Beacons for Burglars ?
Basic Home Security Tips To Practice

Although most home security tips are based on simply common sense, it's easy to overlook beacons for burglars. Burglars prefer to choose the easy mark, so you want to do everything possible to make your house look undesirable and impossible for an easy theft to occur

Property on the Outdoors

• Landscape your property for visibility instead of privacy. Eliminate or trim trees and shrubs that could provide a hiding place for burglars or shelter their actions from the house/street.
• Keep the lawn mowed and the exterior of the house maintained (an overgrown appearance might suggest you are away from home a lot or that you just don't care enough to worry about your home).
• If an outdoor light burns out, change it promptly.
• Don't display valuables. When you make new purchases (such as a plasma TV), don't leave the boxes by the curb to announce your valuable acquisitions-break boxes down and hide them in your trash/recycling bin.
• Use locks on garages and storage sheds, and keep tools that could aid a burglar from gaining entry into your home inside and out of sight.
• Use outdoor lighting to keep all entrances to your house well lit (photosensitive lights go on automatically when night falls, or to conserve energy you can get motion detecting or heat sensing lights that go on when triggered). Again, the objective is to eliminate hiding places for burglars.

Doors and Locks

• Exterior doors should have good quality cylinder locks plus deadbolts with 3" screws. This includes sliding doors.
• All doorframes should be reinforced so doors can't be broken down with a kick.
• Doors should be made out of solid wood or metal. Hollow-core wooden doors are too easy to penetrate especially when they are attached to the garage! Onlye use on interior doorways.
• Always lock your doors when you leave the house.

Windows

• Make sure door and window hinges are on the inside of the house and are locked at night or when no one is home.
• Keep valuables away from peering eyes in windows. They are just an invitation to burglars.
• Be sure your windows fit tights within their frames. Gaps larger than the tip of your finger allow for easy prying.
• Always lock your windows when you leave the house.

Other Ways to Protect

• Check your garage door opener if you haven't changed it from the factory setting. There's usually a row of 10-12 switches. If all except one is pointing the same direction, the combination is easy to break (the thief has a 1 in 10 or 1 in 12 chance of getting it).
• Keep a home inventory up to date including pictures so that if a burglar does make it in, you can provide all the necessary information on what is missing to the police and your home insurance company.
• Make friends with your neighbours. Having friendly or nosey neighbours are a good thing, while you are away they will keep a watch on your home for any suspicious behaviour.