Keep your home safe with these tips from local law
enforcement
It’s all gone: the television, the stereo, the heirloom jewelry. Drawers have been pulled out of dressers, clothes have been thrown on the floor, the back window has been smashed in. The house has been hit by a burglar.

Fortunately, this nightmarish situation can be avoided with a little extra attention to your home.

“It’s pretty hard to make a house burglar-proof, but you can make it much harder for them,” said Capt. Bob Brookes of the Hollister Police Department. “If you make it hard for a burglar to get into your home, they’re going to leave and attempt to find an easier target.”

Bungling burglars can come down to simply turning on a few lights, trimming hedges or having a quick chat with a neighbor.

1. lock your windows

Make sure windows are locked. If a window is never used and isn’t needed as a method of fire escape, have it permanently sealed shut. Some glass manufacturers make laminated glass windows, which can’t be cut from the outside.

2. get involved in neighborhood watch

Both Svardal and Brookes said neighborhood watch programs are the best way to prevent burglaries.

“The bulk of burglars we catch are not because we were driving by and we see them breaking in,” Svardal said. “We catch them because a citizen has called us and said, ‘Something’s not right here.’ So, the citizens are the best defense.”

A neighborhood watch program can be a large organized effort or simply a few trusted neighbors looking out for each other’s homes. The police only have a limited number of officers and can only be in one place at one time, but there’s bound to be a few people around at all times in a neighborhood to keep an eye out for suspicious activity, Svardal pointed out.

“Neighborhood watch programs are great,” Brookes said. “The best way to keep your house from getting broken into is by getting to know your neighbors and telling them, ‘Hey, I’m going to be out of town for a couple of weeks, so can you keep an eye on the house?'”

3. use porch lights and motion detectors

Making sure your home is well-lit can be an excellent burglar deterrent. Leaving porch lights on or installing motion detector lights makes anyone that approaches your house visible.

Putting interior lights on a timer and leaving a radio on can also make your home look occupied.

4. Keep landscaping trimmed

Keep shrubbery and hedges around your home below the window line.

“When you’ve got a bunch of overgrown bushes, they make it hard to see your house,” Svardal said. “That provides a great cover for burglars who are trying to figure out the best way to get into your home. If no one can see them from the street, they can take their time breaking in and not have to worry about staying out of sight.”

5. use house alarms

Get a house alarm that contacts police when triggered.

“Alarms limit the amount of time a burglar can go through the house collecting valuables,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal of the Gilroy Police Department. “If there’s no alarm, they have all kinds of time to look around for what they want. If you get an alarm that just makes noise, then you need to let your neighbors know that if it’s going off, they need to call us. If no one calls us, the alarm that’s just making noise isn’t doing any good.”

6. maintain mail slots and door locks

If you have a mail slot in the front door, make sure there isn’t enough room for someone to stick an arm through and reach the door locks. Also, change the locks when you move in to a new home. You never know who has a copy of the key to the door. When changing the locks, take the opportunity to upgrade any older locks to deadbolt locks.

7. take care of mail and newspapers

Either stop your mail and newspaper while you are away or have a neighbor pick them up.

“A week’s worth of newspapers in the driveway is a great way to let people know there’s no one home,” Brookes said. “A stack of papers makes a burglar’s job much easier because they know for sure no one’s home rather than having to guess whether or not someone is there.”

Also, lower the volume on the phone. A phone that rings and rings but is never answered also lets burglars know the house is empty.

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