Making it hard to break in is our next tip for ‘protecting your home from burglars’ series.  One of the top items on thieves list is easy to access, so it is important to make it hard for a thief to break in.

Follow these tips in protecting your home from burglars:

• Do not leave doors and windows unlocked.
• Do not leave a key outside where anyone can find it easily.
• Use a metal or wooden rod in the track on sliding glass patio doors to prevent from sliding open.
• Place stops in your windows so that it would be difficult to open over 6 inches. However, make it so only if everyone in your house is aware of and able to disable it. So in case of an emergency evacuation, they can do so.
• Never leave a ladder that can be used to access the roof or a second story window outside or in an unlocked shed.
• Trim back tree branches and limbs that hang over the roof of your home. Alternatively, you can also remove any lower branches from trees next to the home.

Try breaking into your house to see how easy it is to gain access.  Here is a checklist to grade your house on easy access.

DOORS / LOCKS

• Is the door between an attached garage and the house treated as an outside door with the same sort of locks that you use on the front and back door?

• Are your outside doors solid core or metal?

• Are your outside doors secure with good quality deadbolt locks?

Door locks should have an ANSI grade 1 rating. Deadbolt locks must have a horizontal bolt measuring at least 1 inch long. It is because burglars can easily use tools to widen the frame and gain entrance with anything shorter.

• Are your casings (outside of the lock) made out of hardened steel and beveled?

It increases the lock’s resistance to impact and decreases the possibility of the lock twisting free with a pipe wrench.

• Do your locks have an anti-saw pin or anti-drill feature?

• Do you have one long screw in each door hinge?

WINDOWS

• Are your windows 42 inches or farther away from the lock?

If not, then they should be reinforced with an invisible security film to prevent a burglar from breaking the window and then reaching in to unlock and gain entrance.

• Do you connect your windows to your home security alarm?

Check out all of our blog posts regarding home security at the following links.
Don’t Advertise You Are Away
Owner, Stacie McMillan’s personal story
Protecting Your Home Against Burglary