How to keep burglars away this summer?
5 practical tips to keep your home safe when you are away this summer.
Are you thinking of your summer holidays right now? Unfortunately, so are burglars!
Burglaries rise about 15% between June and August when people are on holiday. The number could rise this year, as many people are catching up on taking holidays after being locked up last year.
Here are five practical tips to help keep your home safe this summer – don’t be an easy target!
1. Make sure all doors and windows are locked
Although it may sound obvious, many people forget to lock up due to the excitement of going away on holiday. Always double check all doors and windows are locked before you leave the house.
2. Find a safe place for packages
Package thefts are on the rise due to the growth of e-commerce. A full letterbox means an empty house. Find a safe place for post and packages or ask your neighbour to collect them for you. Don’t forget to cancel deliveries of milk and newspapers either.
3. Keep gardens secure and sheds locked
Sheds are low hanging fruit for burglars. They are often left unlocked and contain an average of £550 worth of treasures. Tools stolen from your shed can be used by burglars to gain access to your home. Make sure you lock any garden gates, sheds, and garage doors; preferably with a very heavy-duty padlock.
4. Change your social media privacy setting
Burglars and criminals aren’t stupid! They scour social media for information that can help them to commit crimes. When you post pictures of your holiday or check-in on a Facebook page, you are exposing your location and inviting burglars to pay a visit to your house. Change your privacy settings and only share updates with people you know and trust.
5. Ask a neighbour for help
Burglars prefer an easy target. Don’t advertise the fact that your home is unoccupied. Thieves look for 4 tell-tale signs: piled up mail, uncollected bins, empty driveways and dark, unlit rooms. Put lights and lamps on timer switches and make friends with your neighbours – ask them to help out with the bins etc. and to park in your drive. Be a fantastic neighbour and return the favour when they are away!
If you’d like to rest assured that you home is ALWAYS in safe hands, consider installing a high-spec burglar alarm system. A recent survey found that 94% of burglars would actively avoid a home with an alarm or CCTV system in place. At Harpenden Alarms, we specialise in the installation and maintenance of security systems and CCTV to residential and commercial properties. Give us a call today to see how we can help! 01582 465243.
Three Unusual Ways to Keep Your Family Home Protected
What do you think of when you think of home? A safe place for you and your family? A place full of memories and personal possessions? A break in can quickly change this homely feeling, and take away the comfort you have in your surroundings. So how do you keep your home safe? These three unusual tips will help you to keep your home protected.
Use Natural Deterrents Outside
When we think of home security, we often think about securing our house from the inside out, but let’s take a step back and think about an intruder’s journey to your home. Take your thinking outdoors…
Whilst a security alarm, motion sensor lights and CCTV are the best way of deterring intruders, the landscape of your garden can also make a huge impact on accessibility – eliminating opportunity. Consider planting thorny bushes under your windows or next to any low fences. Roses or juniper work well!
It’s also worth thinking about any tall trees that surround your house. Could these be used to access second-floor windows or balconies? Do they block the view of the house from the road?
Consider gravel and loose stone whenever possible, as these are noisy and hard to navigate while sneaking around – intruders tend to avoid them!
Use Simple Blocks for Sliding Windows or Doors
Though the most effective method of protecting your home is with modern technology and high-tech systems, many additional methods of safety are far from technical. Consider adding blocks or rods to any sliding doors or windows prevent them from sliding open from the outside, even when the lock is picked!
As these are easy to remove from the inside, they don’t present a safety risk in the event of a fire. Add a coat of paint to blend in with your window panels!
Put Security Features in Unexpected Places
Whilst it’s common to instal an alarm keypad close to the front door for convenience, it’s important to consider any nearby viewpoints from potential intruders. If someone has followed you into the driveway, could they see your keypad through the front door or windows?
Installing keypads a little further down the hall, out of sight from any windows or doors, can reduce the risk of burglars gaining precious information.
Avoiding hallway mirrors is also important, as this can provide a view of the layout of your house and help potential intruders to gain an understanding of the way around before they enter! You may also wish to consider having another keypad or panic button in the master bedroom, so that if a situation arises in the middle of the night, you can trigger the alarm quietly, without confrontation.
Additionally, the master bedroom tends to be the first place burglars look for valuables. If you can, place them elsewhere. Some great hiding places include in hollowed books, clocks, food tins or hidden safes (think behind picture frames, but less obvious!).
While it is not advised to use a portable safe for valuables, or to leave it in guest’s view, it’s a perfect decoy! Burglars are likely to grab it and go, thinking that they’ve found something valuable. They really don’t stick around for long.
On average, a burglar is likely to stay in your home for under 15 minutes from start to finish. The more complicated you can make their process, eliminating as much opportunity as possible, the safer your home will be.
By trying these three top tips, you’ll keep your home, belongings and your family safe!
For ultimate safety, we recommend a security system! Contact Harpenden Alarms for your free quote today.
