Being burgled is undoubtedly one of the worst things that can happen to a homeowner. But there are some truly ingenious ways out there of stopping it from happening in the first place that you’ve probably never even considered.
With mind-blowing tips coming straight from the mouths of ex-burglars, let’s check out how you should protect your home from being robbed. (air whooshing sound) Glass Act. To the untrained eye, burglaries appear to happen at random, leaving you with a large hole in your bank account as well as your living room window.
But, as any skilled burglar will tell you, there’s no such thing as random when it comes to professional burglary. Luckily, through various online posts, including several Reddit Ask Me Anything threads, former burglars have shared some of their greatest, little-known tips for protecting your house.
Laminated Windows
Among these suggestions, one of the most common is to install laminated windows in your home. Normal windows made with tempered glass or safety glass are designed to shatter into shards if destroyed, making it easy for thieves to get into a house quickly.
Laminated windows, on the other hand, are designed to shatter, but not break apart, thanks to a layer of plastic which holds the shards together. This stops burglars from making a hole to reach or climb through.
Being so tough to break, if a burglar encounters it, they’re much more likely to leave rather than risk more time loudly smashing away at it. While laminated windows are about twice as expensive as standard, double-glazed windows, they’re certainly worth considering for the vast upgrade to your security.
But if you don’t wanna purchase all new windows, you can alternatively have professionals install a laminate film over your current windows, reinforcing them for less. An even cheaper option is security film.
This piece of rubbery plastic works on the same principle, but isn’t quite as strong. But coming in as cheap as $15 Amazon, using it could save you way more than that little investment if a burglary is attempted.
Ultimately, any delays you can cause the burglar significantly increase the chance they’ll decide your home is more trouble than it’s worth. But before you grab your wallet, check your windows for a label in the corner with text saying laminated, or with the logo of a laminate brand like FireLite Plus.
Most laminated glass is clearly labelled like this, so don’t go splashing out if you already have it!
Dogs
Canine Security. Dogs may be man’s best friend, but that doesn’t always make them the best security measure.
According to one of Reddit’s ex-burglar tipsters, dogs were never that much of a deterrent during his burglary career. Most of them were quite friendly, and even the uneasy ones could be won over with a couple of rawhide strips, before being locked into another room for convenience.
The ex-burglar did point out, though, that if your dog isn’t specifically trained to be a guard dog, your best bet is to get a smaller breed. These tend to bark a lot more, drawing attention. But there’s another dog-related security point that may take you by surprise.
As counterintuitive as it seems, placing a “beware of dog” sign on or near your front or back door can actually encourage burglars. If these signs are present by entryways, it lets the intruder know that there’s a dog inside the house.
And if a dog can move around inside without triggering the alarm, in all likelihood, so can a burglar. So, make sure to love your dog with all your heart, just don’t leave your home security completely in their paws.
Don’t Put Your Guard Down
While the movies love to show dramatic break-ins occurring in the middle of the night, the real-world statistics tell a much different story. The majority of break-ins actually happen during the day, between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm, which makes sense if you think about it.
If a criminal wants to steal something, it’s smarter to break in while the residents are out of the house at work or school. Breaking in at night virtually guarantees that the homeowners will be home, making the chance of discovery dangerously high.
One ex-burglar even gave a more specific time window of 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, as he claimed these were the lowest risk periods for someone arriving home. For these reasons, it’s extremely important to make smart choices about your home security because odds are, you won’t be home to see it in action when it’s needed.
Place Your Security Systems Strategically
According to ex-burglars, being smart about your security extends in some pretty surprising directions, including making sure you clean and dust your house regularly. One tipster claimed that by looking at specific places like mantelpieces, cabinets, or countertops, he could tell by the dust around the objects how often they were moved.
This was useful for discovering hidden cash caches and stashes, like clocks with fake backs, or teddy bears used to conceal valuables. If there was a trail in the otherwise-undisturbed surrounding dust that suggested movement, it instantly gave away any attempt to hide stuff.
So, make sure to regularly dust any secret hiding spots, to keep any unwelcome guests guessing as to where you hide your rainy-day fund. That said, after you clean up, be sure to put any brooms and mops away from your front door.
Thieves sometimes use brooms they find lying around to prop against the front door during burglaries as a sort of makeshift alarm system. If anyone opens the door, the broom noisily falls down, altering them and giving them a chance to escape.
Don’t Reveal Your Whereabouts
Another surprising object you should pay attention to is calendars. Always ensure calendars are out of sight of any windows, as any thief with a pair of binoculars can look to see when you’re planning to be out of the house.
The same applies to ensuring your mailbox is emptied regularly. If you let the mail pile up, it may give off the impression that you’re away on vacation, making a break-in more appealing to any burglars who spot it.
