Using Technology to Secure Your Home when Traveling

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Whom better than a burglar knows what a great way to find a victim is? Edith Cowan University in Australia interviewed 69 burglars. One of their favorite methods of finding a target is to search social media for vacation updates.

3BYou can extrapolate that it wouldn’t be a bright idea to reveal travel plans on your voicemail. Only close family and friends should know; this excludes casual neighbors. Here are more tips:

Don’t buy the biggest house on the block. The biggest, fanciest house on the block really gets a burglar’s attention. Skip it when home shopping.

Home security systems

The vast majority of burglars will not bother with a home that has an alarm. Put the alarm company’s stickers on your windows and their sign in your yard.

Home automation

Use services like Total Connect by Honeywell to control your home from wherever you are. Get video updates of any activity on your front door or cars. You can unlock and disarm your system all from your phone.

Hide valuables

Use a safe for pricey items. Put jewelry in a plastic bag from Walmart, then put it on your vanity. What thief will look inside, thinking it’s new hairspray or a pack of bobby pins?

Close your curtains

It’s a myth that closed curtains in broad daylight are an invitation to burglars. Thieves don’t just break into any home. They want to make sure their efforts are worth it. How can they know this if they can’t see into your house?

But if you want the curtains/shades open for light to come in or to expose a nice view, at least close them when it begins getting dusky. A burglar cases possible targets by looking inside, and it’s very easy for them to see through a bare window at night when your lights are on. Not only can they see what’s worth breaking in for, but they’ll be able to see if the residents can be easily overpowered.

Looks are everything

Accumulations of mail and newspapers will get a burglar’s attention. So will unmowed lawns and a perpetually barren driveway. Put a delivery stop on mail and newspapers, and ask neighbors to park their cars in your lot. Use automatic timers for indoors that set off lights and TVs. Mute the ringer volume on your phone.

Lock your front door!

A 2008 State Farm Insurance study revealed that under 50 percent of 1,000 respondents locked their front doors. It takes the average thief 60 seconds to break in, but only a few seconds for you to lock each portal to your home. Burglars don’t like hard work. Add extra security with a deadbolt.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics, interestingly, says that 40 percent of home burgles are not forced entries. Burglars are literally waltzing right into homes via an unlocked door or window. Lock up, even when you’re home, even during the day. Many burglaries occur during the day.

Keep the garage door closed

Even when you’re home. Install a device that will automatically close the garage door after a specific amount of time open. Prior to traveling, disable the door’s opener or lock the door if it rolls up.

Trash

Don’t leave the boxes that expensive items came in, visible on your curb for trash pickup. Disassemble as much as possible and conceal.

Don’t aid burglars

Keep plant growth away from entry points so that burglars can’t conceal themselves when they’re trying to break in. If you absolutely must have shrubbery near entry points due to aesthetic appeal, then choose thorny plants to repel a thief.

Know your neighbors

Not many burglars will get past a Mrs. Kravitz-type neighbor. A stranger will stand out to neighbors who know each other. Get a Neighborhood Watch program going.

Get a dog

A dog’s incessant barking will drive many burglars away.

Robert Siciliano is a personal security expert to SecurityOptions.com discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover. Disclosures.

How to protect your Home from Zombies

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There’s all sorts of threats out there—including zombies—just waiting to get you. Today’s zombies look like the ones on TV and in the movies but the ones who walk amongst us are often addicted to hardcore drugs like meth amphetamines and other mind/body destroying chemicals. But you can fight the walking dead off with preparedness.

7HPortals

Zombies can swoop in with hurricane force, and they love windows. Board them up. But not before you install an alarm system that will detect busted windows and doors. Add bars to the windows for extra protection. If you have money left over, add steel shutters.

Perimeter

You can always surround your home with a moat full of crocodiles, but motion sensors will do just fine. A big dog will enhance protection. Complete everything with a metal fence and maybe even with barbed wire.

Lookout Point

You need to be at your house’s highest point so that you can observe what’s coming from the distance. The ideal observation location is the roof like a widows walk.

Essentials

In the event of a zombie apocalypse, you must have a stock of water, nonperishable food, bedding, indoor clothes, towels, toilet paper and outdoor clothes. And don’t forget enough medications for emergency pain and pre-existing conditions.

Essentials also include tools like an all-everything knife, duct tape, a battery powered radio, a first-aid kit, map and compass, battery powered lights and an ear horn.

Weapons

Zombies can come in the hundreds so it’s best to run the entire gamut with weapons: firearms, explosives, knives and bludgeons. Then practice using them: from grenades to swords to axes to golf clubs to pepper spray (although I’m not sure zombies are affected by pepper spray?). Make sure your weapons are strategically placed in your home so that you’re always within 10 feet of one.

