Bur­glars don’t choose their tar­gets by acci­dent. They look for spe­cif­ic weak points that allow them to enter the prop­er­ty with the least risk pos­si­ble. Elim­i­nat­ing these weak points can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the chances of your home being bur­glar­ized. And on the flip­side, a fail­ure to fix them could make your home a tar­get.

Here are some of the top weak points that bur­glars are look­ing for.

1) Poorly lit entryways

This is one of the main things bur­glars are look­ing for when they choose their tar­gets: poor­ly lit door­ways – par­tic­u­lar­ly on homes that look com­plete­ly dark. Back doors, side doors and base­ment doors are the most com­mon cul­prits. Even if a front light is turned on, an unlit base­ment door allows bur­glars to approach the house unde­tect­ed and to break in with min­i­mal noise.

Solu­tion: Keep a light turned on by every entrance to your home, even if you per­son­al­ly don’t use that entrance often.

2) Unlocked doors/windows

Bur­glars don’t want to break any win­dows or bust open doors unless they have to. They would pre­fer to sim­ply turn the han­dle and let them­selves in. And a sur­pris­ing num­ber of homes are left unlocked. Bur­glars will often skip from house to house until they find a door that opens. The same goes for win­dows, espe­cial­ly in the sum­mer months. Leav­ing a win­dow open at night might allow a nice breeze, but it’s also a giant mag­net for intrud­ers.

Solu­tion: Shut and lock every door and win­dow, espe­cial­ly at night or while you’re away.

3) Weak door locks and doorframes

Just because you’ve locked the doors doesn’t mean bur­glars won’t be able to enter. Poor-qual­i­ty locks and a lack of dead­bolts allow bur­glars to break in with lit­tle force. So whether you’re away for the week­end or at work dur­ing the day, intrud­ers can still get inside with­out much effort or noise.

Solu­tion: Add high-qual­i­ty dead­bolts to every door, and con­sid­er door & win­dow rein­force­ments to make it even hard­er for bur­glars to break inside.

4) Lack of an alarm system

Most house­holds do not have a secu­ri­ty sys­tem. Bur­glars are look­ing for the ones that don’t. In some cas­es, pro­tect­ed homes that dis­play a secu­ri­ty yard sign or win­dow decal are enough to scare a bur­glar off. But the ulti­mate test occurs when bur­glars attempt to break in. If there is a secu­ri­ty sys­tem in place, the alarm will sound, mak­ing the bur­glar flee. But if there is no alarm sys­tem at all, the bur­glar does not hes­i­tate to enter.

Solu­tion: Pro­tect your home with a pro­fes­sion­al­ly installed and mon­i­tored home secu­ri­ty sys­tem.

5) Open garage doors

An open garage door is an open invi­ta­tion for bur­glars. Whether the home­own­er has sim­ply for­got­ten to close it, or has left it open a small crack, bur­glars will glad­ly exploit this weak point. In a best-case sce­nario, they’ll grab a few items from the garage and run. But in a scari­er sce­nario, they’ll try to gain access to the home for greater valu­ables, whether you’re inside, asleep or away.

Solu­tion: Always keep garage doors closed and secured.

Request a free security consultation

For more infor­ma­tion on secur­ing your home with a pro­fes­sion­al­ly installed alarm sys­tem, con­tact PROTECTION PLUS today to request a no-oblig­a­tion secu­ri­ty sys­tem con­sul­ta­tion today.

Share us On:-
Allan Baum
Allan Baum founded Protection Plus with his wife Neseh in 1994. He has worked in the security industry since 1991. His educational background includes an MBA from York University ( when it was still York) and a B.A. from McGill. Allan and Neseh have three wonderful children who are now considered adults and an equally wonderful dog named Waub.