Preventing Neighborhood Burglaries
Taking Action Today!

Did you leave the front door or your garage door unlocked while you made a quick trip to the grocery store? Did you forget to tell your neighbor that you were going away for the weekend?

If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, you are making it easier for a thief to work though out your community.

What can you do to help prevent neighborhood burglaries? Good locks, simple precautions, neighborly alertness, and common sense can help prevent most property crimes. Half of all home burglaries occur during the day when alert neighbors could spot the thieves and call the police. So get together with your neighbors and help keep an eye on each other’s homes.

Locks/Doors/ and Windows

ü      Install good deadbolt locks in your doors. Double cylinder with a one-inch throw.

ü      Avoid door locks that can be manipulated by breaking the panels on the door or the glass.

ü      Make sure your outside doors, including the one between your house and garage, are solid 13/4 inch metal or wood and fit tightly in their frames. Make sure that your hinges are on the inside.

ü      Secure sliding glass doors with commercially available locks, with a rigid wooden dowel in the track, or you can use a nail through a hole drilled into the sliding door or your fixed window frame. For double hung windows, slide a bolt or nail through a hole drilled at a downward angle in each top corner of the inside sash.

Outside

ü      Trim back shrubbery that hides doors or windows. Cut back three limbs that could help a thief climb into second story windows. Make sure all porches, entrances to your home, and yards are well lighted. Motion detector lighting is something to consider.

Key

ü      Do not hide house keys in your mailbox, planters, or under doormats and not over your top doorframe. Find a trusted friend or neighbors and give them a duplicate key in the event you one day find yourself locked out of your home.

Answering The Door

ü      Install a peephole in your doors. A wide-angle viewer in all entry doors so you can see who is outside without opening the door.

Going Away?

ü      Burglars hope to avoid confrontations, so make your home look occupied. If going out for the day or evening, leave lights on and the radio playing, preferably a talk shows. Keep your garage doors closed and locked. If when you return you see a door or window open or anything just doesn’t feel right, do not go inside! Drive to the nearest phone and call for law enforcement immediately.

ü      If you are going to be gone for a long period of time, use inexpensive timing devices to turn inside lights and radios or televisions on and off at different times. Arrange to have someone pick up the mail and newspapers. Have deliveries stopped or sent elsewhere.

Article written by Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Ron Cunningham, Cypresswood Substation, and used with his permission.