You need to know Burglary Prevention Basics
Officer Mike Lewis
You want to know why a burglar would choose your home as his target house to break into? When you know the burglar’s mindset, you can “out think” him and do a lot to protect your family and possessions.
In our video, LAPD Officer Mike Lewis North Hollywood Area Senior Lead Officer explains how, over the last many years, whenever he apprehended a burglar, he would always get VERY curious: he wanted to know:
- Why did you pick this house?
- How did you know there was no one home?
- What is the burglar’s favorite entry way into the home?
Mike is a very skilled and confident police officer. Not what you would call shy at all!
We video-taped Officer Lewis at a recent Studio City Residents Association meeting. And, after the video we’ll tell you some very easy ways to increase the securty of your home.
What’s an action plan we could develop from this?
Make your home be more secure and look more secure. Don’t make it an easy-seeming target for bad guys.
- Keep the lawn mowed.
- Make the house look occupied.
- Keep the backyard well-lit.
- Make it seem that there is someone there in the home right now.
- If you don’t have a home security system, get one, and put the signage that you are alarm protected prominently around your home.
- If credit is bad and a security system can’t be had right now, at least postage that you do have a security system.
Make your home appear lived in.
Criminals are cowards, yet they are not foolish. They are not looking for a confrontation, not at all. Before a burglar attempts to enter a home he will look over the household to determine whether anyone is there or not . It’s simple really: the first thing they’ll do is knock. Don’t open the door to answer it, but stand to the side of the door and ask, “who’s there?”.
Typically, the burglar will ask for someone, they will just grab a name out of the hat. “Hello, this is Dave. Is Mark there?” When someone comes to your door and asks for the name of a person who does not live there, you can be pretty sure that you have a burglar at your front door, who is “checking your place out” in anticipation of burglarizing it.
Don’t open the door: don’t respond any further questions. Tell your visitor he’s got the wrong household and ask him directly and bluntly to please leave your property.
When you are not home, make it appear that you are home.
There are all sorts of ways of doing this. Leave a newspaper open at your breakfast table. Turn radios or TVs on in different rooms and keep some lights on.
Leave some old tennis shoes or boots by the fron side and rear doors. The bigger size the better!
Over the next several articles I will post more of Officer Lewis’ talk and more of my practical and inexpensive ways to implement his suggestions. Stay tuned!
[...] Most burglaries occur during the daytime when the occupants are away either at home or at school. The summer months are the biggest months for burglary. The typical burglar is a young man under 25 years of age who is looking for small, inexpensive items that can quickly be exchanged for cash. A burglar is looking for your cash, your jewelry, your guns, your watches and electronic gear. There’s other articles about home burglary here and here [...]
[...] criminals. You will see a lot of “overlap” in the things they say. You can access Ofc. Lewis interviews on this site as well. Categories : [...]
I am really thankful to this topic because it really gives up to date information `,’