With the clocks going back a few weeks ago, our evenings have changed from those of a seemingly never-ending summer to the ill-lit gloom we now face daily. These gloomy evenings provide a cover of darkness during times when we are often away from our homes. So taking stock of your home’s security provisions and improving them where needed to ensure you deter burglars this winter is a great idea. Here are 3 ways to improve your own home’s security and reduce the chances of a burglary.
Install External Lighting and Deter Burglars
Our streets in the winter are lit at night, but often only for a few hours. Our gardens and the entrances to our homes are often not lit, this can give casual burglars the cover they need for a quick entry to your home. Installing external lighting that turns on when movement is detected is a great way of spoiling a burglar’s plans. With many styles available, PIR lighting can be a great way to deter burglars.
Utilise Technology
To improve our chances of escaping the attention of a casual burglar, it is very worthwhile to install a video doorbell. These doorbells have a microphone and camera connected to the wifi within your home you can access from a smartphone. These doorbells are not specifically security products, so they do have limitations and will only record a short video after they have been activated by their motion sensors. So although worthwhile, a video doorbell should only be part of a solution to keeping our homes safe this winter. Technology can help us in another way which can give the illusion of occupation in your home even when you are out. Using a smart light bulb, or smart switch on portable lighting that you can control from an Alexa device or your smartphone can let you programme in a schedule for your lighting to turn on when you are not home. Again, this won’t deter a hardened criminal but does help with a less determined thief.
Upgrade Your Locks and Deter Burglars
The chances are that you have high-security multipoint locking on the front and rear doors of your home, these locking systems have been in use for some decades now and they are widespread. When you open a modern multipoint locking door, on its edge you can see the many hooks and rollers that prevent the lock from being opened by force. You would be forgiven for thinking that your security cannot be improved, but sadly the multi-point locks on our modern doors often have a fatal flaw, the Euro lock, the actual lock where you insert your key to open the door is vulnerable to criminals in the know. These Euro locks can simply be defeated by snapping them with hand tools. A seasoned criminal, or simply those who know can delete your lock in seconds. The good news is anti snap locks are available, deter burglars by upgrading to one of these on each external door of your home will dramatically increase the difficulty for even a professional criminal to the point it is no longer a quick break-in for them. If they try and snap the anti-snap lock, their chances of entry fall like a stone as the anti-snap lock will partially break off leaving an impossible situation for the thief. The broken, or more accurately activated anti snap lock now seals the opportunity they were hoping only seconds ago would provide entry to your home.
Unlike other approaches to deter burglars, anti-snap locks do not require power, they work 24 hours a day to guard our homes and work effectively in the vulnerable rear doors of our homes that are often secluded, making them our top tip to deter burglars this winter.
*collaborative post