How To Make Your House Less Desirable To Thieves

Ever won­dered what thieves look for when they case a neigh­bour­hood for an easy tar­get? Most like­ly it will be an emp­ty house with weak and unpro­tect­ed entry points that are out of gen­er­al sight. Make your house the one that thieves quick­ly pass over by employ­ing the fol­low­ing strate­gies:

Make It Look Like Some­one Is Home

This is one of the most impor­tant tricks for keep­ing bur­glars away. Thieves intent on a rob­bery don’t want any com­pli­ca­tions – they just want to grab the stuff and run. Hav­ing to deal with home­own­ers is a huge risk and deter­rent for them. So, fake a pres­ence in the house. Park a car in the dri­ve­way and keep the lights on inside and out­side of the house.

Invest in a timer that will turn the lights on as dusk approach­es and off in the morn­ing. And use the timer to turn your tele­vi­sion on and off as well. Lights on and tele­vi­sion or radio noise make it look like there are peo­ple in the house who can call the police or block the rob­bery in some oth­er way. If you are leav­ing for an extend­ed vaca­tion, have some­one pick up your news­pa­pers and mail. Noth­ing shouts loud­er that the house is vacant than a pile of dai­ly news­pa­pers on the porch and an over­flow­ing mail­box.

Fore­warn and Deter With A Sur­veil­lance Sys­tem

Invest­ing in a home sur­veil­lance sys­tem not only hin­ders a break-in by trig­ger­ing an alarm and fright­en­ing the bur­glars away, but the secu­ri­ty sys­tem sub­scriber yard signs and win­dow stick­ers are an effec­tive way to change thieves’ minds about even attempt­ing to tar­get a pro­tect­ed house in the first place.

Place the signs in the most vis­i­ble areas of your front lawn, as well as on the sides and the back of your house. Know­ing that the house is pro­tect­ed by a home secu­ri­ty sys­tem will make the thieves turn around and look for an eas­i­er tar­get. Dou­ble up that warn­ing pow­er with anoth­er trust­ed post­ing, BEWARE OF DOGS, and you’ll like­ly fend off even the most des­per­ate and expe­ri­enced thief.

Don’t Tempt The Thief

Close up shades and drapes to keep your house­hold items out of view. You don’t want to tempt the thief with your expen­sive items vis­i­ble from the street. As they say, bur­glary is a crime of oppor­tu­ni­ty, and spot­ting expen­sive elec­tron­ics in your liv­ing room could just prompt a thief to act.

And if you went on a shop­ping spree (this being the hol­i­day sea­son and all), make sure to keep the pack­ag­ing of your pur­chas­es bro­ken down into small bun­dles when thrown to the curb so labelling is not vis­i­ble. A car­ton stamped with Acer Fer­rari 1100 lap­top in front of your house could be quite tan­ta­liz­ing to a thief.

And although you might be tempt­ed to brag to your friends about your upcom­ing fab­u­lous vaca­tion, nev­er announce your com­ings and goings on social media. Many bur­glars use Twit­ter, Face­book and oth­er social media plat­forms to tar­get prop­er­ties. Wait until you’ve returned from your trip to claim your brag­ging rights with pic­tures and posts.

Make House Entry Points Vis­i­ble and Pro­tect­ed

Large trees, bush­es and shrubs do improve your property’s curb appeal, but unfor­tu­nate­ly, they also make your house attrac­tive to thieves by offer­ing them cov­er and cam­ou­flage. Trim any high and over­grown foliage so that your home’s doors, win­dows and porch­es are eas­i­ly vis­i­ble to passers­by.

Con­sid­er invest­ing in sol­id wood or Steel-wrapped wood core doors and dou­ble-glazed win­dows. Old hol­low-core doors can be eas­i­ly kicked in, and glass is very vul­ner­a­ble to a break-in. Dou­ble-glazed win­dows are more resis­tant to impact, and in addi­tion, they will keep your house qui­eter and bet­ter insu­lat­ed.