Home security tips/things to think about post Christmas;
Bad guys know that everyone has new toys this time of year. In my experience things like X-Boxes and such are high on the list of things in demand, and the burglars want them as well.
Think about taking your boxes to the recycler instead of throwing them out in your normal trash or recycle bin where people can see that you have new stuff.
Every year around Christmas in most jurisdictions home burglaries go up. People have new stuff, they are also away from home quite a bit visiting relatives and such.
The bad guys know this too.
In many cases where we hear of a “home invasion”, locally this is known as an Aggravated Burglary, there was a knock at the door first before the break-in.
The home owner wasn’t expecting company and so ignored the knock thinking it was a salesman or someone from a religious group wanting to talk.
This knock turns out to have been the bad guys casing the house to see if anyone is home.
I advise folks to let the person at the door know you are there, and if you don’t want to speak to the person then to send them on their way. If the knock was a bad guy casing your residence then they now know you are home. Burglars, the vast majority of the time, are not looking for a confrontation, they are looking for stuff to steal.
It really pays in home and personal security to have door/frames/locks in combination that can’t be kicked open easily. In much of modern residential construction the doors are what I would call a “one kicker”, as in one kick and the bad guy is in.
Over my LE career I have worked hundreds, if not thousands, of burglaries where this is the case, and kicked or rammed open more than just a few doors myself.
Locally I have offered personal security consultations with friends, relatives and co-workers to improve their home security situation by hardening their doors. This can often be done with less than $100 worth of hardware from the store and a couple of hours of easy work.
I’d also advise that one should have a “plan B” for if the person knocking tries to force their way in even after you have made it known that you are home and not wanting to speak to them, but that’s information for another post.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas, and hope the best for everyone in the New Year.