No matter what the economic climate is like, the one thing we’ll never be short of is burglars.
Across the country at present, burglaries are up by 4.12%. That means that securing your home has never been more important.
There are simple ways to make your home less attractive to burglars though and often thinking like a burglar can help you determine what they are.
To help, reformed burglar and now established TV presenter and anti-burglary expert Mike Fraser has put together a list of dos and don’ts.
Speaking at the launch of the recent eircom PhoneWatch Burglary Report, Mike confirmed the opportunistic nature of burglars.
He then offered the following easy to follow advice to householders to make their home immediately more secure.
Top five tips to make your home less attractive to burglars:
- Ensure your front door does not just display one cylinder lock. Ideally the front door should have a deadlock and a secure chubb lock.
- Be sure it’s not possible to look through the letter box. Install a cage or a box around the inside of your letter box.
- Make sure your window locks are prominent.
- Make it hard to see in the front window.
- Watermark your items with a watermark pen, and display a sticker saying your items are watermarked on the front of your house.
Top five tips to avoid the most common methods of entry for burglars:
- Chain up plastic wheelie bins as they can be used as ladders or even for carrying the stolen items.
- Chain patio sets and ladders as they can be used to gain entry to the first floor.
- Make sure your shed is locked with a secure padlock
- Do not rely on one lock for the back door, install bolts on the inside.
- Make sure your window locks are prominent and don’t clearly display a calendar in the kitchen as this will alert the burglar to holidays etc.
