5 Smart Ways to Protect Your Home from Dumb Burglars

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Having been a home security expert for years, I am always amazed at how dumb criminals could be, but there’s always a homeowner they can outwit, such as in the case below:

3HA man burglarized two houses in Marshall town, Iowa, and then sold the loot on Facebook, says a story in the online Times-Republican. The genius busted in when the homeowners were on a holiday trip, making off with several TVs, DVDs, clothes, even small kitchen appliances.

Here are ways to protect your home from burglars dumb and smart, skittish and determined:

  1. Secure the garage. Many burglars gain entry via the garage. Make sure your automatic garage door opener, if in your car, is hidden from view. Always keep the door locked that joins your garage to your home. Often, this door goes unlocked, creating a weak link in home security.
  2. Have strong doors and locks. Exterior doors should not be hollow-core, but made of metal such as steel, or solid wood. Use a deadbolt lock, and never forget to lock all doors and windows when you leave and also when you go to bed.
  3. Don’t hide keys outside the house; even a dumb criminal will know to look under the flower pot or doormat. Leave a spare set of house keys with a trusted person when you’re on vacation.
  4. Use a home security monitoring system. The screaming alarm is a superb deterrent should a burglar penetrate a portal. All exterior doors should have detectors and motion sensors. This system should be linked to a monitoring center so that trained professionals can promptly send out help.
  5. Don’t advertise your vacation. A would-be burglar can learn you’re away by reading your Facebook page’s posts about your vacation plans. Crooks do indeed peruse social media sites for these kinds of posts. Keep your vacation plans as secret as possible. Put a hold on your mail or have a trusted person collect it. Put a vacation hold on newspaper delivery.

Follow these guidelines and they’ll make a big difference in the protection of your home from intruders.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

18 Year Old Enters “Dumb Criminal Hall of Fame”

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There’s dumb criminals and then there is this kid.

A family was away from their home and had someone take care of some items around the house. Apparently the caretaker was doing some work on the exterior of the home and opened some shutters around a window and saw someone inside who wasn’t supposed to be there.

As soon as he realized it wasn’t a family member he called the police. And somehow the burglar was able to get out of the home and flee before law enforcement arrived.

When they entered the home to secure it they found a backpack, discarded food wrappers, a bag of pot, and soda cans. There was an open window adjacent to all the stuff where they determined that’s where he may have entered and exited.

So what does an 18 year old spend a lot of time doing (other than breaking into homes) he spends time on MySpace. And this kid logged onto the family’s home PC to his MySpace page. When he realized he was seen in the home he fled, forgetting to LOG OUT!!!!!!!!!

When the police looked at the computer they saw his stupid face above his dumb name (which happens to be “Robert”). With a current photo of him they were able to inform other officers on patrol and quickly saw him walking down a street equipped with burglary tools. He was arrested.

No offense to the homeowner, but they were no smarter leaving their home vulnerable to thieves with open windows, no alarm and a computer that didn’t have a password with administrative login requirements. At least lock all your windows, get a home security system and lock down your PC so it can’t be accessed.

Oh, and read this “Log Out, Log Out, I repeat, LOG OUT”.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover.

10 of the Dumbest Criminals

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It’s impossible to write about home security and personal safety and not to come across with dumb criminal stories. Listverse did a great job of compiling the following; I did a decent job of summing it up:

1. – Dumb criminal robs a store at knifepoint and stole a pair of boots, gets away and then gets caught. At court he arrogantly puts his feet up on the defense table, wearing the same boots. Busted.

2. – Dumb criminal guy and two dumb criminal women in a department store stuffed their bags with curtains. As they all headed to separate exits they were busted. The store was having a convention of detectives.

3- Dumb criminal breaks into a woman’s house and robs it then assaults her. She had only a few dollars so he demanded she write him a check, to his given name.

4. – Dumb criminal walks into a store, gets groceries and plunks down $10.00 on the counter. When the clerk opened the register he grabbed the tray and ran. Apparently the clerks were changing shifts because he got $4.37. Which meant the shorted himself $5.63.

5. – Dumb criminals descend on a safe and use what they think are cutting torches in the form of a welder. They welded the safe shut.

6. – Dumb criminal on a motorcycle robs store with his helmet on. Clerk gives him the money and he leaves. He forgot his name was inscribed on the face of his helmet.

7. – Dumb criminal steal a woman’s purse and is caught. At trial he forgoes his lawyer and represents himself. When cross examining the victim he says “Did you get a good look at my face when I took your purse?”

8. – Dumb criminal is arrested for armed robbery and pleads not guilty. At trial as a witness is being questioned he gets up and accuses her of lying and says “I should have blown your head off!” “If I’d been the one that was there.”

9. – Dumb criminals try to steal a car then get chased off by the owner. Owner hails a police car and the criminals hop a fence. The fence surrounded the property of San Quentin prison.

10. – Dumb criminal breaks into a bar and accidently shoots himself in the foot. He leaves the bar and also leaves a trail of blood right to his house.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on Fox Boston. Disclosures.