Web posted on August 22, 2009

A Key to Preventing Home Break-ins is Knowing Your Adversary

(County of Wellington, ON.) If you are like most people, you are concerned about the safety of your home and your community. One particular type of crime that causes tremendous stress for the victims is breaking and entering, or burglary.

Victims of home break-ins typically find the experience more than just a physical loss. They find it traumatic, disturbing and intimidating. Many victims are anxious for weeks afterward, and have a feeling of being personally violated. Predictably, residential break-ins will happen more frequently in households where crime prevention measures have not been taken. It is relatively easy to take effective precautions without becoming a fortress.

Most home break-ins occur in daylight. Typically these crimes are often committed by young men between 16 and 25 years of age. Most occur on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., when homeowners are most likely to be gone from the home at work.

Amateur burglars are opportunists. They don't choose homes randomly, but they look for opportunities - houses that can be approached without neighbours seeing or hearing anything; a door left ajar; or a window propped open for ventilation, a garage door left up when you are gone. Some crooks cruise a neighbourhood, looking for a house that seems unoccupied. If no one responds to the doorbell or knocking, they will examine the home more closely, looking at the type of windows; look for alarms; and so on.

Breaking into a home is not a sophisticated crime. To gain access to a building, crooks do not rely on skill, but on concealment, speed and force. In most of break-ins, thieves enter the house from a door or window located in the basement or on the ground floor. Once inside, they steal anything that might be valuable and can be easily carried, and sold. These thieves work quickly, often demonstrating an uncanny ability to locate your hidden valuables.

Consumer electronics - TVs, digital cameras, computers, laptops and so on - are the most popular stolen items. Cash, jewellery and liquor are also "hot" items.

The County of Wellington OPP advises homeowners to be proactive in the safety and security of your home and make your home less desirable to criminals. By knowing the conditions favourable to burglars and taking steps to eliminate those conditions, you can greatly reduce the chances that your home will be targeted for a break-in.

Security Tips that will help to reduce thieves targeting your home:

* If someone comes to your door asking to use the phone to call for assistance, offer to place the call yourself, don't let them into your home.

* Don't give information about your household to telephone surveys.

* If you have an alarm, use it. Make sure all family members use the alarm as well.

* Ensure to lock all doors and windows when leaving home for the day or evening (or even a short time). Make sure that every family member adopts this habit. Use the deadbolt locks, not just the key-in-knob locks. At night, use timers to turn on lights, radios and TVs in a pattern that corresponds to your normal activities.

* Store lawn mowers, bicycles and snow blowers out of sight. Lock exterior basement doors and doors to garden sheds and enclosed patios and porches.

* Check that windows and doors are secured before retiring for the night. Pay particular attention to basement windows and sliding patio doors. In warmer weather, patio doors are used so often that the last person using them will often leave them unlocked.

* Avoid advertising when you will be away (either in person or with a message on your answering machine). An ad in the paper that requests respondents to call after 5 p.m. suggests that the house is empty during the day.

* Don't include the address of a deceased person in a newspaper obituary - a burglar would be almost guaranteed of finding the deceased's house empty during visitation hours and the funeral. The same holds true for newspaper wedding announcements giving addresses, dates and times of unoccupied homes.

* Clear away all flyers and handout from the mailbox. If on vacation have a friend or neighbour continue this, as a full mailbox will indicate an empty home.

Arrange for a neighbour to collect your mail while you are away.
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