You shouldn’t wait for crime to show up on your doorstep before you consider how vulnerable your home is. It is always a good idea to take precautions and research the security issues your home may have in order to protect your loved ones. We can’t all afford a fortress, but there are things we can do to make our homes more secure.
Don’t wait for a worst-case scenario. Start preparing with these twelve easy home defense ideas.
Home Defense Ideas
Doors
1. Place a security sign or sticker by the exterior doors. Make your home less appealing to criminals by advertising that you have a home security system (whether you have a system or not). If your home looks like it is monitored by a security company and your neighbor’s home is not, criminals will tend to go for the easier target.
2. Rekey or replace your locks. When you move to a new place or lose a key, your home needs to be rekeyed. After moving into our home, we found out that there were quite a few people that had a key to our house. The previous owner, the Realtor, the owner’s attorney, the neighbor, and goodness knows who else. It cost ~$85 dollars (2015) to have all exterior doors rekeyed, and it provided a great deal of peace of mind.
3. Exterior doors should be made of a solid material such as wood or metal, have a deadbolt, a lock on the doorknob, and a Double Strike Plate. The strike plate and hinges should be secured with 3-inch long screws, so there are no weak points if someone attempts to kick the door down.
Windows
4. Protect your windows with Safety Film. Window Security Safety Film can slow down access for break-in attempts. In the event, that a window is broken, it holds glass together instead of allowing the glass to shatter. This can give you more time to react and protect yourself.
5. Add security stickers to your windows. Whether you have an alarm or not, you can buy stickers that claim your home is being monitored by a security company.
Check your home regularly to make sure windows are locked. It’s so easy for a criminal to cut a window screen quietly and enter a home undetected.
Noise
6. Noise scares burglars away. Dogs and home security alarms are both pretty noisy. Either option will cost you. Dogs need food, and tags, and will have medical bills on occasion. Home security alarms, if monitored by a security company, will have a monthly monitor fee. You can buy a home security alarm that does not have a monthly fee but still makes a lot of noise.
Light
7. Keep your property well-lit. Install motion sensor lighting near the exterior doors. When a light unexpectedly turns on, it startles intruders and alerts you that someone is near.
8. Add solar landscaping lights to brighten up shadowed areas. Look for potential areas for someone to hide. Eliminate those areas by adding light, removing foliage, and/or adding blind spot mirrors.
9. Add motion sensor plugin lights to hallways, entries, and other high-traffic locations. Plus, keep emergency lighting options in case of a power outage.
Security Camera
10. Download free apps to your Smart Phone that use your computer or TV as a security camera while you are away. If a motion is detected, you will be notified, and you can view from your phone the motion that was detected. This will give you a picture of the intruder that you can send to the police. Free Apps: AtHome, iScentry, and Presence.
11. Get an eSmart Video Doorbell. It allows you to respond to someone ringing your doorbell no matter where you are at using your smartphone. Video doorbells show a visual of who is ringing the doorbell, provide two-way communication (leave the package on the doorstep…ok), and alert you with a video when motion is detected. Many brands are wireless, easy to install, and inexpensive.
Neighbors
12. Get to know your neighbors. Neighbors that become friends can be a great resource for protecting your home while you’re away. They can call you or the police if they see an unfamiliar vehicle in your driveway or noise coming from your house. You can set up a neighborhood watch and keep an eye on vacant houses that are for sale. Vacant homes can attract squatters, and squatters can add to crime in the area.
This YouTube video was made by Retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson.
Courtesy of: ImprovementCenter.com
Originally posted in 2016.
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One key thing to remember with any home security measures is that all of your efforts serve to buy you time. A determined burglar or assailant can access any structure with the time, motivation, and equipment. The longer you can delay entry, the more time you have to react- if you are home, or make the effort not worth his time- if you aren’t home.
I’m not a security expert, but am a paramedic. Many elderly folks (who know they are more likely to need 911 and may not be able to unlock for us) keep a spare key in a lockbox somewhere on their property. Life alert, or the 911 system (if they’ve called before) keeps the lockbox information on file for us, so we can use that to enter the residence even if the patient is not able to give any information.
From a security standpoint, if you do this you would obviously want to buy a secure lockbox, and keep the lockbox somewhere out of sight.
Another possibility would be using a smart deadbolt with a keypad rather than a key, and programming it with a code would be shared with emergency responders. Smart locks are getting pretty good these days.
Either way, these systems are only helpful to responders if we know about them! If you’re on the phone and can give the information, that’s great, but I also think it would be worth contacting your local 911 dispatch to give them the information on your lockbox or key code so they have it on file. The information is not made available to anyone unless they’re actively responding to a 911 call at your address.
With that said, we can force entry on a house if we really believe there is a patient inside needing help (a “welfare check” call or vague information is not enough for this) and we will break in using the least damaging method that we can. Typically we pry a door away from the jamb using a pry tool. Most doors and frames are alarmingly flimsy. We would have a lot of trouble with a reinforced door/frame as recommended by this sub, and the harder you make it for burglars to get in, the harder you make it for EMS. If there’s no access system for us (key code/lockbox/etc) we are limited to burglar tools, with the additional limitation that, unlike a burglar, we care about not damaging your property.
I am particularly haunted by a call that I once ran for shortness of breath… per the dispatch notes “the caller sounded elderly and then he stopped responding.” We had an address linked to the phone number, but no other info. The house was locked up, there were pit bulls outside, and no vehicles were there so we didn’t even know if anyone was home. We couldn’t see in any of the windows. By the time we checked with neighbors to see who lived there, verified that an elderly male was probably home, secured the dogs, and broke in, 20 minutes had passed. We found the elderly man inside in cardiac arrest. He had probably coded during the 911 call, and a 20 minute delay in care for cardiac arrest is a death sentence.