Town sees Big Spike in Burglaries

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Why are so many burglaries hounding the town of Los Altos in California? There were 79 reported in 2013, but 118 for 2014. This past January and February there were 36. At that rate, by Christmas 2015, it’s unthinkable what the total number of burglaries will be.

1HIn a report on mercurynews.com, the Los Altos police chief, Tuck Younis, is quoted as saying, “It sickens me, as the one who is responsible to keep the city safe, that’s occurring. It sickens every member of our department that’s occurring, especially at the volume that is occurring in our city.”

He spoke this to an assembly of over 200 town residents. Chief Younis added that the number of burglaries is “unprecedented.” In fact, the cities of Sunnyvale and Mountainview—neighbors to Los Altos—have also been stung. And not just by local thieves, but thieves from all over.

Chief Younis speculates that a prison realignment is responsible for the spike in burglaries; convicts are getting released sooner.

And these burglars are going after hard-to-trace loot like jewelry and cash, rather than iPhones and video games. And they’ve been hitting homes both during the day and in the middle of the night.

The police have reassured residents that they are doing everything possible to break this spike up, and that there’s even been some arrests. Nevertheless, residents were instructed to be extra alert and not to hold back from reporting any suspicious activity.

Residents should also beef up their home security as well as take non-techy measures to make their homes unappealing to burglars. Being aware of the little things will make a difference, such as not letting newspapers collect in the driveway because you haven’t felt like getting the paper for a few days and not letting the lawn become overgrown—signs to a burglar that nobody’s been home for a while.

Keeping windows and doors locked at all times, using a deadbolt on doors and Charlie bars on windows, and keeping lights on will also help repel burglars. You can even get semi-techy by installing a fake video camera above the front door that a thief won’t miss—this is a good deterrent to the bad guys.

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

10 Things Burglars Don’t Want you to Know

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Burglars would rather keep their dirty little secrets to themselves. But today, Schlage, makers of the grade one Touchscreen Deadbolt, and I are revealing what they don’t want you to know.
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  1. Burglars have jobs too. Your burglar was already in your house. He was there recently to repair the furnace, deliver the new flat screen TV or pick up old furniture you wanted to donate.
  2. Attractive ornaments or pricey “kids’ things” outside your home can indicate to a potential intruder that your house is full of valuables.
  3. Don’t let a service person use your bathroom. This may seem rude, but burglars have been known to visit the john so they could unlock or disable its window for future entrance into your house.
  4. Make sure your house alarm’s control panel is not visible through glass to someone loitering outside.
  5. Always have your newspaper and mail delivery put on hold when you’re away. And if you notice a flyer on your doorknob, immediately remove it so that the burglar who put it there doesn’t think you’re on vacation.
  6. Would you ever exit your house wearing only socks because you forgot to put your shoes on? Absolutely never! So make it a point to also never forget to lock your door after leaving.
  7. If someone is at your door, and you’re not expecting anyone, it’s not a crime to ignore them. That person on the other side may be a burglar casing your house (“Do you know where Clover Street is?”) and your demeanor to see if you’re easy prey.
  8. Hot spots for a burglar’s entrance include the window above the kitchen sink and the upper level windows. Have these spots set with alarms, and install motion detectors upstairs.
  9. Even a half-witted burglar knows to check medicine bottles for those diamond earrings, and scour through the sock and underwear drawer for more valuables. But he just might not bother going into the children’s bedrooms.
  10. Even though the sun’s beginning to set, you insist on keeping your blinds up or curtains open to milk what little daylight is left to lighten up the room. Meanwhile, a savvy burglar is strolling about the neighborhood, catching glimpses through windows that he can see through because it’s dusk (let alone night time). This way he can pick easy looking targets or ones with visible valuables.

Robert Siciliano home security expert to Schlage discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247.

13 Year Old Hides Under Bed During A Boston Burglary

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The Boston Globe reports: The girl sent a text message to her father, said Police, and then called the police as she hid under her bed while the unidentified man stole three laptops, a large amount of change estimated at about $500, an iPod, and possibly some jewelry.