Physical Condition

Finally, make sure you’re in tip-top physical condition so that when holing up in your house is no longer an option, you can make a mad dash for the hills without falling to the ground in exhaustion. You’ll need to be fit enough to leap over obstacles and keep on running. Or just run faster than the zombies and you’ll be fine.

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

How to Respond in an active Shooter Scenario

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Here’s how to respond if a shooting breaks out.

7HThere’s no such thing as a perfect world in which guns and bullets don’t exist. Would you know what to do in the event of an unexpected shooting situation?

The first thing you should do in a shooting crisis is to remain calm, even though your head might be telling you to fight or escape. However, an attempt at fighting or escaping may not always be possible, regardless, maintain calm to determine what is possible.

Be aware of your surroundings: people nearby, what they’re doing, odd behaviors, unfolding situations. If you spot dissonance (e.g., an escalating argument), look for possible exits or safe spots to get to, rather than get closer to the unfolding train wreck. If someone brandishes a gun, you’ll then immediately know where the fastest exit or barricade is. Always know where the exits are in any room you’re in.

In general, if you’re in a threatening situation, especially if a shooting occurs, 1) run, 2) hide, and 3) fight. And not always in that order.

If you see the exit, run. If you can see the gunman, he can see you; drop any belongings, crouch and bolt away to a safe place, even if you become injured. Then call 9-1-1.

If there’s a quiet, dark room that you can lock yourself into, do so. Bring other people with you if possible, but keep them quiet: no screaming. If the door doesn’t lock, block it with furniture. Stay put until the authorities find you.

If running and hiding aren’t options, you must fight: a very last resort, however. If possible, recruit others to join forces. Use any weapons available (chair, lamp) and fight for your life. If the gunman’s weapon freezes, lunge at him or sprint away. A 120 pound woman can do this; 120 pounds is a lot of weight coming at a full grown man, whether it’s a big rock or a woman.

This boils down to situation awareness and preparedness. Never think that preparing ahead of time for a shooting that probably will never happen is a form of paranoia. It’s simply being proactive.

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

Hidden Covert Cameras found in Woman’s Home

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Nicole Muscara’s alarm clock acquired an alarming feature: a hidden camera placed by a stalker. She discovered something odd when she one day set the alarm; it wasn’t her clock.

CAMStories like this are happening more commonly. Recently a Kansas City, Missouri woman discovered 11 hidden cameras in her apartment—placed there by her landlord.

As for Muscara, turns out a good friend of hers (whom she had initially refused to suspect) had put in the camera clock.

It’s common to not know you’re being stalked, or if you do, not know whom the stalker is. The stalker is an unhealthy person who feeds on the energy of their victim to get through the day.

It’s tough to keep track of the prevalence of stalking, especially with today’s technology, with predators spying via webcams and other schemes.

Consider the following recommendations for protection:

Take note of unwanted attention. Does anyone keep texting you, for instance, even though you don’t like this? Is someone continuing to make unwarranted comments or advances even though you’ve told them to stop? Who has access to your home even though you don’t trust them?

Set up a home security system. They’re now wireless, cheap and portable. Wireless IP cameras can connect to your Internet and you can watch your home via smartphone.

Shield your hotel room’s peep hole with paper. A creep can get a “reverse peep hole” and watch you from the outside in.

Get a wired/wireless camera detector. Cameras that creeps use are tiny and hard to spot visually. A reliable camera detector (costs at least $100) will scan your home/hotel room.

Call the police. If you “feel” someone is watching you, your sixth sense may very well be correct.

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

Security is about Layers and Attitude

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Installing a home security system and keeping doors and windows locked is not the end of your crime prevention regimen; it’s only the beginning. And the beginning is YOU.

2HYou are your greatest weapon against crime, wherever you are located at any given moment. Unfortunately, that “mama bear” or “papa bear” mentality has been driven out of many people by modern-day living and an influx of etiquette books and manners training.

Of course, modern-day living allows us to behave civilly so that we don’t punch out the next person who disagrees with our political views. By the same token, we’ve been conditioned to be softies when it comes to truly threatening situations. Or, we’ve become desensitized to possible threats.

An example of this civilized conditioning is mothers teaching their children, “Respect authority.” But what should a child do when an authorative adult tells a child his mother is sick so he must get on the van to go see her? It’s this conflict with civility and survival that predators prey upon.

We need to take more responsibility towards uncivilized people, predators are all around us. We need to aim for maximal security, while realizing that nobody or no location or setting can ever be 100 percent secure.

Security must be layered.

Security that’s founded in layers will go a long way at slashing your level of risks, and a long way at making a criminal’s intentions all the more difficult to carry out. Let’s get as close to that 100 percent as possible with some careful planning.

