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Myths Facts and Burglary Prevention

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Myth: Most burglaries occur at night when nobody can see the intruder.

1HFact: Most burglaries occur during the day because criminals know that’s the most likely time that people are away at work.

Myth: Most burglaries are random and spontaneous.

Fact: Most burglaries occur after the thief has “cased” a residence and pre-meditated an intrusion and getaway plan.

If a thief has not gotten into your house within four minutes of trying, chances are he’ll abandon further attempts. Using multiple layers of protection from intruders will make entry take well over four minutes.

If your neighborhood doesn’t have a “watch” program, get one started.

  • Get to know your neighbors; they’ll be more likely to call the police if they notice someone unfamiliar loitering on your property.
  • Post neighborhood watch signs throughout the area.

Secure the exterior of your house.

  • Install lights at all entry points including the garage; it’s best if they can detect motion.
  • Don’t allow shrubs to grow above window sill height.
  • Don’t let tree branches obscure windows.
  • Plant thorny shrubs around windows so burglars can’t hide in them.
  • Lock all gates and fences.
  • Keep all potential entry points locked, including basement wells and the door to the attached garage.
  • Make the interior always look occupied by never letting the grass get overgrown or snow unshoveled; while traveling arrange for someone to do these tasks.
  • Also when traveling put a vacation stop on mail and newspaper deliveries.
  • Never leave the garage door open.

And then there is your house’s interior:

  • Install a security system that includes loud alarms. The sirens really do scare off would-be intruders, plus alert neighbors.
  • Use timed lighting systems so that while you’re away, it’ll appear that the house is occupied. Timers can also be set for TVs.
  • If you’re gone for a while and especially for travel, set your phone’s answering system so that voice mail picks up after only a few rings.
  • Consider getting a dog.
  • Keep valuables locked in a fire proof safe.
  • Doors should have a complete security system that includes top-flight deadbolts.

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

Paralyzed Home Invasion Victim speaks

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If a home invasion doesn’t leave you dead, it might leave you permanently paralyzed, like it did Richard Potorski, who was shot two years ago and can’t move from the chest down.

On January 8, 2013, Potorski went to his Maine home for lunch after work. Moments later he saw a gun pointing at him; it went off. He played dead—which wasn’t hard to do because his spinal cord had been severed—until his wife found him 90 minutes later.

Potorski says he doesn’t know the shooter, and even though he has a misdemeanor drug charge on his record, he was not involved with any drug deals with the shooter—Ronald Bauer, who received a 30-year prison sentence.

It’s a myth that most burglaries occur at night. Gee, night is when most people are home. Most people are gone during the day at work. Burglars know that. What if Potorski had had a security system on that fateful day? This isn’t a blame-the-victim mentality; it’s a very fair question.

Imagine Bauer trying to gain entrance and a screaming alarm sounds. He would have fled like a bat out of hell. Or suppose there was no alarm system, but the door had a top-of-the-line deadbolt and reinforcement system, and the locked windows all had Charlie bars and penetration-proof film. Bauer wanted to get in quick without attracting attention. Why would a burglar want to be seen spending 20 minutes trying to break into a house? Yep, it’s a very fair question.

Evaluate your lifestyle so that you can have an idea of what kind of security system will best suit you. For example, if you’re away a lot, or even only from 8:00 to 5:00, you’ll need a remote monitoring system.

Today’s systems are really cool in that you can even receive e-mails and texts about variables that the system detects. You can even see what’s going on with real-time surveillance transmitted to your phone.

Imagine that someone breaks in while you’re exiting your worksite to go home for lunch, and you get the alert on your phone. You connect and see some druggie trashing your place looking for cash. You won’t get shot by him. We live in a cruel world and need to be prepared.

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

Protect your Packages from Theft

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Yes, many thieves don’t have anything better to do than to follow delivery trucks around town to see what kind of bountiful packages they’ll be leaving at the doorsteps of homes. This means even more crooks simply drive around residential areas looking for boxes sitting outside of doors. These crooks will walk off with the packages.

5HHow can you help prevent this from happening?