“The little girl did a fantastic job staying calm and calling us, letting us know what was going on, we had direct communication with her.’’

She must have watched this video of me on Montel saying that exact thing!

“The man had gained entry by kicking the side door of the two-story home off its hinges, and by the time they responded, the suspect had fled,” police said. “The intruder never knew the girl, who was not injured, was under the bed,” police believe.

First, never leave a 13 year old home alone. Maybe a 13 year old is perfectly capable, but still, that doesn’t work for me. If it’s legal in your state to have a 13 year old home alone, then at least discuss home security tips, which in this case maybe someone did. She did well by hiding and making the call with her mobile.

At least install a home security system with home security cameras as another layer of protection with signage outside. Do you think a sign outside that denoted the house was alarmed would have helped? If it did, I bet the guy would not have broken in.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing Home Invasions on Montel Williams.

10 Tips to Post Holiday Home Security

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For Christmas, one of my neighbors got a 60 inch LCD screen TV. I saw the same TV at Costco for $2000.00. Another neighbor got a Mac Book Pro. I saw this online for $2000.00. Another neighbor got a Nikon Digital SLR camera, and I saw this at Amazon for almost $900.00. These are neighbors I’ve never spoken to, ever. I know this because the boxes were prominently displayed in their trash like trophies one would put on a mantel in their living room.

Trash day is coming and burglars may case your neighborhood looking for boxes where electronics such as computers, flat panel TVs, game consoles and other re-saleable items are. Then, while you are at work, they just break into your home and take it.

It’s pretty obvious whose home and who is not when the lights are off or there is no car in the driveway. All a burglar has to do is ring a door bell to see of you are actually home. If no one answers they jiggle the door knob to see if it’s locked or not.  If it’s locked they will head to the back door and jiggle that.

Many times they will walk right in because people are often irresponsible and leave the doors unlocked because they believe “it can’t happen to me”. If the doors are locked they may try a few street level or basement windows. Brazen burglars will not waste any time and may break glass or use a crowbar and forcibly enter the residence.

For post holiday security, use these home security suggestions:

  1. Lock your doors and windows
  2. Install a monitored alarm system. Consider ADT Pulse.
  3. Give your home that lived in look
  4. Leave the TV on LOUD while you are gone
  5. Install timers on your lights both indoor and outdoor
  6. Close the shades to prevent peeping inside
  7. Use defensive signage
  8. Store item boxes for at least 90 days because if you have a defective product you will need the box for a return
  9. After 90 days tear up the box so it’s undistinguishable then recycle or put it in a black trash bag
  10. Update your home inventory. This is a good time to catalog/document/video tape what you own. Contact your insurer to discuss what they need to properly insure your new gifts.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston.

2010 Saw Dramatic Rise In Home Invasions

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Maybe it’s the economy or maybe people are just getting nuttier, but my news alerts have been pouring in describing horrific home-invasions with many resulting in growing levels of violence.

In some places, there is a correlation between home invasions and organized crime, drugs, prostitution and gambling.

In Calgary, our neighbor to the north, the Calgary Herald reports “The violent home confrontations typically see victims assaulted, threatened and bound with duct tape, plastic zip ties or rope while thieves ransack their homes for cash and valuables.”

It seems that home invasion has become a crime that knows no boundaries.

The pseudo good news is in 2/3rd of the home invasion cases the parties involved (invaded and invaders) were heavily into lowlife activities. So if you are not dealing drugs or involved in gang activity then you’re less susceptible.

However in almost 1/3rd of the cases the victims were people who kept large sums of money in their homes. So if you are a person who stuffs your mattress with cash you are more vulnerable.

If you fit into the category of mattress stuffer:

#1 Put your money in the bank! It makes no sense to have wads of cash around. Even if it’s in a safe, a home invader will force you to open it.

#2 If you insist on having wads of cash around then tell no-one! Home invaders are often deprived people in a position of trust who turn on their victim.

#3 Take some of that money and invest it into a home security system. For about a dollar a day your home can be fully monitored and alarmed.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing Home Invasions on Montel Williams.

