Securing Your House When on Vacation
For Australians, the time to get away from the cold winter is during December to February, a time when many people leave their homes and enjoy the hot summer weather of countries in the northern hemisphere. They holiday makers are joyful and expect to spend a very enjoyable time. There is only one snag; they have to leave their homes unattended and at the mercy of burglars. The holiday season is their prime hunting time for valuable wealth left in vacated homes.
At Complete Alarms we know that vacation time is relished and you should be able to enjoy your holidays without constantly worrying about the status of your house. In addition to the availability of our CCTV surveillance systems, we also offer you several important tips for securing your home during your absence:
- Notify the police – phone the nearest police station or better still, go visit them face to face and tell them of your intention to go on vacation and ask them to conduct a periodic check on your house. You should also inform your neighbours and tell them where you are going, for how long and your expected date of return. Ask them also to be attentive to your property during the whole time you are absent.
- Enliven your house – a quiet and dark house will betray an empty house and this is a prime signal for any burglar. An empty house is easy prey perhaps not for one but several burglars. Dispel the gloomy quietness of your house and deliberately lead burglars to believe that people are still in the house.
- Do not erase or change the alert messages you sent out earlier in the day letting your friends and family know that you are going on vacation. Tell the mail deliverer to hold onto your mail at the office until you return and ask your neighbour to collect your newspapers until you return. Also ask them to cut your lawn when they are cutting theirs. Your failure to attend to these 3 important areas will result in piled up mail, newspapers strewn everywhere and a long grass lawn. All of them are potential alert beacons to burglars that someone is amiss.
- Alternatively, you can ask a trusted neighbour to look after your home during your absence, collect the mails and newspapers and leave sufficient hint that someone else is in the house. A faked on-going conversation or occasional yelling out of your name should amicably do the trick.
- A car that is constantly moved to different positions can also provide a convincing decoy for robbers who will think that the person in the house is still within. Ask your house sitter to move your car periodically to different parking sites around the house grounds.
- Some people think that placing keys at different hiding places like the doormat or flower pot, but in most cases, these are the very places where a thief will look. The best way to solve this problem is by giving it to a trusted neighbour or friend to look after it until your return. Another often committed fault is leaving information on your house key. The information can be traced back to the key owner and the house!
Leaving your house to go abroad is serious business and should be treated as such. Be very meticulous in your preparations to ensure the security of your home when you do go on vacation.
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If you want extra assistance for when you go abroad on vacation, we can provide you with the equipment and information you need to secure your house Call us now on (02) 8091 3388 and we will give you the assistance you need.
Never Underestimate Police Help
Historically, most Australians tend to hold a suspicious view of the law and those that enforce it. We tend to view police presence as something to put up with rather than a presence that can provide us with solutions to our problems. At Complete Alarms we believe that this is a misconception and we will attempt to address it by giving lucid examples of how it is in fact misleading notion.
Police are never a burden when it comes to home security. How can they be when, as law enforcers, they are against all types of criminal activity including house break-ins? They are always for you and you should seek their expert assistance as soon as danger manifests itself. One very commendable aspect of police work is they work hard to protect your life and property at a risk to their own lives. They take an oath to protect citizens even if it costs them their very lives. We and you should be grateful and cooperate with them as much as we can.
Some of us think police are there only for responding to incidents and this is clearly not the case. They can also prevent crimes from happening. You can, for example, notify them of your departure from your home on business or vacation and ask them to conduct periodic checks on your house. The presence of police around your house is anathema to burglars.
In many places, police can be very proactive in protecting homes that they go the full length in providing free surveillance services for guarding property. The surveillance is usually supervised by a crime prevention officer. Liaise with the officer and inquire about the possibility of having your premises coming under their surveillance. He or she may also help you in implementing some security measures known only to them in doing surveillance work.
A recent, marvellous development for aiding surveillance work has been the creation of community policing. This method allows police not only to conduct systematic and efficient patrolling of neighbourhoods, but also involves them in proactive intermingling with their residents and in doing so, they build cordial relationships with them. Community policing has resulted in reduced crime rates. Take advantage of this police assistance. Build a common bond with police officers patrolling your neighbourhood and you will experience a downslide or even total prevention of break-ins into your home.
It is difficult to gauge how effective a do-it-yourself home security system to secure your home. However, what should not be disputed is the effectiveness of a combined police and personal security methods to keep burglars at bay.
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When an automated surveillance system is added to a combined police and personal methods of securing your home, the chances of a burglar’s prospects of breaking into your home will be extremely limited, if not totally eliminated. Ring us now so we can help you.
More Tips for Bamboozling Burglars
We sometimes overlook the most simple but very effective means of frustrating the efforts of burglars. It is an important task for us at Complete Alarms to identify these common sense habits and tricks and share them with house owners so they can effectively protect their homes. Some are new and some have been proven to be effective weapons against unwanted intrusions like the ones discussed below.
Some of us often showcase our situation without knowing its detrimental effects to our security. Leaving things outside the house that seem harmless enough to you may prove to be a magnetic lure to a thief making his inspection of potential sites during the day. Things like bicycles, scooter, wheelbarrow, picks and shovels or garden tools are attractive items to thieves. You shouldn’t leave items that can be easily moved from your grounds.
When you buy something new such as a brand new deck player with the latest screen or any other expensive household entertainment appliance, refrain from placing the container box out in the backyard as a recyclable collection. The box container will provide a revealing beacon to tell burglars that valuable equipment has been unpacked and now sitting on a table in the living room. They can be sold at attractive prices anywhere on the streets or second hand shops. Incinerate carton boxes or get rid of them quickly to avoid detection.
