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10 common sense holiday home security tips

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It’s that time of year where burglars are casing out homes to rob, so at a minimum make sure you have strong quality door locks such as Schlage’s Touchscreen Deadbolt.   Sounds crazy but burglars have families too, and they’d rather steal than pay for gifts to give to them. Here’s how to protect your home.

5H#1. If you have an alarm system, make sure that its stickers or lawn signs are clearly visible to any potential unwelcome visitor.

#2. Make your house look occupied when you’re not there by using automatic timers for various lights, and leaving a TV on.

#3. It’s best to ignore solicitors at your door; they can be a crook wanting to case your home (interior and exterior) for a possible return later to burglarize.

#4.When purchasing items to be delivered to your house, arrange delivery to coincide with your presence. A big package left on a stoop is very enticing to thieves.

#5. Rethink making a pile of gifts under the Christmas tree visible to people outside; a burglar casing your house will be very tempted to break in.

#6.To conceal your ownership of new, high price items such as a large flat screen TV, break down the boxes these items came in so that they can be hidden inside your trash container.

#7. Instruct your kids never to reveal your travel plans with their friends, including online. In fact, refrain from sharing your travel plans yourself in cyberspace.

#8. Put your mail and newspaper delivery on vacation hold. Have a trusted friend watch out for your house however they can, such as parking their car in the driveway.

#9. Inform the local police you’ll be absent; give them the contact information for the friend who’ll be looking out for your house.

#10. Have a dog? Rather than kennel it, arrange to have someone come by often enough to pet sit, so that if a prowler comes by, the dog will be there to bark.

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.

How to design a secret Safe Room

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Your house can easily have a “secret room,” for its novelty, for children and for a safe hideout from intruders. Entrances to these rooms are concealed by normal looking household features such as bookcases.

2BPurpose

Designing begins with determining the secret room’s function: a hideout? fantasy playroom? a space for meditation or writing your novel?

Location

Next, figure out where to have it. It’s easier to figure this out if your house is under construction. Otherwise, it can be located centrally, or inside a room or even in the basement. A smart option may be unused space such as beneath a staircase, in a huge closet or inside a storage room.

Furnishings

To save money, do as much remodeling, restructuring and furnishing as you can (including drywalling, painting, etc.). Hire professionals for electrical and plumbing unless this is your line of work. The room also needs proper heating, cooling and ventilation.

Secret Entrance

It’s best to have an expert design a spectacular secret portal. In fact, there are companies that specialize in secret room customization. An automated entranceway or portal can be created by a mechanical engineer so that this passageway is truly hidden (camouflaged as a dresser, fireplace, bookcase, what have you—even merged into the surrounding wall).

How It’s done

The automated doorway is built in the company’s workshop, custom-designed and shipped to the purchaser with complete installation instructions. The company can also send out installers. A secret entrance that’s 100 percent created professionally is nearly impossible to detect.

Truth or hoax?

The story on the Internet is that a guy was playing around in his house when his younger brother accidentally ran into a bookshelf—it opened to a secret spiral staircase that led to an unknown crawlspace…where a stranger was living. The older of the two crept down the steps far enough to discover the secret room, where his Halloween candy and a banana peel were scattered on some bedding. This story hasn’t been validated as true and is likely just an Internet hoax.

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

15 Tips to protect holiday packages from theft

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During the holidays, thieves will actually follow delivery trucks, snatching the packages that the driver leaves at peoples’ front doors. Thieves will also cruise around neighborhoods in search of boxes left at front doors—and steal them.

Here are numerous tips on how to protect packages, that are being sent to you, from theft, and also how to safeguard anything you’re sending out. 4H

  1. Get a tracking number from the shipping company.
  2. Require a signature with the delivery.
  3. If you won’t be home, have the company leave the package at a local shipping center.
  4. Set up an obvious surveillance camera with your home security system.
  5. If UPS is making the delivery, get onboard with their U.P.S. My Choice program, which sends an e-mail or text message to the customer just prior to package arrival; it will be rerouted if nobody is home.
  6. Insist that the driver leave the package in an inconspicuous area.
  7. Have the driver leave the package at your apartment’s or condo’s office.
  8. Retrieve your mail as quickly as possible after delivery.
  9. If you can’t retrieve it daily, have a trusted person get it.
  10. If you’re traveling, have the post office hold your mail until you get back.
  11. Never received mail you were expecting? Contact the sender to see if it was sent. If so, file a complaint with the post office. This also applies if the contents of mail are missing.
  12. Bring your checks or money orders to a postal collection box (personally give it to a postal worker) for the delivery driver to pick up; don’t leave checks or money orders in your home mailbox.
  13. Never leave packages outside your door.
  14. Alert recipients of your packages as to when they are to expect them.
  15. Insure any packages you send.

