From our good friends at Survival Cave Food!

Burglar in your kitchen

You hear a noise in the middle of the night and can’t decide if it’s a dream or something in your house. You slowly awaken and decide to exit your bedroom and walk to the kitchen and check things out. As you approach the kitchen you see two men with stocking covered faces standing in the middle of your kitchen staring back at you. Now what do you do?

This of course is not the scenario any of us what to experience but it happens all across the country at an increasing rate. In America homes are burglarized at a rate of about every 15 seconds at a financial loss of an average of $2000. Though you can never fully protect yourself from falling victim of a crime, there are a few steps you can taker to lessen your chances of this happening to you. Here are a few steps you can take.

1. Trim back all bushes and scrubs to remove good hiding place for criminals. It only takes a few hours of time but it makes your home less attractive to burglars.
2. Keep your shades or blinds closed so that potential thieves can’t see what you have. In many cases burglary is a crime of opportunity so you don’t want to tempt someone to steal.
3. Never put big boxes out that advertise what you have. A large TV box, laptop or home computer box tell thieves what you have inside. This is often a problem around the holidays and this is when burglars drive through neighborhoods to find their victims.
4. Make sure you home is lit up well. Adequate lighting keep potential thieves away from your home. Many stores will carry motion sensitive lights that turn on when someone walks by. These are good because the criminal does not know if he set it off or you are awake and turned it on. Either way, it usually spooks them off.
5. Make sure you put lights on timers to go on about 30 minutes before it gets dark. This way it gives the impression that someone is home. Add to this a TV or radio timer and its often enough to make the thief choose another house. Burglars don’t want a confrontation and there is nothing worse than entering your home and finding a stranger in it. These timers can be purchased for anywhere from $5-$40 and could save your possessions or life.
6. Make sure you home is secure. Although you can’t prevent people from breaking into your home, you can make it more difficult. Sixty percent of all burglaries occur on the ground floor of a home. All of your entries should be s steel re-enforced or solid woof door. This will help top harden these entry points.
7. If you have an existing door with widows on the sides this is where many burglars just break the glass and reach in and unlock the door. These windows should be re-enforced with Plexiglas so that it’s not as easy to break.
8. Make sure you install a deadbolt on every exterior door. Each one should be at least 1 inch inset.
9. One of the simplest things you can do it to make sure all windows and doors are locked when you leave. You would be amazed in these times how many people don’t do that one easy thing.
10. Get a home security system These work great, can make a loud noise and can be programed to call the authorities if they go off.
11. Talk to your neighbors. In today’s society where most of your friends are online, we tend to forget that the best protection is in numbers. Often when you know your neighbors they tend to look after your property more and you can for them. If they see something suspicious they can call you so make sure you exchange numbers.

A little planning can go a long way from keeping from being the next victim. Share your comments as to what you have done.