Tips To Secure Your Home
Provided By Kimberly Robinson (Area Resident)1. Protect your Bathroom & Bedroom Windows
– Make sure your windows are protected, even windows that are for decorative purposes only and are not made to open.
2. Don’t keep all of your valuables in one place.
– Spread your valuables around your home and don’t keep them all in one room (master bedroom, office, etc)
– Most people keep their most expensive possessions in their master bedroom and criminals know this.
– This includes jewelry, extra check books, credit cards, cash, old cell phones, heirlooms, etc.
3. Alarm Systems
– Make sure you get an alarm system, security system, etc and make sure you turn it on even when you are home.
– Average monthly fees are $30 for monitoring services ($360 per year)
4. Home & Street Lighting
– Turn on lights at your front door, garage area, sides of your home and backyard EVERY NIGHT. To make it easier, add motion lights or dust til dawn lighting. Add motion lights and lights to the darker side of your back yard, not just your back door.
– If your street lights provided by Centerpoint Energy are off, email CenterPointEnergy.com/outage or call 713-207-2222 and give them the number on the street light pole and they will have someone come and fix it. We are paying for the street lights whether they are on or off.
5. Alarm Permit
– Complete your County’s alarm permit form and mail it in. If you are broken into and your information is not on file, once the Sheriff’s office is done with investigating your home, they may leave the property in the condition it is in if they can’t contact you. This permit costs $10-$30.
6. Protecting your backyard
– Put a lock on your backyard gate (key lock, combination, chain, etc)
– Make sure the lock can’t be cut off (no ropes, string, thin wires, etc)
– Put a Beware of Dog sign up whether you have a dog or not
– Put excess yard equipment, furniture, etc that is not needed in your backyard in your garage. The criminals are using these items to break our windows.
7. Protecting the inside of your home
– Set various lamps and tv’s on timers around your home
– Make sure your house is never completely dark
8. Out of Town notifications
– Make sure you tell a neighbor YOU TRUST when you are going out of town so they can look out for your home.
9. Parents/Elderly Family Members
– Many of our neighbors have parents and elderly family members that are home during the daytime.
– Those family members need to be trained on what to do if your home is broken into while they are home. Have a plan (call the cops, push a panic button, use golf clubs, mace, etc for protection)
10. Internal Locks
– Change your locks on your doors to dead bolt locks. Get rid of standard homebuilder “turn” locks. Criminals can break through your door window and unlock the standard “turn” locks with their hands and walk right into your home.
11. Report Suspicious Cars
– Check with your neighbor about suspicious cars on your street or in the area. If they are unsure of whose car it is, call the Police. It’s better to be safe than sorry.
12. Windows
– Consider putting curtains up at all windows that are visible from the outside of your home including the see through pillar windows next to your front door.
– Never assume that someone isn’t peeking through those windows when you are not home.
13. Record Valuable items in your home
– Take pictures of everything valuable in your home (TV’s, computers, jewelry, cameras, iPods, electronics, weapons, etc)
– Keep pictures and serial numbers in a secret location (you will need these for the police investigation and for your homeowners insurance if your home is burglarized)
14. Re-evaluate who enters your home in your absence
– Cleaning Services
– Pool Services
– Aquarium Services
– Never leave your key for random people to enter your home. If they can’t provide the
service while you are home, consider finding another company that can.
Last Points To Remember
– Don’t assume being burglarized won’t happen to you!!!!
– Protect your home 100%…..have no regrets later if your home is
Burglarized. “To say that you were completely protected after a burglary
is so much better than saying I should not have procrastinated on
protecting my home and family”
– Don’t forget about daytime protection…this is when they are entering
our properties the most.
– Don’t be in such a hurry to start your day, that you don’t pay close
attention to the cars on your street and in your area that are unfamiliar
to you. Remember anyone watching you, is probably in a car and not on
foot.
– Don’t assume they are unarmed. We are not home to see if they are
carrying weapons or not. Assume they will do anything to you and your
home to take your property.