Crime Prevention
In the last six months….
Did you leave the front door or garage unlocked while you made a quick trip to the grocery store?
Was it too much trouble to check the meter reader’s identification before letting him in?
Did you forget to tell a neighbor that you were going away for the weekend?
Related Tips: Identity Theft Cyber Safety
Scams, frauds and con-games PDF
Home Security PDF
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Good locks, simple precautions, neighborly alertness, and common sense can help prevent most property crimes. Get together with your neighbors to keep an eye on each other’s homes. Half of all home burglaries occur the day when alert neighbors could spot the thieves and call the police. Many neighborhoods have started youth patrols, or senior citizen “Window Watches”, or trained people like newspaper carriers and utility employees to watch out for suspicious activity on their routes.
LOCKS, DOORS, AND WINDOWS
Install good deadbolt locks in your doors. Use long enough screws approx. 2”-3” to secure strike plate to frame. Use them! (about 50 percent of burglars get in through unlocked doors and windows!)
Avoid door locks that can be manipulated by breaking glass or door panels to reach inside. Hinges should be on the inside.
Secure sliding glass doors with commercially available locks with a rigid wooden dowel in the track, or with a nail inserted through a hole drilled in the sliding door frame and projecting into the fixed frame.
Consider grilles or glass block for basement or street level windows.
If you have an alarm system, use it!
OUTSIDE
Trim back shrubbery that hides doors or windows. Cut back trees limbs that could help a thief climb into second story windows.
Make sure all porches, entrances and yards are well-lighted.
Help keep your neighborhood in good shape. Dark alleys and litter attract crime.
GOING AWAY?
Burglars hope to avoid confrontations, so make your home look occupied!
Keep garage and doors locked
Use timers to turn on inside and outside lights
Arrange someone to pick up your mail and newspapers.
Call us and let us know that you're leaving and we will check your house while your gone. Call us at 330-533-4903 and leave your information with the dispatcher.
