Regardless of where you live, burglaries are a real issue. If you want to protect yourself from being ripped off, here are eleven ways on how to do it.
1. Anyone who knocks on your door could be casing your home for a burglary. No matter how official they look, never invite these people into your home or hire them to do a job for you.
2. While most service people are honest, there are some who are not. The burglar could have a legitimate job such as carpet cleaning, delivering furniture, or doing yard work. This allows them to see who works during the day and who is away. Make a point of saying, "Someone is almost always at home" or if you have an home office say, "I work from home."
3. Regardless of who visits your home, always double check to make sure all the doors and windows are locked after they leave. A friend or child could have inadvertently left a door unlocked. A burglar posing as a service person would have left a door or window unlocked on purpose.
4. A stuffed mailbox, newspapers on your porch, flyers, or a snow covered driveway with no tire marks are an open invitation for a burglary. If you're going away, stop your mail and your newspaper. Also, don't forget to have the neighborhood kids remove any flyers and make plenty of tracks in the snow.
5. If you are away, place a radio and your lights on timers. In fact, it's smart to have the radio on throughout the day, Make sure it's loud enough to be heard by someone who could be listening at a door or window (but not so loud as to disturb your neighbors.)
6. Always use your alarm system. If you haven't done so, consider installing motion detectors throughout your house, including any second story windows or doors.
7. Avoid leaving a phone message saying that you are out of town. Also, never post your vacation information on social media sites such as Facebook or MySpace until you get home. It's very easy to determine your address. If you don't believe this, try putting your name, city, state into Zabasearch.com
8. Set up a neighborhood watch. That nosy neighbor with the barking dog may be your best protection from getting ripped off.
9. Burglars empty all drawers and medicine cabinets in the master bedroom and bath looking for valuables and prescription drugs. Store your jewelry and other valuables either in a built-in safe or somewhere else in the house. In most cases, burglars do not bother with kids' rooms.
10. If your alarm system pad is visible from the outside of the house, have the alarm company move it where it is not in plain sight.
11. If you end up face-to-face with a burglar, an excellent deterrent is wasp and hornet spray. This is readily available and is much safer than a gun. The spray cans shoot 20 to 30 feet and temporarily blind the burglar allowing you to escape. Aim for their eyes.
If you would like more resources, check out CrimeDoctor.com or Burglars on the Job by Richard Wright.
Posted by Bernice Ross, Are you ready for the best five minutes of real estate training with America's top speakers and top producing agents? If so, don't miss www.RealEstateCoachRadio.com. Stay in the know and make more dough!
It would be responsible of you to post that using wasp spray in any other way than it's intended use is a Federal Offense.
The fact that someone is going to the store to prepare themselves with wasp spray is extremely ignorant. If it's a last stitch effort, understandable, but if you're going to prepare, then prepare yourself with products that were made for self-defense.
I wouldn't leave wasp spray laying around the house with kids around either. There's no safety guards on the can.
Also, there is no proof that wasp spray affects humans. No tests have been done. It barely kills the wasps...at least it doesn't instantly.
Pepper spray is LEGAL and non-lethal.
Posted by: Shawna | February 09, 2010 at 07:29 PM
I would be careful with the wasp spray tip.
It's a violation of Federal Law to use WASP spray, a registered pesticide, in this manner. Police departments use pepper spray and not WASP spray because of it being a federal offense. Don't believe me? Call a WASP spray manufacturer and not a single one of them will recommend you use their product in this fashion because its a violation of federal law. The CHEMICALS in WASP spray can cause permanent eye injury or worse.
And if you have kids in your house and leave wasp spray at your front door, that could be even more dangerous. Pepper spray has safety locks.
Posted by: Shawna | February 08, 2010 at 07:08 AM
Lynn, so sorry to hear about your loss. Thanks for sharing. Glad to know the tips helped!
Posted by: Bernice Ross | February 07, 2010 at 02:39 PM
Tip 11 is great, "wasp and hornet spray". Now that's been added to tomorrows shopping list. Thanks!
Posted by: Furniture Stores | February 07, 2010 at 12:18 AM
Great advice, Bernice. Our home was broken into in October and it was a horrible experience. All the tips you give are great. They did exactly what you said, emptied all the drawers in our dresser and dressing room. Stole all my jewelry and a new laptop from the den.
Broke in through a sash window. Used pry bars to pop it open - broke the lock in doing so. We have since placed dowl rods in the frame so you cannot pop the window open.
The didn't touch one thing in the kitchen. and they didn't empty my desk drawers. Hmm... maybe good places to hide things!
Posted by: Lynn Otlewski | February 06, 2010 at 07:13 PM