As the weather warms, it is very tempting to leave a window or two open while away –whether it be away from your home or vehicle. Burglaries always rise during the warmer summer months; this is their busy season. Burglars specifically look for small bathroom or kitchen windows that most people would never suspect that anyone can actually fit through. But they do, and then it’s a sad situation to come home and see your valuables and personal effects have been ransacked and stolen. Please don’t think that it can’t happen to you.
Again,
• Leave a radio on loud enough to be heard from the outside every time you leave. And I mean every time! Make it a habit—grab your bag, keys, turn the radio on, leave.
• Look at your property through the eyes of a thief. If they were to look at your home, does it seem like an easy mark? Those beautiful bushes near the windows on the side of your home—does that offer them an opportunity to secrete themselves behind it while they access your window? Those privacy hedges that prevent your neighbors from seeing anything that goes on around your property are a double edged sword.
• Can they easily hop the fences? Or does it look locked and fortified.
• Have you exchanged your phone numbers and/or email addresses with your neighbors? If not, do so now. Look out for each other.
When it comes to the concerns of your neighbors keep this in mind: if burglar(s) and other criminals come to a particular neighborhood and see that it’s relatively easy to score a big bounty then it only increases the likelihood they’ll return time and time again and tell their criminal associates about it. And that may eventually increase the likelihood that you too will become a victim. So your neighbors are just that, your neighbors and you have to work collectively to keep your neighborhood crime free.
