5 Tips to protect your home from thieves during holidays
Today we are going to make an article a little different from the usual ones: we are not going to speak exclusively of security doors or security gratings, but we would like to explain some useful advice to protect your home from thieves during holidays.
It is a matter that we have always known and «dabbled», but in order to find the definitive confirmation of what we know, we have gleaned advice from the most authoritative source ever, the State Police.
In the long and detailed article Thefts in our home: how to protect ourselves from thieves the Police draw up a detailed list of all the precautions and the most virtuous behaviour rules to protect our homes from thieves.
In these lines we have chosen to extrapolate the less obvious and known norms, to provide you with a quick but functional list, which we hope you will find useful.
1. Increase passive security systems
Maybe you are thinking: «You said you do not want to talk about obviousness and this should be the first point?» Yes, but we have not chosen to put it first, but the source we mentioned earlier, the Police. Equipping your home with a armoured door is always the best starting point. Then the armoured windows gratings for homes with access from the ground floor and finally, for those who can, it is also very useful to install an alarm system.
2. Avoid usual hides
In case you keep jewels and money at home you know that according to the statistics the thieves always check: drawers, wardrobes, behind paintings, between the books, inside vases. It goes without saying that they are hiding places to avoid. Choose unsuspected places but above all, if you can, equip yourself with a solid safe.
3. Take many photographs
This is a tip, which, even if it has to be used in unhappy circumstances, can really be decisive. In the case, once again, you keep precious objects or works of art at home, photograph them carefully and from different angles. This precaution will allow you, even if you do not have an insurance policy, first of all, to prove the property of the stolen goods, and secondly, it will be a winning card during the denounce phase: the Police will have a precise and fundamental reference for the research.
4. Friends of neighbours, friends nearby!
At this point, we have chosen a tip which, if you want, falls outside security in the strict sense. Try, as far as is possible, to contribute to create a cohesiveness within your neighbourhood. Introduce yourself and know everyone, build strong trust relationships. There is no more comforting feeling than knowing that our neighbours, while we are not at home, have always alert eyes and ears.
A good habit, which unfortunately is getting lost, is to choose a neighbor that we trust 100% to give him/her our home keys (for any circumstances), and to ask him/her the courtesy to keep our mailbox empty: in case it is full of letters and advertising, it can be interpreted by thieves as an indicator of «empty house – go ahead».
5. Do not act like heroes
Finally, a behaviour rule that could save your life more than to avoid theft.
In the unfortunate situation when returning home, after a more or less prolonged absence, you should realize that your entry door has been opened, the best and wisest thing to do is very simple: DO NOT ENTER and call the Law Enforcement immediately. There are many reasons to comply with this rule, but the most important is that if thieves are still inside, they might feel in danger by seeing you and react by attacking. So do not act like heroes, you could risk creating more damages rather than improving the situation.
Here we are, these are the basic behaviour rules that we have identified to protect our home from thieves, especially during long holidays.
If you follow these tips scrupulously, your home will have fewer chances of being attacked by thieves, and you also have some very useful tools to use in case the worst situation should occur.
We can summarize as follows: we take the right precautions and learn to trust our neighbours. It will benefit both the home security and the atmosphere of the neighbourhood!