Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a burglar? Now you do not have to wonder. Keep reading to find out what burglars look for and think about when they break into your home!
1. Burglars do not usually dress all in black with a mask. They will dress like a normal person, maybe a service worker such as an electrician or a landscaper. They are often out between the hours of 8am and 11am.1
What you can do: Never allow a service worker into your home without asking to see their identification. If you are in doubt, call the company to confirm their employment and schedule.
2. Burglars prefer to break into homes with lots of landscaping obscuring the doors and windows. This gives them plenty of places to hide while they break in and then make their exit.
What you can do: Give your landscaping a facelift. Prune back large and unruly bushes and trees. Make your home less desirable to burglars by reducing the places they can hide.
3. Burglars knock on doors. Surprised by this one? It’s true. What better way to find out if someone is home than by simply knocking. If no one answers, they can kick down the door and walk right in.
What you can do: Install kick plates, reinforced door frames and dead bolts on your doors to make it harder to kick in the door.2
4. Burglars enter through unlocked doors. This seems so simple and obvious that it should not need to be mentioned. However, according to this report, "You'd be surprised how many people leave something unlocked too, like a backdoor or a sliding glass door. You walk around the back of the house, you'd be surprised how many times you can just walk right in,"3
What you can do: You guessed it, lock your doors and your windows. Keep them locked as much as possible, but especially when you are not home.
1 http://simplisafe.com/blog/burglar-reveals-15-trade-secrets-look-mind-burglar
2 http://www.actiosecurity.com/inside-mind-burglar/
3 http://www.wthr.com/article/inside-the-mind-of-a-criminal-preventing-home-burglaries