Burglary Prevention  

Burglary prevention can be as easy as locking your doors and windows.  Law enforcement agencies consider burglary to be a crime of opportunity.  Your chances of becoming a victim of burglary increase when you do not secure your doors and windows, especially when your home is unoccupied.    

Securing your home:

Always lock your doors and windows when you leave.  Burglaries can occur in a very short amount of time.  Lock first floor windows when you are sleeping.
Use a sturdy dead bolt lock.
Install solid doors.  Hollow doors are easy to kick in or force.
Use wooden dowels (Charlie bars) to block sliding doors and windows from being opened.  Place screws or pins in double hung windows to ensure that the window can only be opened a certain amount.
Secure your home even when you are doing outside yard work during the day.

Lighting and planting:

Keep your porch light on.  Good lighting will help make it harder for a burglar to go unnoticed.
Keep bushes and trees around windows trimmed.  Bushes and trees that block windows give a burglar the perfect opportunity to break into your home unnoticed.

When you are away:

Ask a trusted neighbor to take in your mail and papers for you.  
Use timers on lights, stereo and TV to give your house the appearance of activity.
Have the grass mowed or the snow shoveled.
Leave contact information for your neighbors.  

Easy Changes:

Lock doors and windows before you leave and when you are asleep.
Keep expensive property away from windows and doors.
Change your answering machine message.  Never say that you “are not home right now”.
Get to know your neighbors.  Good neighbors will notice suspicious activity and will call the police.

Call police for suspicious activity in process.