  • When making the purchase, set up the delivery so that your signature is required for receipt.
  • Make sure you have the transaction’s tracking number.
  • If you can’t arrange to be home to receive, then arrange for the package to be dropped off at a local shipping center.
  • Sometimes these shipping centers are located far from home, so another option is to install an easily-seen surveillance camera over the door. A fake one will look just as real. The only drawback to a fake one is if the thief is either exceptionally brazen, or doesn’t see the camera.
  • Next, arrange to have the package placed in as much of a concealed area as possible. For example, set up a planter by your door that has artificial (or real) foliage cascading over it. Small boxes can be placed under the foliage, hidden from thieves.
  • Arrange for UPS, if that’s the delivery company, to alert you with a text or e-mail when the delivery is imminent.
  • Another option, if you live in an apartment or condo is to have the delivery made to the front office.

Additional Safeguards

  • If you want a package picked up from your place, don’t leave it outside. Surely there’s a way around this, such as bringing it to a shipping center, mailing it or arranging to be home to give it in person to the recipient.
  • If you opt for snail mail, insure it and notify the recipient when to expect it.
  • If mailing checks, deposit them at the post office or postal collection box, rather than leave them in your mail box for the postal carrier to pick up (or hand them directly to him).
  • If traveling, put your mail delivery on a vacation hold.
  • Retrieve your mail daily.

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

How to survive off the Grid for 2 Weeks

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What with today’s technology being so integrated into everyone’s life, could YOU survive for two weeks “without anything”? Do you even have an emergency plan in place? Maybe you don’t ever have to worry about hurricanes and earthquakes where you live, but what if this Ebola thing really does get out of hand and you want to stay safe inside your house for weeks? What about a massive power outage?

What You Need for Two Weeks

  • Canned items: proteins, meals, vegetables, fruits, beans…so many kinds of foods come in cans.
  • Dairy in powdered form; canned evaporated form
  • Other canned and cupped goods like Ensure, instant oatmeal, instant soup
  • Packaged foods like chips, meal replacement bars, etc.
  • As for how much food? Depends on your and your family’s eating habits; there’s no one-size-fits-all, but the idea is to get adequate sustenance, not feast like a king. Feel free to stock up on all sorts of condiments, but for two weeks, is it really necessary to make sure you have bouillon and pickle relish?
  • Manual can opener
  • Sterno stove, though food to stay alive and healthy while two weeks off the grid need not be heated.
  • Each person needs a gallon a day; buy it bottled to eliminate risk of contamination or hassle of decontaminating it.
  • Garbage bags, plastic eating utensils, paper plates/cups, wet wipes and even an N95 mask will prove very useful.
  • Thermal underwear, gloves, hats, ear muffs, boots, blankets, walking shoes, umbrella, sunscreen, toilet paper, women’s sanitary items etc.
  • First aid kit, surplus refills of prescription drugs, OTCs, etc.
  • Flashlights, other battery operated tools like radios, and extra batteries
  • Back up your computers’ data daily if possible. Keep a photo record of all of your vital documents and personal possessions. Keep the negatives of important non-digital photos. Send duplicates of your backups to a trusted individual who lives distantly.
  • Establish a contact person who lives distantly. Each family member should have this person’s contact information (ideally memorized).
  • If your community or neighborhood ever has any emergency prep meetings, attend. If not, speak to people about emergency preparedness. Get ideas brewing.

10 Get Smart Home Security Tips

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The season to give is also the season to steal. Burglars are always looking for great deals—you know—the house that looks like nobody’s ever home; the house that has lots of shrubbery crowding out the doors and windows so that nobody can see the prowler spending 20 minutes trying to break in; the house with the huge Christmas tree in the window and a three-foot-high pile of gifts engulfing it.

BeOnHere’s how to make your house look very unappealing to burglars:

