Last year in the UK there were 356,000 reported burglaries, that is just lower than 1,000 burglaries happening and being reported every single day across the country. With such a high rate of burglaries, you may be thinking to yourself “How can I protect my home from thieves?”, well luckily for you we have collected some easy tips on how to stop burglars from targeting your home keeping all your possessions safe and sound.
We understand that everyone may not have the funds required to install House alarms or a top of the line home security set up at their property, so we’ve decided to limit our suggestions to things that are cheap enough and easy enough for almost anyone to install.
Cover Your Ground Floor Windows
Before any would be thieves attempt a burglary, they will usually ‘case’ your home to see if you have any valuables lying about and to get a good view of any security measures in your home. To try find valuables to steal they will peek through your ground floor windows to see what is laying about around the home and work out if anybody is at home.
You can stop a burglar from getting a look into your home simply by closing your blinds/curtains, but sometimes closed blinds or curtains won’t completely block a thief’s ability to look around as there are gaps to look through, however this can be sorted with a fully covered blind, like a blackout roller blind or venetian blinds with privacy tapes, these will both fully obscure what is inside your home and hopefully deter criminals.
Make It Look Like You’re Home
Most burglars will avoid homes when they believe the occupant is in the house, the risk of being caught is so high which is why they usually strike when the occupants are asleep or are out of the house, so having your home look unoccupied could make you a target for criminals. So making thieves think that you’re in the home and awake can usually be enough to deter them.
There are a few ways to do this, there’s a low tech way and a high tech way. The low tech way is a time honoured classic of leaving a light in the front of your home on and having the TV or radio playing to make it appear like you’re watching TV, however some savvy criminals may see the same light always on and cotton on to your plan.
The high tech solution involves connecting an Amazon Alexa (Or similar device) to your lights, using the Alexa you can programme your lights to turn on and off at certain times and turn the radio or TV on or off as well, so using an Alexa you can programme certain lights/devices to turn on and off at certain times making it look as though you are in your home and are awake, this should deter robbers who will think that you’re up and ready for anything.
Use Fake Security Systems To Scare Them Off
At the start of this article, we acknowledged that not everyone can afford a fancy new home security system from a large security firm like ADT, while they are good systems they can cost an arm and a leg to get them installed and the ongoing cost of having them maintained.
But, the thing is, if a criminal sees a security system is in place they will avoid it due to the risk of being caught red handed by the alarms, so just seeing what looks like a security system is enough to scare away burglars. This is where ‘dummy’ security systems come into play, you can buy fake parts of a security system like bell boxes that look like the real deal, or sometimes you can get purchase old/no longer active equipment for a cut price from security firms and install them on your home, this all makes it look like your home is protected by a security system and should keep criminals away from your homes.
Install Smart Doorbells
There are many smart doorbells on the market which can record video and audio at your front door such as vivint doorbell or ring doorbell. These doorbells can record high quality at night time and also alert you via your phone whereever you are in the world of any motion at your front door. In some cases you can even speak to someone delivering a package or prowling remotely.