Few things are more frightening than the feeling you get after you realize that your home has been invaded. Suddenly, your place of safety doesn’t feel so safe anymore. No one wants this to happen. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from home invasion. These tips will show you how to make it more difficult for a criminal to invade your home, and also how to make your home less enticing to home invaders.
Lock all your doors. Make a practice of locking all the doors of your house, even when you are there. Get dead bolt locks for every door. This prevents a home invader from simply opening up the door and walking right in. Someone who really wants to get inside will have to either pick the locks, or break down the doors. This takes time, and creates noise, which will attract attention. Home invaders rely on stealth, and a locked door makes things more difficult for them.
If you use Twitter or Facebook, don’t make a habit of notifying the world that you are not at home. There has been at least one case where a criminal followed a person’s tweets, discovered when the person was going to be gone, and invaded his home at that time. Keep in mind that it’s not just your close relatives and friends who can access the status updates and tweets that you display. Strangers can read it too!
Don’t place valuables in plain sight. The first thing a person does when he or she gets home is turn on the lights, and put their purse or wallet down on a table. If it is dark outside, and the curtains in that room are not the kind designed to block light, you have essentially put a spotlight on where your money and credit cards are located. This makes it easy for a home invader to slip in a window, grab the wallet or purse, and run out the door. Instead, put your money in a different room that is less accessible.
If you are going on vacation, tell the post office to hold your mail. Nothing broadcasts, “I am not home” as loudly as a pile of mail sitting on your porch. Most home invasions happen when the criminal is certain that people are not going to be home. Don’t make it obvious that you are gone!