Conjuring up your own tricks to foil attempts at entering your house have proven to be very effective. You are now aware that burglaries occur mainly during the day when the occupants are away working in their workplaces. You should take advantage of this knowledge to create you own illusions to fake a home still occupied after the occupants have left for work. Purchase fluorescent bulbs to conserve electricity consumption and leave a light on or a pre-taped series of soft songs or radio programs. To be more convincing, leave your television on. There are loads of other tricks you can use.
The presence of bushes around your ground area can provide hiding places or camouflage the presence an intruder. They provide excellent cover for someone to survey your grounds and house at leisure and even allow burglars to even note down activities that occur around or in your home. Thin out the foliage with a suitable cutter or pruning instrument. A clear ground area with good visibility leverage through the trees, are effective methods for easily spotting movements.
Never underestimate the lengths to which burglars will resort to, so they can break into your house. Be always alert and vigilant and don’t forget that one of the best means of combating burglary is for you to be ahead of a burglar’s plans and intentions.
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In addition to our ability in providing our CCTV surveillance system, we can also provide you with some of the best personal strategies you can use to ensure the security of your grounds and house. Ring us now on 02 8011 3882.
Neighbours and Home Security Combine Well.
Many safety analysts believe, like we do, that a safe neighbourhood is one where everyone knows one another; the members are very friendly and loyal; they look after one another; they know all their children; they form a closely-knit group of people who are always ready to help. When you enter and area to live, one of the first and very important things you should do is to know the people you will be living with. At Complete Alarms we know the value of forming strong ties with your neighbours and we offer some of the reasons why:
- People who live in a neighbourhood know about practically everything that happens in it. Even more important, they know every single person who lives there. It is little wonder then that any newcomer would stand out like a sore thumb to established residents. Questions automatically start flying and very quickly, the purpose of the newcomer becomes known to the community. A burglar would tend to stay clear of a neighbourhood where residents are friendly and loyal to one another.
- One very valuable contribution to security that friendly neighbours display is their uncanny ability to have an inner care for their fellow residents. The automatically have a casual eye for their security. This friendly concern has been harnessed by the formation of watch groups which have now swelled to millions of members. Forming such groups in your neighbourhood is one very good idea.
- Knowing your neighbours is the best thing to do if you rent a house or apartment in the neighbourhood. Renters often appear different from the rest because they rent and do not own real estate and can be left out in the lurch. Don’t become a stranger; mix in and know your neighbours because recent studies show that renters are more prone to break-ins.
- This overly caring attitude of neighbours is very important especially when you go abroad for a business trip or a vacation. Your departure automatically triggers the ‘watch’ syndrome and your house becomes their focus of attention as if it is theirs also and will to do all they can to ensure your house is safe with them while you are absent
- Having the knowledge that people are always on the lookout for your interests should not make you complacent or even careless. On the contrary. You should augment such devotion and loyalty with your own diligence because if you aren’t you may well compromise the efforts of your neighbours who are 100% for you.
- Assist the efforts of your neighbours yourself by always staying alert to possible security threats and pre-empting them. The street address on your mailbox is sufficient: never give away your last name for a burglar to check out; study the crime rate of the area and where crimes usually take place; be extra alert if the area has a high crime rate
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Apart from our ability to supply excellent automated surveillance systems, especially our CCTV packages, we can also assist you in providing more information on how to personally make your home safe and secure. If you need our assistance call us now on (02) 8091 3388.
Very Interesting Facts on Residential Break-ins
Anything that has to do with the safety and security of homes is top priority at Complete Alarms and this is one of the reasons why we always try to keep abreast of any information that has connection with this very important subject. In doing so, we stay acquainted with the latest information and trends in the realm of home security in both the automated and manual systems. From this, we have a panoramic view of the whole home security situation, try to find remedies and offer you some of the fruits of our efforts so you can benefit from them. Here are just a few of our findings:
- The much frowned upon burglarizing of homes was dealt a debilitating blow when the deadbolt lock was invented and sold on the market in the 1970s. This lock became the ‘lock-out’ king that thwarted the efforts of burglars worldwide as well as here in Sydney albeit later.
- With the installation of this maverick metal box, the incidence of burglaries continued to drop and then levelled off about two years ago. Since then, the number of burglaries has remained more or less constant presumably because not everyone has access to the magical lock.
- In the U.S. as many as 25% of all homes are equipped with the very latest in home security systems. They possess an impressive array of systems that include electronic systems, reinforced glass, the latest locks and thousands of security guards that work day and night to secure workplaces and homes.
- Despite the steady downswing in the incidence of burglaries as a result of these preventive agents, a total of 1.5 million homes were still broken into in 2006. In most of these burglaries, police find it difficult to identify and apprehend the perpetrators.
- Surprisingly, most of the break-ins occur during the daytime which lends credence to the supposition that perhaps thieves break in when the house occupants are away at work. This may be the case but there is no tangible proof.
- Still more surprising is that about 40% of all burglaries committed in the U.S. are done without any signs of forced entry. Discarding the very unlikely scenarios that thieves have inside help or that house occupants simply let their houses be robbed, the only other explanation would be that thieves simply walked in, climbed an accessible part of the house or crawled in with such ease that it looked like they had the keys to the front door!
- In most of the cases involving break-ins, the most common cause lies with the house owners themselves either because they do not have the means to secure their homes; they do not know how; they are not sufficiently diligent or they are just simply careless sometimes.
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Your home is valuable to you and to us and we are always available if you need our assistance. Should you decide that you do need it, ring us on (02) 8091 3388 and we will offer you our services, whether with information on personally securing your house or automated surveillance systems
