Will you be Burgled this Winter?

As the dark nights draw closer, many homeowners are thinking of ways to secure their homes and reduce the risk of being burgled. If you don’t want your home to be targeted this winter, here are four things that could highlight your home as the ideal target for thieves.

Having an Open House

If your house is a sociable space and one that your friends and family can come and go as they please, you could find that your hospitality is taken advantage of. Leaving your doors and windows unlocked gives opportunist thieves an open invitation. Even leaving your front gate open can alert a burglar and give the impression that you aren’t security conscious. Putting a few house rules in place can help you and family reduce the risk of being burgled by ensuring that doors are locked at all times whether you are in or out.

Leaving Valuables on Show

Locking your doors is one way to make your home safer, but if you leave valuables such as car keys, mobile phones, laptops and cameras on show, this is tempting fate. Look at your home from a burglar’s perspective and discover what you can see by simply standing in the garden. If you can see your calendar by peering in through a window, a burglar will be able to see your weekly schedule and plan to burgle your home when you are out.

Telling All on Social Networks

It’s good to keep your social profiles up to date, but over-sharing on Facebook and Twitter can make you and your home vulnerable. Helen Flanagan recently tweeted that she was home alone only to be confronted by armed burglars hours later. The thieves left with jewellery and a mobile phone, but the outcome could have been much worse. Think twice about giving out personal information on these sites as this is one of the ways that opportunist thieves can target vacant homes. Letting a burglar know that you are home alone or sharing the exact moment you are leaving your home to visit a far away country for three weeks is a sure fire way to put your home at risk.

Scrimping on Security

No one wants to spend a fortune on home security, but this is one area that you shouldn’t scrimp on. Security gates, an alarm and a CCTV system like the ones at JMC Secure can protect your home from being burgled and make a burglar think twice about targeting your home.