New Jersey Home Robbery: One Unlocked Window Brings a Life of Pain

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Robbery as defined in Wikipedia is the crime of seizing property through violence or intimidation. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear. Robbery differs from simple theft, a break-in or burglary on its use of violence and intimidation.

Many of us are told that when you are attacked to let it happen so it doesn’t get any worse. In some cases that may be your only option. Studies have also shown that fighting back might be a better option. Showing resistance and making it difficult for your attacker to do their job often helps you get to safety.

In New Jersey near Atlantic City “a woman, identified only as “L. L.” in documents, was asleep in her bed and a 28 year old man crawled in an open window at about 1:30 a.m. L.L. heard something fall, got up to investigate the noise and met the home invader  inside her home.

The predator is accused of beating and raping her, then filling a trash bag with personal items in order to derail an investigation before fleeing her home. Armed with a knife, police said, he threatened to kill L.L. if she talked with authorities.”

The best course of action is always to put systems in place to avoid having to confront a predator in the first place.

There are some things that can be done to reduce the chances that your home is targeted for robbery:
1. Install outdoor lighting that may keep the bad guy away

2. Lock all doors and windows always
3. Install security cameras
4. Install a home alarm system. Have a panic button for your home alarm that calls for help and sends a screaming alarm
5. Always run to safety when attacked. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing home invasions on the Gordon Elliot Show.

15 Break-ins at Boston Area Churches – Nothing is Sacred

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Last year around the holidays I wrote about burglars preying on churches.

This year is no different. The Boston Globe reports “You know things are bad when they start knocking off churches. And judging by the number of churches knocked off recently, things are very bad indeed.”

“I’m seeing levels of desperation out there I haven’t seen for a long while,’’ said the churches Priest. “Like most priests and ministers, he sees a lot of people who live on the margins. They come to the three churches he oversees for food and laundry money and help with the rent. They come because they don’t belong anywhere else.

And sometimes they come to steal. There have been 15 break-ins at Boston area churches in the last few months. And that’s just the Catholic ones.”

It doesn’t matter where, when or who, a burglar will go where there is easy access and easy money, or goods to be resold.

Often, it is those on the inside that have knowledge of how things work and where they are. So, it is important to beef up security to protect from the inside-out and from the outside-in.

In some cases burglars enter through unlocked doors; in others, broken windows and they will even bust doors off of their frames.

Theft happens. Protect against it.

  1. Lock up. Even if it’s an “open access” environment
  2. Have someone always watching the door
  3. Install visible motion sensitive security cameras everywhere recorded by a DVR
  4. Install hidden motion sensitive security cameras everywhere recorded by a DVR
  5. Install “Monitored by Video Surveillance” signs everywhere
  6. Lock doors and windows always
  7. Install glass break prevention film
  8. Install a monitored alarm system

9.     Be proactive with the help of wireless home security systems and new interactive smart home solutions that go beyond traditional security to a new level of control, accessibility and connection with the property.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing  Home Security and Identity Theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover.

Using Video To Catch a Nasty Neighbor

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Living in the Northeast has its pros and cons. We have the four seasons, great food, entertainment, sports, everything is at your fingertips, and for me it’s where business gets done.

Drawbacks include lots of congestions, crime, traffic, bad attitudes and nasty neighbors. Most people I know have a neighbor they are in some kind of entanglement with. It’s everywhere. When houses are stacked on top of each other people get territorial and stuff happens.

A New York Times article highlights a few of these nasty scenarios that I’m talking about. One person from the article was quoted saying “I’m not sure now, whether to worry more about my neighbors or strangers.”

I hear you man. I HEAR YOU!

Installing video surveillance outside your home can be a deterrent to a burglar or home invader. Cameras are another layer of protection. But they can also catch a person doing things they shouldn’t too.

For example:

My cameras caught one of my neighbors attacking another neighbor. The film was used as evidence in court and the attacker moved.

Man catches a neighbor who “had been tossing plastic bags of dog excrement into the sculptured shrubs around a palm tree in his front yard.” Man gets a fine and is shamed on Youtube. He moved.

