily answer any and all security-related inquiries. Additionally, we also invite you to take advantage of our complimentary site survey program. We offer free security audits and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any security concerns you may have. Furthermore, we can also make suggestions of our own based on observations made during our visit.
Perhaps you have some security measures in place, but wish to make them more proactive than they are right now. Or, maybe you have very little in the way of security, and want to get your journey started on the right foot. Either way, we are here to help! We’ve spent the last 34 years assisting customers in designing complete security plans that fit their unique property’s needs. Together, we can design a whole suite of security products and services to keep you, your home, and your family as safe and secure as possible!