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It’s been a long wait, but summertime is finally here. The holiday has been booked for almost a year, and the special pile of holiday clothes have been patiently awaiting their grand appearance. Unbeknown to you, there is another group of our society also preparing for your trip, the burglar.
Statistically, spring and summer have a lower level of crime than autumn and winter, however the summer holidays are understandably a focal point for criminal gangs as thousands leave their homes unattended.
We see the aftermath of hundreds of break ins around Leicestershire and Rutland through July to September, with so many of them being preventable. We’re going to run through a quick list of things you can do, RIGHT NOW to help stop your house being a target.
Let the neighbours know: You have no idea what an amazing deterrent vigilant neighbours can be. In fact some areas are well known for being a ‘no go’ areas due to the constant efforts to report suspicious activity for the police to check out. It only takes one or two patrol cars circling a neighbourhood after a few reports, and word quickly gets around. Neighbourly tasks including pushing the post all the way through the letter box, checking side gates are secure, making sure the cars are still secure, and ensuring all the windows and doors are locked. If you haven’t met your neighbours yet, now is a great time to do it.
Replace the bulbs in your security lights: Security lights highlight a possible disturbance to your neighbours, and burglars don’t like being lit up. Security lighting is much cheaper these days, and LED’s are very energy efficient. Get your security lighting up to scratch and annoy those intruders.
Hide your valuables: It may not seem like you have much of value on show, but it all soon adds up to make the risk worthwhile to a burglar. A quick scan around the various windows of your property will offer a short inventory of valuables. If the overall value is worth the risk, it will be an offer the intruder won’t be able to resist. Start getting all those gadgets out of sight and consider getting a safe for those items you can’t replace.
Set the lamp timers: Activating a few lights at night to simulate an occupied property can be enough to put off the opportunity burglars, after all, it’s all about the risk game to them. If they’re not sure, they won’t bother. Better still, link external detectors to our internal lamp controllers to really give them a fright the second they step foot on your property.
Set the alarm: In all the rush, it’s sometimes easy to forget the simplest things, so remember to set your intruder alarm system, after all, it’s the only sure-fire way to detect an intruder in your home. If it hasn’t been serviced in a while, it might be worth asking our team to come and check it still works correctly. If you haven’t got an alarm system yet, now is the time to get one… all too often we are fitting an alarm after the burglary rather than before.
Lock the doors and windows: Again, check and double check you’ve locked the doors. It’s astonishing how many burglaries happen through unlocked doors and windows.
Keep off social media: As lovely as it is for your friends and family to know your whereabouts, keep in mind that not everyone’s intentions are good. Don’t take the risk, and post your photos once you’re home.
If we can help with securing your property ahead of a holiday, get in touch and speak to either Chris or Rob on 0116 2628899.
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