A former state district judge, is caught scratching the back of his neighbors car. The video, was posted on YouTube. Shamed.

One man used the cameras to document a “neighbor’s cats prowling and fouling the yard around his mobile home. He also discovered neighbors looking in his windows while he was away.” Posted to YouTube.

Another man who had items missing from his home caught his neighbor on film entering his basement and rooting around which was enough for the police to arrest him.

Video is available through ADT Pulse which provides customers with anywhere, anytime access to their home via smart phones or personal computers, including an iPhone application to:

• Arm and disarm their home security system.

• Get notified of alarms and selected events via email and text messages as well as video clips.

• View their home through cameras and watch secure real-time video or stored video clips of events from monitored areas of the home.

• Access lights and appliances or set schedules to automate them.

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

Whats Next: “On Demand Burglary”

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Generally when a burglar or thief sets out to break into a home their motivation is to steal any item they can sell at pawnshops or to those on the “black market”. The phrase “black market” has always intrigued me.   It means doing business “in the dark” or out of the view of law enforcement. Any underground economy where business is done illegally or with illegal goods or services is considered the black market.

There has always been a black market demand and there always will be. Certain things like illegal drugs are a staple of this economy. “On Demand Burglary” refers to items that someone may have had their eye on and the thief meets that demand. On the low end one might envision a bicycle a neighbor just bought for his kid and on the high end an expensive rare painting a collector wants.

The BBC reports a man in the UK was injured when he walked into his home and surprised three men armed with a sledgehammer and a crowbar robbing his house. They stole money, jewelry and the family’s valuable pet Chihuahua. The family has offered a reward for the return of the dog which is called ‘Bruce’.

The homeowners’ son was quoted saying “They took mum and dad’s wedding ring and a wee bit of money, but the thing that has really vexed them is that they have taken the wee house dog called Bruce and it’s that, that has really upset them.”

Local Police were quoted saying “The belief is that these robberies are ‘on demand burglaries’ where robbers are stealing to meet orders”.

Consider for a moment if you spent the time to research an item then went out of your way to buy it, it is certainly in the scope of a bad guy to target it and take it.

Protect yourself and prevent a home invasion:

Nothing you own is worth fighting for. If someone ever wants your stuff let them have it.

If you ever walk in on a burglar turn around and run out of the house. The quicker you leave the safer you will be.

Consider what you own that might catch the eye of a criminal and who that criminal may be and what you need to do to protect it.

Invest in a home security system. The concern is protecting life and limb first and protecting your stuff second.

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

Triple Murder Home Invasion Testimony Ends

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This is just a bad, bad story with no happy ending.

There are home invasions, then there is this home invasion. Just when you think humans can’t get any meaner towards each other there is Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, the 2 men accused of a home invasion in Connecticut in 2007. Hayes and his lowlife accomplice allegedly met at a halfway house. They saw the mother (who was eventually murdered) in a parking lot one day and followed her home. A total random act.

The home was invaded at 3am. The father was immediately beaten and tied up in the basement. The father was held captive for a time but he escaped alive. The kids were tied to their beds and the mother was forced to go to the bank and withdraw money.

While at the bank the mother told a bank representative what was happening. The bank called the police who sent cruisers to the scene.

The police were outside for over 30 minutes to prevent the murderers from escaping. At one point the home invaders assaulted one of the children then killed the mother. They set the home on fire and the 2 kids died from smoke inhalation.

The NY Times reported that the state’s attorney John A. Connelly had “described the case as the ‘most horrendous murder in the state of Connecticut in the last 30 years,’ adding, ‘There are about five ways you could charge capital felony.'”

These guys might get the death penalty. But will justice be done? No. There is no justifying the death of a woman and two children and no justice in the prosecution or even death of the accused. And the father of the deceased, he will only mourn his loss, while he might crack a smile if they are prosecuted, he will never celebrate.

I can tell you right now my home security system will be on when I go to bed tonight. And then some.
Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing home invasions on the Gordon Elliot Show. Disclosures