A classic example of layered security is that of a large bank:

  • Large windows, which make would-be robbers realize they’ll be more easily seen by people walking by.
  • Doors with locks
  • An alarm system which includes motion detectors and glass-break alerts
  • Bullet proof glass
  • Video surveillance
  • Armed guards
  • GPS and dye packs to locate stolen cash
  • A safe

So how can you parallel this kind of layered security for your house? You can start with a home security system that comes with all the bells and whistles, such as motion detection, motion sensitive outdoor lights, cameras, door/window sensors, remote access via smartphone or PC, a blaring siren and home automation components like the Lynx Touch 5100 by Honeywell. And that’s just one component of additional layers of home security.

Make sure windows have special coverings on the glass to make it impenetrable, and that window wells are covered with locked lids that can’t be lifted off.

Do your homework on how to secure your main door as solidly as possible with the best lock systems and door reinforcement technologies.

Now, what about your body? Take up martial arts. If possible, install a striking bag in your home and work out on it. Enroll your kids in martial arts, particularly a school where kids are taught to fight from a ground position. Make no excuses; do what you can to come up with the money and get going. A trained 120-pound woman can disable an untrained, much bigger and stronger man.

Train with weights to make your body stronger and tougher. A strong body not only is more likely to win a fight, but is also more likely to walk away from a crisis situation with minimal injury.

Plus, the stronger your body is, the more likely you’ll be able to assist someone else in an emergency situation. Nothing creates a sense of security like knowing you can pick up and carry heavy objects. And once you know how to save your own life or the life of another, every other decision in life is relatively simple. Understanding self defense and home security gives a person an enormous amount of perspective.

Intruder snaps Selfie and disappears

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Remember that scary movie in which the psycho phones the babysitter and says, “Did you check the children?” He was actually in the house and murdered them. Yikes, well that’s just a movie. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.

SELFIEAs long as people leave doors unlocked, any whack job can saunter into their house. So if this happens to you while you’re putting your kids to bed, like it recently did to a Denver woman, don’t be surprised.

In her case, though, the man didn’t harm anyone, though he still rents a room for free inside the mother’s mind. Yikes again.

One day the woman found a selfie on her cellphone: a pic of a man she’d never seen before, taken inside her house. Though he stole nothing and though she didn’t even know he’d ventured through her unlocked door till the day after, she remains traumatized.

“And he looks familiar to me; everybody else says they didn’t see him but he looks familiar to me; I know I’ve seen him before,” said neighbor Richard Gardner.

Police say the stranger simply entered through the back door, took the selfie and left. Nobody knows who the man is, but Gardner says, “He doesn’t have glasses when you normally see him walking down the street. Maybe they’re a disguise. I don’t know.”

How to Stay Safe in Your House

  • If you hear someone breaking in, call out to an imaginary companion if you’re alone, “Hey Scott (or some other man’s name), can you see who that is?”
  • Call 9-1-1, then leave, or if you can, reverse this order.
  • Maintain a visible perimeter to your home so neighbors can detect suspicious people near it.
  • Get a home security system, then post their decals on front and back entrances and their signs in your yard.
  • Close all windows when you leave, even on a hot day.
  • Get a neighborhood watch going.

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

You can have Security in an Attractive Lock

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Who says a good door lock can’t look good? Being that your home is far more likely to be burglarized than you are to be mugged walking down the street, you can’t neglect to have a high security deadbolt for your door, even if you live in a “nice” neighborhood.

decThe deadbolt is a maximum security defense and should be installed on every door to your house, including back doors. You can have the strongest, biggest bolt with Schlage’s Grade 1 product.

But what about the looks of the locks?

Take a look at your door locks. What brand are they? Are they attractive or just your every day door lock that you don’t pay any attention to? It’s time to upgrade!

After all, you take pride in your home’s curb appeal, including its doors. You can have front entry handlesets installed that offer the maximal bolt protection you want, plus the style and flare that you also desire.

In fact, you can even have customized the interior of handlesets with a variety of door lever or door knob styles and finishes.

To complement the deadbolt’s appearance, you can add a number of relevant accessories such as attractive door knockers, kick plates, door stops, viewers and stylish house numbers.

For example, a kick plate can be coordinated with a handleset. The kick plate is a finish at the bottom of a door (often a shimmering metallic style) that prevents scuff marks from shoes.

A wide range of design and elegance is out there for those seeking protective accessories for their doors.

And don’t forget about the choices in appearance you have for your indoor locks. You can, for instance, get a doorknob with an aged bronze finish to compliment your interior’s décor.

Let’s go a step further and consider the deadbolts and other types of locks you’ll need for your business away from home. These days, security can easily be coordinated to accommodate your taste in décor, without sacrificing efficacy of the security.

