I had been reading up on and following the tragic death of Reeva Steenkamp, the aspiring South African model who was shot and killed by her famous “blade-runner” boyfriend, the double-amputee Olympian runner Oscar Pistorious. Was it pre-meditated murder? Culpable homicide? Or a simple accident? Pistorious claims he’d mistaken his girlfriend for a burglar. And through a locked bathroom door he shot her. Living through trial by law and by opinion, the greater tragedy is ironically his.
Burglary and break-ins happen everywhere, even in the best neighborhoods. Pistorius’ reaction to what he thought was a burglar is not unheard of, and yet, is neither the best nor smartest way to react to a real threat. But even before reaching the point of having to protect yourself from an intruder, you can take some very simple yet effective precautions. Here are a few simple ways to discourage burglary and break-ins:
1 Manage your landscaping. Keep shrubbery trimmed and cleared, especially the areas in front of doors and windows. Thin down thick greens by cutting and trimming within the plant canopy, so you can maintain a certain form and size while creating some transparency.
2 With the summer holidays marked in your calendar happening very soon, you wouldn’t want to go on vacation and give away signs of an empty house. Purchase plug-in timers which are available in the local home depots and use them to switch on certain lights while you are away. Give a semblance of an occupied space by maintaining lighting patterns in certain areas;
3 Plan your home to have spaces to tuck away bicycles, sports equipment and other large items you’d otherwise hang on your garage walls for display. Also keep your hanging laundry lower than your fence. The less people see from outside your perimeter walls or fences, the less of an attraction your premises will be.
4 Sheer curtains or shades conceal the things inside your home while still allowing you to see outside. Do your own ocular inspection by walking around the perimeter of your house to see what may be too visible, especially during the evenings when bright indoor lighting can clearly define the movements of the occupants of the house and the things they move around.
5 Install a simple home security system. The sight of surveillance cameras scares off potential burglars. They can only guess how many more you’d have that they cannot see. They’d ask themselves twice why they’d even risk getting caught if there is easier prey next door.
6 Never leave a shared spare key hidden in some plantbox or inside your mailbox or in some place your children will get it from when they come home late from partying late at night. They should have their own keys to take along. “Secret” hiding places don’t usually remain secret for too long. And remember, never tag your keys, in case they get lost or misplaced.
7 Provide your doors with the proper hardware. Doors along the perimeter of your homes should be installed with at least one deadbolt fitted with at least an inch of throw (that moving stub that goes into your door jamb). The deadbolt should be keyed both sides (known as a double-cylinder lock). Single-cylinder locks (keyed one side and a thumb turn on the other side) are best used for internal room doors;
8 Go the old fashioned way and take a length of wood or aluminum or a section of your sliding door material and place it on the track to block and lock the moving panel in place. When your locks get picked, your doors won’t open. This is one stone-age “technology” that is almost fool-proof.
9 If you are still using window-type air-conditioners, make sure they can’t be pushed from the outside, more especially if your units are mounted close to the floor where crawling in and out of a small rectangular hole is made easy and accessible.
10 Have transparent fences like grills, perforated cement panels or green hedges which will allow you to see what is right outside of your fence walls. Anyone lurking right outside can be easily spotted.
Statistics show that the greater number of break-ins are actually “walk-ins”—burglaries where doors and windows left opened or unlocked have facilitated easy entry for a burglar. In other words, check your doors and windows and make sure you’ve got the proper safeguards in place for a good night, intruder-free sleep.
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