Making sure your business is secure and safe is important. Whether your business has been a victim of crime in the past or you just want to keep an eye on what’s going on, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras can help you prevent crimes through monitoring, recording and transmitting images.
Here are 5 ways CCTV can help keep your business safe and secure.
- Deter crime
Anyone planning to carry out an illegal activity on your property will be seriously deterred by CCTV cameras as the presence will let them know that they are being watched and recorded.
- Monitor activity
CCTV enables you to remotely monitor and view what is happening at each location you have a camera installed. This means that even when you are not on site, the security coverage can be streamed directly to your smartphone so that you know exactly what is happening and where.
- Cost-effective
Unlike security guards, CCTV won’t take a day off. Instead, it provides a 24/7 surveillance which operates on its own. By installing CCTV on your business premises, this may also reduce your insurance premiums.
- Settle disputes
Whether it is a feud or an altercation between staff or customers, CCTV footage can help settle these issues. Cameras never lie so by referring to CCTV footage, you will know the truth.
- Keep records
CCTV isn’t just for crime prevention; it can also help your business operations to run smoothly. For example. It is always a good idea to keep records of when your staff are clocking in and out of your site or when deliveries or visitors arrive. By keeping footage of this, it may be useful to refer back to.
For more information on how your Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire or Buckinghamshire business can benefit from using CCTV, contact Harpenden Alarms today!
Three Places You Need to Secure in Your Home
Securing your home can be a difficult task when there are many easy access points. It is important to identify these and know what precautions you can take to make your home safer for you and your family.
Burglars regularly target three main entry points to your home: the doors, the windows and the garage. On average, around 70% of burglars gain access through a door and around 30% of burglars gain access via a window according to the 2017 CSEW (Click here to download the “Overview of burglary and other household theft: England and Wales” article)
To help secure these entry points to your home, we have provided a number of tips and advice below:
- Doors
- Remember to lock them – We too often forget to lock the doors to our property or assume that our neighbourhood is safe enough to leave them unlocked.
- Install access control panels – These eradicate the security issues of losing keys or having them stolen by using entry methods such ss codes or scanners.
- Use smart locks – If you forget to lock the doors once you have left the house, you can lock them remotely.
- Install motion sensor lights or CCTV – This can help to deter a burglar if they know that they can be seen.
- Windows
- Remember to lock them – It is often easy to remember to lock the front door, but it is equally as easy to forget to shut and lock windows when leaving your home. Make sure that you keep your windows locked, especially windows on ground floors with easy access.
- Install extra locks or key operated levers
- Add window bars
- Keep blinds and curtains shut – This will keep your valuables out of sight and make it more difficult for a potential burglar to know whether you are at home or not.
- Garage
- Keep your garage shut and locked – If you are going back and forth between your house and garage with the door wide open, this gives potential burglars the opportunity to access your garage. It will also clearly show and advertise your garage’s contents. Even if the potential burglar does not attempt a break-in in daylight, they will be able to see if your garage is worth targeting based on the contents.
- Use home automation – You’ll never leave the garage door open again.
- Cover windows – Hide your garage’s contents from passers-by.
- Lock any doors connecting your garage to your house
For further information on what you can do to keep your home secure, get in touch with a member of our team!
Why social media is putting your home security at risk
Have you ever thought that someone might be watching your whereabouts using your social media profile? With the rise of different social media platforms, it is becoming more and more common for us to share our everyday movements without considering the risks.
We would never tell a stranger exactly when our house is empty, but this is essentially what people do when they post-holiday photos onto Facebook or check-in to places on social media.
Studies have shown that 78% of burglars now identify their next target by using social media sites to find the location of certain homeowners at any given moment. This includes the location options and details that are provided on status updates. This can give burglars key clues on how far away from home you are and how long you will approximately be away from home.
Here are some top tips on how you can reduce this threat!
- Check-ins
Many social media platforms encourage you to tag the location of your post. Although this may be tempting to brag to your family and friends about your exciting tropical holiday… This isn’t usually a good idea as anyone could be viewing your profile and location which is an issue if they are casing your home…
- Holiday photos
So, you’re having a relaxing holiday without a worry in the world… The last thing you want to worry about is that your home is at risk! Those golden insta-worthy photos might seem tempting to post but wait until you return home and make it clear to your viewers that you are uploading them retrospectively.
- Keep your whereabouts to close friends
Not everyone needs to know your schedule! You might be excited about that weekend away or holiday you’ve been planning for months but there’s no need to announce this on social media. Instead, this will advertise to intruders that your home will be unoccupied during a specific period and this will give potential intruders the opportunity to plan a break-in in advance.
Whilst Harpenden Alarms can help protect your home with the safest home security protection systems, it’s up to you to be social media savy and ensure that you’re not advertising an empty home. For more information on how you can keep your home safe when you’re away, get in touch with a member of the Harpenden Alarms team!