How To Prevent Smash-And-Grab Burglaries Using Window Films

As our home secu­ri­ty sys­tems get smarter, so do crim­i­nals. Although we wish bur­glars would be eas­i­ly deterred by our gates and locked doors, this isn’t always the case any­more. Career crim­i­nals do their home­work and will resort to any tac­tic to steal your valu­ables even if you have a state-of-the-art secu­ri­ty sys­tem. The lat­est trend in bur­glary is a “smash and grab” job that does trig­ger the secu­ri­ty alarm, but crim­i­nals don’t seem to care.

What is a smash-and-grab?

Instead of wait­ing until you are out of town to break into your home, crim­i­nals will throw a heavy object through your win­dows shat­ter­ing the glass. They’ll then enter your home through the bro­ken win­dow and grab what they can before get­ting out quick­ly. Smash-and-grab inci­dents last mere min­utes and usu­al­ly occur at night. Crim­i­nals who smash your win­dows and grab your things are inter­est­ed in items that are gen­er­al­ly found in liv­ing rooms like lap­tops, TVs and gam­ing sys­tems. There is hope, though. Bur­glar­ies like this can be pre­vent­ed with secu­ri­ty win­dow film.

What is Secu­ri­ty Win­dow Film?

You may have heard of win­dow films by a vari­ety of oth­er names such as safe­ty win­dows, secu­ri­ty win­dows, blast-resis­tant film, safe­ty and secu­ri­ty film or shat­ter-resis­tant film. This film is made of a clear mul­ti-lay­er poly­ester that fus­es to the inside of the win­dow, allow­ing for a strong rein­force­ment of the glass.

How doEs Secu­ri­ty Win­dow Film work to pre­vent theft?

Because the poly­ester mate­r­i­al used to cre­ate win­dow films is shat­ter-resis­tant, it has a high degree of elas­tic­i­ty. The elas­tic prop­er­ties make it dif­fi­cult for the glass to break upon impact. Basi­cal­ly, a rob­ber can throw a heavy object against the win­dow, but the rein­forced film makes it almost impos­si­ble to com apart. Instead of sec­onds for an open­ing to appear, it takes sev­er­al min­utes if at all for thieves to pen­e­trate the win­dow.

Are win­dow films notice­able?

You can get clear or tint­ed win­dow films. Both come have the added bonus of reduc­ing UV rays, which helps pro­tect your fur­ni­ture from sun dam­age. Win­dow films also low­er your ener­gy costs since they offer an added lay­er to keep cool air out in the win­ter and warm air out in the sum­mer. Unless you get the tint­ed option, win­dow films are not notice­able.

With win­dow films installed, you great­ly reduce the chance of a smash-and-grab job. Crim­i­nals can try to break the glass, but they will not be able to—so you can rest assured that your valu­ables remain yours.