Preventing a burglary whilst it is underway is incredibly difficult and dangerous.
If a burglar is intent on breaking into your home, no home security system is guaranteed to stop them in their tracks, meaning that preventing your home being targeted in the first place is the best way forward.
Preventative measures can be highly effective in ensuring your home is not singled out by burglars.
Here are some of the most effective ways to deter burglars:
1. Lighting
Burglars often look for dark and shadowy locations to commit their crimes, giving them cover whilst they approach a property and attempt to gain access.
A well-lit exterior keeps your home visible to passers-by and neighbours making it much more likely that suspicious activity will be seen and reported before escalating.
To save power and avoid having a spotlight shining from your home throughout the entire night, motion detection lights are the best way to achieve this and will provide a shock to burglars that will more than often lead to a hasty retreat.
If you are going out for the day or away on holiday, consider leaving an interior light on, or installing a light on a timer, to give the impression that someone is home.
2. Keep valuables hidden
Having expensive items clearly visible on your property, either within sight of windows or left sitting in your front yard, is a guaranteed way to attract unwanted attention.
Burglars will often see brand new garden equipment such as ride on lawn mowers as a sign that there are likely more valuable items to be found within.
Keeping tools and equipment carefully stored within sheds or garages, and closing your curtains at night is an easy way to remove some of the more obvious attractions of targeting your home.
3. Avoid leaving spare keys lying around
Many people leave a hidden key in a ‘safe’ place outside their home in case of emergency.
This is not as great an idea as it sounds, however, as criminals will be aware of the most common spots that people choose as key hiding places.
4. Maximise door safety
In over half of all UK burglaries, the intruder gains entry using the front door.
Older, poorly installed doors with cheap locks are much easier to force open than newer versions, so if your door looks like an easy access point, it probably is.
Installing new front doors and windows in your home, fitted with the latest security features is a great way to massively improve your home security.
5. Avoid tall garden features
Tall objects such as trees, and ladders offer burglars an easy route to the top floor of your home, where entry may be easier.
Keep the branches of any tall shrubbery close to your home well-trimmed to prevent them from being used in this manner and ensure all ladders and other large appliances are securely stored away.
Tall fences at the front of your home are also a bad idea as they make it much easier for an intruder to approach undetected.
Keep hedges, shrubs, and fences to 1m high at the front of your property to allow better visibility from the road, giving neighbours a better chance of noticing suspicious behaviour and reporting it to you or the police.
6. Install a home security system
All these tips are great ways to make your home less attractive to criminals, but if the worst does happen, having an effective home security system in place is essential.
Modern home security systems, installed by a professional security firm such as Central FS, are incredible effective at detecting intruders to your home.
Some of the features that should be included in the most effective home security system possible are Central FS CCTV, burglar alarms, and motion detection lighting.
As well as alerting you to the presence of an intruder a home security system should be highly visible, to act as a deterrent to potential intruders, and provide evidence if an incident does take place.
CCTV footage is by far the most useful evidence the police can have when searching for a burglar and video is often the crucial piece of evidence in a court case.
7. Protect your home today
Burglary is financially and emotionally devastating for you and your family.
Your home will never feel the same again after being targeted by criminal activity.
To ensure the safety of you and your loved ones it is essential that you have the most effective security system possible.
For more information on any of the security measures mentioned above, or to arrange a security survey of your home, contact Central FS today, and our team of security experts will be delighted to help.
Call Central FS now on 0141 673 1244.