What Bad Guys Want

I have been collecting pictures of things that cause significant security concerns.  At first glance some are not so obvious, but hopefully some may choose to scrutinize their security a little more closely for having taken this journey with me...

Indications that a home might be vacant or the occupant has been away for a significant period of time:  tall weeds and lawn not cut.

Bushes and trees obscure the view out the window to the resident and provide cover for the miscreant.

Motion sensitive lights are an excellent deterrent, but should be mounted high enough as to be not easily defeated by covering the lens, unscrewing the bulb or just smashing it by spraying a little water on it.

Privacy fences work both ways... they obscure others' view of your activities as well as the activity of a visitor with ill intentions.

Loose rocks and broken chunks of cement are just the right tool for smashing through a sun-porch window or door.  Get rid of them rather than stashing them behind the garage.

Think your second floor windows are safe and don't need alarm devices?  You might ask your neighbor to either move his ladders or at least secure them to his garage.  Also think about the message that the wheat field in the back yard sends to a possible intruder.  (Hint: it has nothing to do with watching out for snakes or remembering to wear mosquito repellant)

Once the picnic table and lawn chairs are set up, those upstairs windows become accessible, regardless of how secure the ladders on the neighbor's garage might be.

The phone line that should carry the signal to your alarm company is likely four feet off the ground, making it very easy to cut the phone line, or simply destroy, before breaking in through that huge glass door with the shovel left so conveniently nearby.  Back up your phone line!

Note the condensation between the panes of glass on this crank-out window.  This window was destroyed when the installer of the alarm system drilled into the casing to install a hard-wired window contact sensor.  Don't let anyone drill into the casing of your windows; it voids the warranty and can wreck the window.

There you have it.  Check your own home from the perspective of an intruder.  What tools would you use?  What are your vulnerabilities?  If you had to break into your house, how would you do it?  What does the bad guy see you do every day?

Who is watching your home when you cannot?

Know Your Enemy

It may be TV and movies, or the local paper, personal experience or hanging out with a bad crowd, but we have all formed our own ideas of who might be breaking into homes.  I will attempt to frighten everyone into action to protect their homes, families, pets and possessions by sharing the fears of others I have met over the last few years.

A number of life changes can cause anxiety that leads to a quest for greater security and assuredness in life.  Often people will call a security or alarm company as part of the search for a solution.  To begin, allow me to list some of these life changes:

1.  Marriage
2.  Relocation for work or school
3.  Recent Divorcees, Widows and Widowers, people who live alone
4.  Having young children
5.  Having teenagers
6.  Getting rid of teenagers- often called "empty nest syndrome."
7.  New neighbors
8.  The purchase or possession of items of great value
9.  A spouse left home while the other travels
10.  A second residence or vacation home

If you ponder these types of situations, you will see varying degrees of unrest and concern and perhaps these contribute to our illusions about against whom we need protection, as well as what it will take to put our mind at ease.

A couple, living together for years recently became engaged to marry.  For two years they lived in a very nice home together, never thinking about home security, but now as their lives were about to be permanently joined it seemed important to their unity that the home have protection.  They did not want anything or anyone to interfere with their new found peace and serenity.

Obviously people who move to a new place may be restless regarding the people in the neighborhood who may have seen all of their possessions paraded by as the moving van was unloaded.  It can be unsettling when even a well meaning new neighbor remarks about how lovely your daughter or how big your flat-screen TV is.  Did they also see the 600 pound gun safe which will inevitably contain weapons that some one might want to steal?  Maybe the neighbor isn't such a concern, but his lawn service people who were around on move in day.

Your teenager may be a very respectful, trustworthy young adult and may have wonderful friends.  What about the older brother of that friend, who happens to overhear a conversation about the brand new video game console you just purchased?  Maybe he finds out that the house is empty from 9:00AM to 3:00PM every weekday, or that you will be out of town for a two week vacation during the course of normal conversation.

Another couple I met have both retired recently.  They plan to travel for half of the year, only stopping in from time to time.  They will stop the mail and the paper, and they have a neighbor down the road who will look in on the house occasionally.  The lawn service is paid up and the lights are on a timer.  Their concern is that an estranged relative might turn into a squatter during these periods.  They will also take advantage of the ability of the alarm system to monitor the sump pump and low temperature should the furnace fail.

The point is that the glamorous character of a cat-burglar, who slips in stealthily during the night without leaving a trace, and cautiously picks through jewelry and art-work for just the right piece no longer exists...well, not many of them, anyway.  It is also short sighted to think that it would always be a drug addicted scum bag looking for a quick score to get his next fix who breaks in to your home.  Your intruder might be a first time offender.

One client of mine walked in on a man sitting in her living room.  When she finally managed to react, he was in front of her, with his business card in hand.  He turned out to be an alarm salesman that her husband had called, but forgotten to tell her about.  He'd been in the house roughly half an hour, having come through an unlocked sliding door in the back of the house.

With all of the economic uncertainty, and a general drop in moral fortitude, there is no way to predict who might be a criminal... worse yet, who might be a victim of a crime.

Here are some signs that might serve as a warning: 

1.  Every neighborhood has at least one resident who knows everybody else's business.
2.  Increase in vandalism; lawn jobs, smashed pumpkins at halloween, smashed mail boxes...
3. Things come up missing from unlocked cars, then from locked cars, then garage door remotes disappear.
4.  Newspapers missing on a regular basis.
5.  Drastic change in the way your pet reacts to strangers

If you were going to invade your neighbor's house, how would you go about planning the break-in?  Gain their trust?  Watch to see the location of their secret key?  Note the times when the house is unoccupied?  Bring treats to their dog?  Browse through their mail?  Would you use a partner from another neighborhood; some one who just doesn't quite belong?  (A closet criminal might be seen in seedy company)

Consider these things.  Be safe.