And by the way, Schlage has a “lifetime finish warranty” for their lock products.

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.

Police Want your Home Video Surveillance Footage

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Police in San Jose, California believe that viewing home security footage will help them solve crimes. The proposal for homeowners to voluntarily register their security cameras for a new police department database is the creation of councilman Sam Liccardo. The idea is to view the footage promptly after a crime.

1HLiccardo revealed the proposal following a rash of arsons. Property owners willingly gave their home security videos to the police to help identify the arsonist, who has burned down a dozen buildings.

The new database would be managed by pre-existing city technology employees, making the cost nominal.

Homeowners would simply sign up for the database. Police could then remotely gain access into the cameras’ feeds. However, older models would need to be turned in for their tapes.

The issue of privacy concerns has been reared, even though the plan would be based on voluntary actions—which actually doesn’t make sense, since nobody would be forced or even pressured to give up their home footage.

Retired judge LaDoris Cordell says that the database plan is simply an extension of the evolution of surveillance technology, rather than an intrusion of privacy, a way for residents to be abreast of the happenings in their neighborhood.

San Jose wouldn’t be the first to launch such an initiative. Nearly 600 businesses and residents in Philadelphia have signed up with a similar program, which has led to 200 arrests based on video footage.

Liccardo will be facing a “Big Brother” obstacle as he attempts to get his plan approved, but says that the police will not be sitting around watching live feeds for kicks.

There have been no adverse responses to a similar program with the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno police department, in which 30 property owners have signed up.

Sources:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?id=9405534

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-law/san-jose-police-look-new-tactics-solve-crime/nczm5/

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24979753/san-jose-police-would-tap-into-residents-private

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

Burglars using Video to stake out Homes

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Yes, burglars do use video surveillance to case homes.

CAMSometimes burglars aren’t not so dumb, like the ones who use video to case homes.

A video camera the size of a matchstick has been discovered in the yards of several homes in North Texas’s upscale Dalworthington Gardens, where there have been break-ins.

According to the Dalworthington Gardens police, a homeowner presented them with the device, which was found near his driveway. Analysis revealed it was video surveillance for an ongoing burglary scheme.

So police established some counter-surveillance. Sure enough, next evening a man came to the home to retrieve the camera. The crook turned out to be a 21-year-old, Cain Santoyo, whose belongings in his car were the tools of burglars: lock picking instruments, a disguise, a stun gun/flash light and multiple surveillance cameras.

Also found was a motion detector that was rigged to a small radio transmitter, which seemed to serve the purpose of alerting a burglar inside a house that the homeowners have returned.

Inside Santoyo’s house, police discovered jewelry hidden in a crawlspace. They had reason to believe he was a burglar casing out homes with his tiny video cameras placed in yards.

Nevertheless, police concluded that this burglar had already sold many stolen items online. They expect that eventually, several burglary charges will be filed.

The police point out that it’s illegal for two parties to be recorded via audio without their knowledge, which equates to another charge!

Lesson learned: If a homeowner discovers an odd trinket, even if it resembles bark from a tree, in their yard, that just doesn’t seem to belong there (it’s the only thing like it in the yard, and its source is unknown), then remove it, and consider having the police examine it. It just might be a tiny video camera that a would-be burglar placed on your property.

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

Prowler Alert issued

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Two men, impersonating San Jose police officers, waltzed through the unlocked door of a woman’s home and told her they were there to check on her welfare. This happened in the early evening, and the men were described as being Hispanic and 5-7 and 155 pounds. They presented the woman with identification but she smelled a fish.

2BWhile the men were there, she called the Petaluma police dispatch center. One of the men was brazen enough to tell the dispatcher he was checking on the 66-year-old woman’s well-being, then hung up. The men then left the property.

The San Jose police said they had no officers in the Petaluma area, and are urging residents to keep their doors locked—no excuses—at all times. They should also request a photo ID of anyone claiming to be a police officer who’s in plain clothes.

Simple Home Security Guidelines

  • If a stranger is at your door, never speak to that person through an open door or screen door. Talk to them through a locked door.
  • Never allow children to answer the door.
  • Not all home invaders ring the doorbell or knock. Some barge in unexpectedly, so always have the alarm system on, even if it means having to always remember to turn it off when you step out.
  • And of course, get the home alarm system.
  • Have a 24-hour video surveillance system installed. The site of a camera usually scares off a would-be intruder. Cameras should point to all your doors and other access points.
  • Consider getting a German shepherd or other large breed that has a natural guarding instinct and innate territoriality. You may fret at the thought of having to take a dog for walks every day, cleaning up after it, feeding it, etc., but that will be more exercise for you (who doesn’t need more exercise?), a great companion that offers unconditional love, and a superb deterrent to a home invasion or burglary attempt.

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.