We often go by this old saying, “Prevention is better than cure when it comes to taking care of our health. However, this is also true as far as home invasion prevention is concerned. Bolstering the security of your home and making it burglar-proof as much as possible gives you immense peace of mind.
So, what constitutes a home invasion? Whenever a forceful entry or break-in happens with the intention of stealing valuables or harming the occupants, the incident is considered a home invasion. These types of trespassing often occur with the resident in the house.
Criminals are indeed getting increasingly sophisticated with each passing day. Even then, a few precautionary steps can help you outsmart them. All you need is a little common sense and some intelligent habits to keep your loved ones safe, whether you’re in the house or away from it.
Here are the top five home invasion prevention tips that will keep burglars at bay.
1. Invest in a Smart Lock and Motion-Censor Lights
You’ll rarely find a person who has never left the front door open in their whole life. With a smart locking system, you can avoid such debacles, as these sophisticated systems allow you to lock everything remotely. If you have several family members who keep coming and going throughout the day, there are higher chances of somebody forgetting to lock the door. In such cases, smart locks come in handy to keep your doors locked.
2. Make Sure All Your Doors are Robust and Made of the Best Materials
Burglars do have their strategies. They would want to finish their operation as fast as possible. If it takes too long for them to break through, they will think twice before targeting your home. They will instead choose a home where doors look less formidable. Hence, invest in a strong front door that will challenge burglars if they try to break in. Of course, they would not want to increase the risk of being seen while struggling to break your front door.
3. Get Rid of Blind Spots to Ensure Home Invasion Prevention
Your home may look ravishing when surrounded by long trees or bushy shrubberies, but these elements will hide your house from the visibility of your neighbor’s place or the main road. It has been seen that plants provide excellent hiding places for burglars. Not only bushes but big objects kept on your lawn or high fences also make it easy for burglars to get into your home stealthily. However, if your yard or front garden is visible through and through, criminals will most likely not consider your home a good target. Even if you want your plants to be right there, keep them trimmed so that they cannot obstruct vision from the outside.
4. Don’t Broadcast Your Vacation Plan
Control your urge to brag about your upcoming vacation. Also, avoid going live on Snapchat and Facebook while on vacation. Your absence for so many days makes it convenient for burglars to break in and gives them important leeway to flee. For that matter, discussing your travel plan in a public place is equally risky. You never know who is eavesdropping.
Making your home appear as if it is occupied even when you are not there is the best strategy to deter burglars. To make it happen, you need to plan in advance. Stopping mail delivery for the period and arranging for a weekly driveway cleaning service, among the others, will make your place look occupied while you’re not there.
5. Try to Come and Go Out of Your Home Unnoticed as Far as Possible
Everyone follows a routine, and that helps burglars to plan their invasion. There’s a reason why most burglaries occur during the day and spike during the summer months. Your absence from the house for fixed hours daily is a big advantage for criminals targeting your property. For that matter, avoid chatting much about your daily routine or weekend plans with other people. They may unintentionally pass the information to the wrong person.
