Home Safety Tips

<p>If a house is broken into, it is usually when no one is home. Consequently, if you are planning a long vacation away or going outside for a brief walk, remember some basic security and safety measures to keep your home safe from break-ins. Preventing your home from break-ins involves assessing the security risks. Be vigilant about taking note of some household practices that should change and the weak points that need addressing for the security and safety of your home.

Keep all your doors locked with high quality door locks that will keep burglars from kicking down the doors. Using double deadbolts on all doors is a good idea. If you happen to have a sliding door, put a metal rod inside the base of the door to make it hard to open.

Always check that your windows are closed and locked. Even if you are only taking a brief walk, never leave them even halfway open. To be extra safe, secure the windows with grills so that a burglar cannot get in even if they break the glass. You can easily install a mechanism on the windows that will keep someone from raising them high enough to crawl through.

Keep any type of lawn and garden tools that could be used to gain entry to your home secure and out of sight. Thieves use these types of tools on a regular basis to break into homes.

If you want to have a spare key around, leave it with a trusted neighbor. An experienced burglar knows just about every “secret hiding spot”. The neighbor can keep an eye on your house and help prevent break-ins.

Keep your house and the perimeter areas well-lit. You can use photosensitive bulbs that go off and on automatically rather than staying continually lit. This would be a sign for a burglar that you are away.

Never paint your name on the mailbox. When you do this, someone can find your telephone number easy and use it to see if you are home or not.

Always arrange to have the mail and newspaper deliveries suspended when you plan to be away for a while. If the yard has a few newspapers on the ground and the mailbox is full, it is a clear indication to a burglar that no one is home.

Always think before you go out, and make sure you have your home as safe and secure as possible.

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