If you receive your mail through a letterbox on your door, however, there’s another issue you should bear in mind. Thieves can fish keys and valuables through letterboxes like this, so ensuring your valuables are nowhere in sight is essential.
Better yet, you can install a letterbox cage to prevent any pole-wielding burglars from having their way. But, as a general rule, never leave your cash or valuables sitting out in plain sight, hide them as best you can.
Most break-ins are over in around five minutes, and the more time a burglar spends looking for your valuables, the more likely they are to abandon the job. Contrary to popular belief, the most common targets of burglars aren’t huge and heavy objects like safes or TVs.
It’s the quick and easy items like jewellery, phones, passports, wallets, and for my American viewers, firearms, all of which can be shoved into a jacket and easily concealed. So, leave nothing valuable in sight, and keep your hiding spots dusted and subtle!
Are Tall Fences Good In Deterring Burglars?
While you might like the way a back or front yard fence gives you privacy from neighbours, a tall fence also gives thieves privacy from your neighbours, too. Fences are surprisingly easy to jump, and once over, a person breaking into your home remains hidden from view, unlike in a more open yard.
The same idea also applies to bushes around your house. While the privacy seems nice, bushes and fences are really like erecting a neon sign that says, “Free Cash, Privacy Guaranteed.” The best way around this is to make sure that, even if you do have fences or bushes, your neighbours can see your entry doors.
Seeing as you probably won’t be home to deal with a break-in if it happens, neighbours are your best line of defence against intruders. Having a good enough relationship whereby, if they see something suspicious, they feel comfortable calling you, can make all the difference.
This can even extend as far as calling you if they spot landscapers they don’t recognize working on your lawn. According to one ex-burglar, thieves will occasionally put one guy out front, pretending to be gardening and keeping watch, while another guy breaks in the back.
A bit of neighbourly vigilance could make a crucial difference, even if your neighbours are a little annoying in general. It’s also worth considering leaving drapes open instead of closed. While closed drapes hide what’s inside a room, this isn’t usually enough to deter someone who’s already planned to break in.
Open Drapes
Meanwhile, allow your neighbours to see if someone’s walking around inside while you’re out of the house. A similar idea applies at night, especially when you’re away. If possible, leave a couple of lights on, to make it look like someone’s in and awake.
Your overall goal is to make your home as unappealing to burglars as possible. If they have to choose between your exposed, well-lit house, or a hidden, dark house, they’ll always take the safer option.
And if you have Venetian blinds instead of drapes, you can boost your security with a simple trick. All you need to do is make sure the slats are pointing upwards instead of downwards. This will mean that if anyone looking in from the street is able to see through the tiny gaps, they’ll only see what’s above their eye level.
They won’t be able to look down and scout out what you have lying around. They’ll be virtually blinded. I’ll see myself out. Locked Tight. In case you’re wondering how you can physically lock down and secure your house’s doors, the good news is that there are countless options.
Strike Plate
But, intriguingly, one of the best security measures is actually one of the simplest and most affordable. For defence against home invasions, the most useful installation to make is called a Strike Plate, which you can pick up in most home stores for less than five bucks.
This incredibly useful and simple device stops your door from being smashed open in a matter of seconds by someone trying to gain entry. The Strike Plate is a small sheet of metal that is bolted into the door frame, securing the deadbolt in place.
That way, if someone tries to brute-force the door, the stress is spread throughout the metal plate instead of just cracking the deadbolt straight through the wooden door frame. For a burglar, having to repeatedly kick a door means drawing attention to themselves, and more often than not, this difficulty will turn them off the job altogether.
Security Signs
In recent years, home security systems have massively increased in popularity. But the truth is, security systems are only useful if they’re used correctly. If they’re used in the wrong way, they can have the opposite effect on your intentions.
If you decide to invest in security cameras for your house, make sure to place them in places that are most likely to give you HD quality videos or photos. 87% of burglaries are never solved because the police can’t get enough information on the suspect, making it almost impossible to investigate further.
Now, granted, a wide-angle CCTV shot of your living room and kitchen might alert you that you’re being robbed if it’s synced up with your phone. But it won’t really help the police figure out who’s responsible if the thief’s face can’t be made out.
Instead, place the cameras at eye-level entryways like doors and windows. These will provide the clearest images, and will hopefully give the police enough information to help you recover your stolen goods before they’re sold off.
But while security systems can provide a sense of comfort, they won’t always be enough to stop a thief who’s committed to the job. Some thieves can even encourage burglaries. If a thief sees that you’ve invested in a security system, that sometimes sends the message that there’s clearly something valuable and worth protecting inside.
That being said, other thieves will see any indication of a homeowner’s awareness of home security measures as a sign that whatever’s waiting inside is not worth their trouble. While different online ex-burglars seem to disagree on the point of home security systems and CCTV, the best approach seems to be being smart, subtle, and accurate, but not too flashy.