the enemy within
Knowing about a burglar’s three worst enemies — light, time and noise — can help you protect your home from crime. Burglars won’t find your home an “easy mark” if they’re forced to work in the light, if they have to take a lot of time breaking in, and if they can’t work quietly.
a common-sense approach
Most burglaries occur while the homeowners are away from the house. It’s often ridiculously easy to spot a house that has been unoccupied for a day or more. Taking a few simple precautions can minimize your chances of being a victim of crime. Many common sense tips are well known by now. Stop the mail, stop the newspaper or have a neighbor pick them up. Lock up the house and leave a light on. But even these common techniques could use improvement. Stopping the newspaper could just look like you decided not to have it anymore, so that’s fine. But, stopping all mail delivery is also a signal to thieves, since everyone gets at least some, if only junk mail. Better to have it picked up daily, then taken inside the house by a neighbor, who then exits out the back. Leaving a light on is fine, too, except when it burns all the time. Then it looks unnatural and staged. Better to have at least a simple timer that turns it off during the day and on at night. Better still is to have one that will turn it off and on at night several times, as you would if you were home. Putting the stereo or radio on a timer is a good idea, too.