  1. Make it look occupied at all times. When you leave, leave some lights on. Leave a TV on so that the flickering can be seen from outside. Better yet, check the preventative BeOn burglar deterrent home security system that adds a layer of security using light and sound as deterrents to stop break-ins before they happen. Their Kickstarter campaign is rocking two Boston sports celebrities, check it out! Backing BeOn on Kickstarter helps accelerate development of these features to make the occupied home even more convincing.
  2. Don’t just automatically open the door when the doorbell rings unless you know who’s on the other side. And, it is not rude to ignore someone at your door! “But it might be a neighbor!” You’re not obligated to answer your door if you don’t know who it is. Unless you can clearly see it’s a trust person, don’t answer.
  3. When you order something to be delivered to your house, make an effort to be there to receive it so that a casing burglar doesn’t see an unattended package and think, “Nobody’s home.” Its also a good idea to set up a UPS and Fedex account to be notified of such deliveries.
  4. Keep the gifts that are under the tree invisible to the outside.
  5. If you travel, put your newspaper and mail delivery on vacation hold.
  6. If you’re traveling, notify the police that you’ll be out of town; ask them if they can drive by every so often to make sure things look okay.
  7. If you have a dog, see if you can arrange to have someone house sit so that the dog can stay at the house to bark in response to any prowlers.
  8. Don’t leave the boxes, that expensive items came in, sticking out of your rubbish at the curb. Tear them down so that they can be concealed inside the trash cans.
  9. Do not reveal your travel plans online, and instruct your kids not to.
  10. If you have a security system, put their stickers on all your windows and their sign in your yard. If you don’t have a system, get ahold of some stickers and signs anyways and put them up.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BeOn Home Security discussing burglar proofing your home on NECN. Disclosures.

Keanu Reeves two Intruders in two Days

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Keanu Reeves recently had a home intruder: a woman. It was 4:00 am when she got into his home and plopped in a chair. The 40-something nut-job told the movie star she was there to meet with him. He nonchalantly called 911. Police took the woman into custody.

3BWho’s nuttier: the intruder or the homeowner who leaves a highly valuable home left unlocked overnight, or at least, left in an easy-to-gain-entry state, while the owner sleeps? Maybe this woman is a kook, but it sounds like Reeves doesn’t have both oars in the water when it comes to home safety. She could have been waiting with a gun pointing at his head.

People are always breaking into celebrities’ mansions. How are they getting past security? While Sandra Bullock was sleeping, it happened to her, too—right at her bedroom door. What—no motion detector to sound an alarm? People in middle class neighborhoods have these, but filthy rich movie stars don’t?

Actually, these over-paid movie stars usually DO have security, but don’t use it. Reeves has an alarm system, but it was turned off. What are the odds that this woman just happened to plan her intrusion the night he keeps the alarm off? Well, a better explanation is that Reeves probably never used it much in the first place.

And then another woman traipsed into Reeves’s home a day later—but this time he was out. His cleaning people left a front gate open—and just by chance, this coincided with the intruder’s presence.

This woman was a bit loonier than the first one: She was in his shower nude, then went into his pool (though she’d be crazier if she left her clothes on, right?). She did all this before the cleaning crew caught on; they eventually called Reeves, who dialed 911. This second woman was also hauled away for the customary psych evaluation. Maybe she’ll be roomed with the first woman.

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

How hackable is my Home Security System?

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In a few words, there are some issues. But, really, don’t worry about it. But be aware of whats going on. So are your home’s Internet-connected smart gadgets smart enough to ward off hackers? A research team found that they’re pretty dumb in this area.

4DA house was filled with smart gadgets in an experiment to see if researchers could hack into their security systems.

Baby monitors and Wi-Fi cameras bombed. One camera even granted access after the default login and password were entered. These gadgets use web server software to post online images, and that’s where the loophole exists—in over five million gadgets already online.

The researchers were able to take control of other gadgets as well. There’s a widely used networking system by the gadgets, called UPnP. This allowed the researchers to gain control. The gadgets use UPnP to reach servers that are out on the wider network, and this can expose them to hackers. When a password is built-in and can’t be changed, this makes the situation even worse.

A rather unnerving part of the experiment involved a microphone on a smart TV. The team was able to bug a living room through this. So if you’re sitting there with no shirt on enjoying a movie on that smart TV…someone could be sitting a thousand miles away—or down the street—enjoying watching YOU.

With the way cyber crime is evolving, the risks of having smart gadgets will likely grow bigger and bigger.

The prognosis from the research: Looks like smart gadgets will be easy prey for cyber predators in the near future. Manufacturers need to improve their ability to secure their products. And there’s no simple method for updating the flimsy firmware on the smart gadgets in the first place.

And would it be cost-effective to improve products? One researcher says yes for many products. Would “hardening” the products compromise their usability? For the most part, no. A balance can be struck. But right now, compromised usability is the least of the problems out there. There’s actually a lot of room to fix the flaws without hampering the user’s experience.

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

Child’s Honesty nabs Robbers

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A four-year-old girl witnessed two young men break into her home to commit a robbery. You’d think this would cause some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder, or at least at a minimum, nightmares.

