10 Tricks Burglars Use to Tell if You Are Home
Home
Alarm Monitoring
Burglars prefer to break into a home when no one is at home. To
determine whether the owners are home or not, burglars have come
up with several tricks for finding empty homes to burglarize. If
homeowners can eliminate some of these telltale signs of an empty
house, they may decrease the chance of being burglarized when they
are gone.
- Newspapers. Burglars will look for newspapers piling
up in the delivery tube or on a porch. Even two newspapers would
be an indication that the owners have been gone for awhile and
not yet returned. Having your newspaper delivery stopped or having
a neighbor collect it and keep it for you while your gone could
prevent this clue from giving your absence away.
- Mail in the mailbox. Just like the newspapers, if burglars
find a couples days worth of mail in a mailbox, that tells them
that the owners of this home are out town and likely a good pick
for them. It is worth the trouble to have your mail held by the
post office or picked up by a neighbor to keep your mailbox empty.
This will also prevent possible theft of valuable information
like credit card statements from the mail box.
- Overgrown lawns. If you are going to be away from home
for a week or more, your absence may become obvious by the lack
of lawn care. Hiring someone to keep your lawn mowed while you
are gone can be a good investment in home protection as well as
making your neighbors happy.
- No lights in the evening. Burglars will watch houses
in a neighborhood to see if there are any houses that are consistently
without lights when the other neighborhood houses are lit up.
Some people leave some lights on in the house whenever they were
gone. An even better idea is putting your lights on a timer to
give the natural appearance of habitation where lights are turned
on in the evening and then off later at night.
- Quiet. When a burglar suspects that a home may be unoccupied
he will still listen for the sound of activity once he gets close
to the building itself. The sound of a television, radio or music
can be an indication that someone is indeed in the house. Leaving
a television or radio playing while you are gone may provide enough
of a concern in the mind of a burglar to stop him from entering.
- Garage windows. Looking through garage windows to see
if there are any vehicles inside is another way burglars can determine
if a home is empty. Add an empty garage to one or two of the other
factors above and a burglar can feel pretty safe entering your
home. Many garages don’t have windows. If your garage does,
you may want to consider blocking their view from inside to eliminate
this clue if all your vehicles will be gone when you are gone.
- Garage Doors. Many people leave their overhead garage
door open when they are home and closed when they are gone. If
a burglar is watching a neighborhood he may watch for this telltale
sign. Simply eliminating this habit from your home can prevent
this sign being used by a potential burglar.
- Obituaries. This is a sad and unfortunately true source
of burglary targets. Burglars have been known to target the homes
of families that are gone for funerals. Asking someone to stay
in your home while you’re gone for a funeral can provide
you with some extra security.
- Pets. If you have pets that are normally seen or heard
around the home. Burglars casing a neighborhood may take note
if these pets are suddenly absent when you board them during a
vacation or weekend away.
- Phone messages. A name on a mailbox and an address may
be all that a burglar needs to find your phone number as well.
Having your last name displayed anywhere outside your home may
be telling more than your realize. If your message states that
you simply ‘can’t come to the phone’ a caller doesn’t
know for sure why you haven’t answered. A burglar will be
listening for a message that specifically states that you are
away from home. It is best never to leave such a specific message
as your recorded message when you are gone.
Burglars will seldom count on just one of these items to determine
that a home is unoccupied. Do your part in deterring him by making
it difficult for him to tell for sure whether you are at home or
not.
Reprinted
with permission from the Home
Alarm Monitoring.
February
10, 2011
Copyright
© 2011 Home
Alarm Monitoring
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