When we say ‘Beat the burglars!’ we don’t meet mean literally – however tempting it may be!  But, we hope, by reading our blog, that we can help you make your home more secure and therefore much harder for the average burglar to gain access to your property.

Yesterday I attended a job where my unfortunate customer had lost his keys. Like some people he was more used to leaving his property via the back door as this was closest to the car which was parked out back, and it was his back door key that he had lost. As with most of my jobs, I spent my journey time thinking about the various methods I would be using to get him into his house and when I arrived, I discovered that all those thoughts were for nothing, because he informed me he always leaves his front door key in the lock. It therefore took me seconds to set up one of my gadgets and go in through the letterbox to hook the key and retrieve it for use. Everyone was happy. He was back into his house, I had earned some money and there was no damage to the property.

But again I came away wandering at how vulnerable people leave their houses. I read crime reports and study statistics, but it brings it all home when I see it for real. And I see it all too often! The tools I use are readily available to all on line, so if its easy for me, its really easy for a burglar who does not care about damaging things on the way into his victim’s house. If your keys are anywhere within a few feet of your letter box, you may as well, in my opinion have a sign in huge neon letters saying; “Come and take what you want!”

Home security do’s and do not’s:

• Do not leave any key in the lock at any time.
• Do not place key racks near doors with letter boxes.
• Do not put key racks in view of windows.
• If you need to keep a key near the door, put it in something that must be opened, like a drawer.
• Do invest in a post basket on the back of your door. This adds another layer of protection.
• Do check your locks are British Standard Kite marked, even if your insurance does not specify it.

• When going out, keep your keys separate from any documentation that may have your address on it.
• Do invite a local locksmith to do a security check. (Make sure they don’t charge!)
• Do pass on this information to vulnerable friends and relatives. (They are often victims and although you would never have the satisfaction of knowing you have helped them thwart a burglar, you may feel bad if they were to become a victim and you could have done something to help).
• Do make use of technology. Yale have an app that tells you what burglaries have occurred within a mile of your postcode in the last month.

On a final good note, I would like to congratulate one of my customers who owns a holiday home in Little Walsingham as being the only such person I know so far who regularly changes the code on his key safe. Yes, it does mean he has to take a bit of extra time to inform his cleaners every time he does it, but he keeps things like a TV and music centre in that house for guests’ use and it’s good that only the last few guests know the code, meaning that if someone were to come back and burgle the property, the list of suspects is very short, as opposed to the norm where the code remains the same for years on end.

Thanks for reading!

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