How to ensure security at home

When you envisage being burgled you typically think of professional thieves carrying out the job but in fact, most home burglaries are carried out by amateurs. By employing some very basic home security precautions, you can help protect your home and decrease the chance of burglary.

Firstly, by simply planning out a burglary on your house in your mind will help you to realise any weakness in your security that you may have overlooked in the past.
Locking your home every time you leave the house may seem obvious but many people still will leave their doors and windows unlocked under the pretence that they will ‘only be gone for 5 minutes’ but it is during this time that a burglar could easily walk straight in.
If you have recently moved into a new house it is advisable that you change all the locks on doors and windows. You don’t know who had access to keys with the previous owners and therefore not doing so leaves your house at risk.
Do not leave spare keys or alarm codes lying around or somewhere outside you think is hidden. Often thieves will suspect keys to be hidden nearby and check places such as under welcome mats and plant pots.
Although most burglars are amateurs, there are professional who will look for ways of disabling your alarm system. Therefore it is important that you do not leave any wiring exposed that could easily be cut or disconnected.
It is also important that if you have a faulty alarm system, you get it fixed immediately and inform your neighbours. Often if alarms are prone to go off neighbours will ignore it.
Burglars will often look for properties which appear to be unoccupied at that time but by using timers to switch on lights and radios/televisions you can avoid this.
If you see any unusual or suspicious cars you should speak to your neighbours about it and if necessary call a non-urgent police line to report it.
Never leave notes on your door or in your porch for service people or family members as this is practically a welcome mat for potential burglars or intruders.
If the front entrance to your home is dark consider installing some lighting as thieves do not wish to be seen trying to enter a home.