3BBut it looks like instead, Abby Dean of Washington, WI, will have dreams of flying around with a cape and rescuing people. That’s because her accurate description led to a confession by the thieves.

She was with her 17-year-old babysitter when it happened. The men told the girls to leave so that they could steal valuables. And they took off with computer devices and a small amount of cash.

The teenager told police that the burglars were black, and that one resembled the next-door neighbor. The cops took the neighbor away for questioning.

But Abby insisted that the crooks were white. Soon, the babysitter’s story wasn’t adding up very well. Eventually, the teen confessed that the robbers were her teen boyfriend and his buddy. The trio had plotted the crime. The stolen goods were returned. Abby stated, “They got it back because of me being the superhero.”

How do you prevent a crime like this?

  • You can’t beat security cameras. A surveillance system can alert a homeowner with a text or phone call, plus set off additional lighting or loud noises—not to mention provide a visual of the intruder.
  • Don’t worry about cost. The system will add value to your house. Furthermore, your homeowner’s insurance might give a discount if you have a solid security system.
  • Some surveillance systems allow the homeowner to watch what’s going on in real time; Dropcam is such a system.
  • The mere sight of a camera is a proven deterrent to burglaries and home invasions.

But suppose someone breaks in while you’re home and doesn’t care that cameras are on him. This is video evidence that will be extremely valuable in court.

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

Home Security in a “Blink”

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Home monitoring, and home security, traditionally target a very specific type of customer: the homeowner who isn’t intimidated by complex set-up, has the resources to pay for installation, and who’s comfortable with monthly or annual fees. In short, a relatively small portion of the population. Blink is a unique entry into the home monitoring space: a wire-free HD home monitoring and alert system that aims to make smartphone-based home insight easy and affordable for the masses–whether they rent or own. How? By building a product around three tenets that translate into real-life benefits for its rapidly-growing community.

2BMake it easy to set up. Blink offers simple, DIY set-up that requires little technical or toolbox know-how. Its battery-powered, wire-free design makes it uniquely appealing, in that users can truly place it anywhere–on a bookshelf or desk, flush on the wall, or in a corner–without having to worry about the nearest outlet, or unsightly wires draped across their home or apartment.

Make it easy to customize and manage. Blink allows users to create a system that suits their lifestyle. Want to make sure your garage is safe? Arm Blink’s motion detection, and receive an alert and video clip if a door or window opens. Prefer to check in on your furry friend a few times a day? Activate Live View for a glimpse of what’s happening at home. Worried about a break-in? Add the optional, 105db alarm unit to ward off intruders. Temperature and status alerts round out a rich feature set that’s scheduled to expand further in 2015.

Make it affordable. With no monthly fees and systems ranging from $69 to $269, users can create a whole-house system for far less than the cost of traditional home monitoring and security products, with the flexibility to affordably expand their system as necessary.

With this user-centric approach, Blink has quickly built a community of more than 5,000 supporters and garnered over $800,000 in pre-order pledges, as well as introduced several new features–including an open API and optional alarm unit–that mark the beginning of an integrated ecosystem.

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505428730/blink-wire-free-hd-home-monitoring-and-alert-syste

Home Invasion Task Force on high Alert

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Florida’s Collier County residents have a new fear on the block: masked home invaders. But really, they’re more like home walker-inners, because in the five reported cases, they got in via an unlocked door.

1BA task force was assembled on April 7 to figure out anything about these home invasions that began mid-February in which residents are held at gunpoint and bound. It’s not clear if these crimes are related.

But apparently, the intruders prefer occupied homes, figuring they can get a lot more this way (e.g., being directed to the safe and given the combination). And they’re quite adept at evading authorities; no details on the masked intruders are out, even though investigators are really hammering away at figuring this out, meeting every morning.

Residents are being urged to contact the sheriff’s office about suspicious activity, such as an idling car in a street, and just to trust their gut instincts about something seeming out of place.

As long as people continue leaving their doors unlocked, these invaders will continue having a field day with their crimes. Police are adamant that residents keep their doors locked, and keeping their alarms on (if they have one) even when they’re home.

Residents should consider putting valuables in a safe-deposit box located at their bank, and put up security cameras, a proven deterrent to home invasions and burglaries.

Thus far, compliant occupants of the invaded homes have not been harmed, but one who tried to escape was injured enough to require hospitalization. The task force won’t give up until the perpetrators are stopped.

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