Pre­ven­tion is always bet­ter than detec­tion or recov­ery when it comes to crime and theft. It helps to know what the typ­i­cal Bur­glar is look­ing for when he is look­ing for a tar­get. Here are a few things to con­sid­er mak­ing your­self and your prop­er­ty less vul­ner­a­ble to crime.1. In most cas­es, a bur­glar is only look­ing to take your valu­ables and does not want to be con­front­ed by any­one. Con­se­quent­ly, an excel­lent rem­e­dy is to make your home or busi­ness look occu­pied. You can achieve this with lights and blinds on timers, hav­ing vehi­cles come and go from your dri­ve­way or have a friend or fam­i­ly mem­ber stay at your place while you are away.
2. It also helps NOT to adver­tise when you will be away with social media post­ings of you on a ski trip, or on a Caribbean beach. Wait until you are home before shar­ing your trav­el adven­tures
3. Thieves are also look­ing for items that are dif­fi­cult to trace and that they can eas­i­ly be exchanged for cash. Con­se­quent­ly, invest­ing in a good qual­i­ty SAFE, ide­al­ly bolt­ed to the base­ment floor in a hid­den area will pro­vide you with a safe place to store jew­ellery, and fam­i­ly heir­looms.
4. While we like to show off our new pur­chas­es of state of the art tech­nol­o­gy like tablets, com­put­ers and TV’s it’s best to keep that infor­ma­tion low key. Cut up the box­es or turn them inside out when dis­pos­ing of them on garbage day. Uti­lize win­dow blinds or win­dow frost­ing to pre­vent unwant­ed poten­tial thieves from see­ing inside your home.
5. In many cas­es, a garage can have more valu­ables than the home itself. If you are in pos­ses­sion of your dream Harley, Ski-doo, or spe­cial­i­ty tools, make sure you have tak­en mea­sures to secure your garage. These actions can include; alarm sys­tems,burglar high-secu­ri­ty locks, and pow­er door closers with noti­fi­ca­tions when doors are left open, secu­ri­ty win­dow film, and more. It’s also a good prac­tice to keep your garage door closed as much as pos­si­ble. It may seem inno­cent to leave the garage door open when you’re cut­ting the grass on the front lawn. How­ev­er,  you are allow­ing all passers­by to take inven­to­ry of your garage con­tents.
6. Your car is anoth­er tar­get for many thieves. There are a few sim­ple things you can do to reduce your chances of car theft from your dri­ve­way or garage. Avoid the win­ter ‘warm up’ with your car idling in the dri­ve­way with doors unlocked. Today’s cars are designed to be dri­ven with­in moments after start up and will warm up faster this way. Avoid stor­ing your keys in your coat pock­et, on the coat hook inside the front door, or on a dish beside your shoe rack. Store your car keys in a safe hid­den loca­tion that is NOT in prox­im­i­ty to your entrance.
7. Thieves often look for “low traf­fic” neigh­bour­hoods, if you live in a remote area, or even a cul de sac or dead –end- street you may be more vul­ner­a­ble. Thus, it’s even more impor­tant to be vig­i­lant with your secu­ri­ty mea­sures.
8. Weak secu­ri­ty fea­tures can be appar­ent to a crim­i­nal, a house with no secu­ri­ty sign or win­dow stick­ers, piled up mail and fly­ers, and shov­elled walk­ways are an invi­ta­tion. It’s time to up your game and secure your prop­er­ty.
9.The hol­i­days or spe­cial occa­sions may also put your guard down. If you are plan­ning a par­ty or Hol­i­day “Open House” when you will have a crowd in your home with peo­ple you may not know well, you are vul­ner­a­ble to theft. Take some time to lock up valu­ables such as jew­ellery and small heir­looms.  Lock your home office or mas­ter bed­room door to lim­it where guests may wan­der.
10.Your land­scap­ing (or lack there­of) may be pro­vid­ing many oppor­tu­ni­ties for thieves. Take a look at your hedges, trees, bush­es and deter­mine whether some­one can hide behind or in them. If yes, it’s time to take the prun­ing shears to them. If you are going to plant bush­es next to the house, make sure they have thorns or are uncom­fort­able for some­one to hide behind. You want to be able to see your doors and win­dows and not have your land­scap­ing obstruct their view.Remember, if you can’t see your win­dows and doors because of your land­scap­ing, you can’t see the crim­i­nal get­ting into your home.   Pri­va­cy fences are a dou­ble edged sword, while they allow you to have pri­va­cy on a Sat­ur­day after­noon in your back­yard, they also pro­vide a bur­glar with the same pri­va­cy to find an entry point when you are not home.

The main point here is to try to put you in the mind­set of the com­mon thief.  When you look at your prop­er­ty from this new point of view, hope­ful­ly, you will see new ways to pro­tect your­self and pre­vent dam­age and or theft.

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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.