Things You Must Never Do If You Want A Secure Home
November 23rd, 2008

The first thing that you must never do is to leave a copy of your key somewhere where another person will be able to find it and use it to open your door. There are many examples where people leave a spare key: under the door mat, under the rock near the door, on the top of the door frame, etc. Some people leave a spare key at work in their desk or in the glove compartment of the car. All of these places are insecure. You should never leave a spare key anywhere where it can be found. This is a very logical instruction but you will be surprised how many people actually don't follow it. A burglar can simply watch after your actions when you leave the house and notice where you are hiding your key. After that the burglar will have an easy access to your house and will be able to break in fast and with fewer obstacles in his or her way.

When you are enforcing your windows, you should never give more attention to the first floor windows and forget to enforce the second (thirds, etc) floor windows. Even though the first floor windows are in more danger from a possibility of a break in, a burglar may use this statistics to his or her advantage and try to brake in from the top window. For example, a burglar may climb to the roof of your house and try to break the top floor window from the roof. Alternatively, a burglar may try to use a ladder to climb to the top floor window level and break in through these windows. You should make sure that all the windows in your house are equally secured from the possibility of a break in. For example, you may want to install enforced glass in your windows and change your locks for more secure ones.

The third thing that you should never do is to leave the inside garage door unprotected. If a burglar is successful in breaking into your garage and your inside door that connects your garage to your house (assuming you have one) is open, the burglar will be able to rob both your garage and your house. You should make sure that your inside garage door is as strong as your front door and has couple locks protecting it from a burglary attempt. You might also want to install a motion detector in your garage so the motion detector can activate your alarm system in case a burglary is attempted through the garage.

The forth thing you must do is never to give out any secret entrance codes to other people beside your immediate family members. When we are talking about secret entrance codes, we mean the codes that you use to open any electronic locks on your doors, entrance gate, safe, etc. The login to your home computer network or just a personal computer should be also kept a secret. If you have children and they know your access codes, talk to them and explain that they should also keep these codes in secret. If someone finds out your access code â€" change it to a new one immediately to prevent the potential leakage of this information. If it gets into the wrong hands, this may end up in a robbery attempt.

The last fifth thing that you must make sure you never do is to let others see your personal and financial information. Whether it is your credit cards statement, a printout of your time schedule or a simple letter with some of your private information, make sure that only you have access to this information. If you need to throw away any of the printouts with your personal or financial information, you should always use a paper shredder first. If this information gets into the wrong hands, it can be used as a reason for a robbery attempt. For example, if a robber sees your credit cards statement and a record of a large purchase that you made, this may give him or her good reason to rob your house. Always keep this information in a hidden and secure place

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