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

12 biggest home security mistakes

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We all make mistakes; the key is to make them once or twice and learn from them. If you keep making them, bad things happen—and home security mistakes are not ones you want to repeat. Here are a dozen mistakes that you don’t want to make even the first time.

  1. Cheap locks. It’s easy to walk into the hardware store and see all the shiny locks and look at the prices and see considerable differences. With locks, like anything else, you get what you pay for. Schlage is my go-to, and I’ll never be cheap and make that mistake again.
  2. Unlocked doors. What’s the point of having locks if you aren’t going to lock them? Burglars walk up to doors all day, ring the bell, get no answer, jiggle the doorknob and walk right in. And people are surprised their home was chosen.
  3. Hide a key. Burglars know they are in or under the flowerpot, under the mat, in the mailbox, in that stupid fake-looking rock and in/under/behind whatever else is on your porch. Get Schlage’s Touchscreen Deadbolt; it is the best keyless lock out there.
  4. Ladders in yards. It’s a good thing I’m not a burglar, because I see ladders in yards every day. They boost a bad guy to the unlocked second-floor windows easily enough. Lock ’em up.
  5. Disabled alarms. You were smart enough to get the alarm, so be smart and activate it when you are home, sleeping and away—even for 10 minutes. Set it and forget it.
  6. Opened unlocked windows. Sure, you’re only going to the store and you’ll be right back…but the kid next door with his little crack problem knows your routine and as soon as you leave, your grandmother’s ring and your husband’s knife collection are his. Lock up.
  7. Unlocked garages. Just because the garage door is down and the side entrance is closed, doesn’t mean a burglar won’t just walk right in and through to a home that is attached. Lock up.
  8. Valuables in plain sight. Everyone in the neighborhood knows you just got a 70” LCD TV because it’s prominently displayed in your living room window. Put your shades down.
  9. Social media postings. When you let everyone know you are sipping a margarita in Cabo, you are also letting a burglar know you aren’t home. Be discreet.

10. Revealing trash boxes. That Dell computer box, the Sharp TV box and the Xbox box in your garbage tell bad guys to come into your home to do their shopping. Hide those boxes in a trash bag.

11. Dark house. When you are away and your mail and newspapers are piling up and your house looks abandoned, you make it easy for burglars to choose your house. Give it that lived-in look with timers, and have a trusted neighbor grab your stuff.

12. Dark yard. Burglars like to creep around in the dark. Put your lights on timers from dusk to dawn.

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

6 Tips on Securing Your Home From Those You ‘Trust’

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5HThere are going to be times in your life when you will need to simply trust people who you let into your home for various reasons. People such as:

House cleaners: House cleaners get in the nooks and crannies of your home and have to be trustworthy. They see everything, they touch everything, and if they find your grandmother’s ring wedged behind the couch pillows, you want to trust that they will bring it to your attention.

Contractors: When bringing in a plumber to make a repair or install an appliance, or a carpenter, painter, electrician or anyone else, know that someone in one of these crews will be looking at your stuff as a week’s pay.

Babysitters or nannies: You not only trust them to come into your home, but you also are trusting them with your kids. Anyone you trust your kids’ safety with can do the most damage because they are SO trusted they think you aren’t paying attention at all.

Roommates: Living with someone requires the utmost trust. But what makes you think that dude you found on Craigslist is actually 100 percent honest and upfront with you?

The New York Post reports, “A real-estate agent sold an Upper West Side town house to the owner of an art gallery—then allegedly looted the home of more than $500,000 in high-end goods when the victim and her family were away in the Hamptons.” One source reported, “He has a drug and gambling problem.”

Well, there you go. Drugs make nice people bad people. Drugs make honest people liars. And some people just come out of their mamas as liars and bad guys.

So what does a trusting person do?

  1. Background checks: Before letting anyone into your home, make sure the employer has done a background check and you do one on a roommate or nanny. But just because the person has a clean record doesn’t mean his or she isn’t smoking a little crack here and there. So…
  2. Drug testing: Insist on drug testing for anyone who enters your home—especially if that person is taking care of your kids. But people can scam a drug test, and some people who don’t do drugs are just plain liars. So…
  3. Get a safe: Put all your valuables into a safe that is bolted to the floor. You can also remove your valuables and/or put them into a safety deposit box. Insure everything, too. But it’s not always convenient, practical or possible to remove everything. So…
  4. Install security cameras: Security cameras tied into a home security system that can be monitored from your mobile device allow you to keep an eye on things. You can even point to the cameras when you leave and joke with the contractor and do the dual finger point and say in your best Robert DeNiro voice, “I’m watching you, Focker.” But cameras don’t always “prevent” someone from stealing something, but they do act as a deterrent. So…
  5. Lock off certain rooms: Installing interior door locks will prevent someone from simply walking into a bedroom or office and rummaging through your stuff. But anyone with a leg and a foot can easily kick in a bedroom door. So…
  6. Cross your fingers, hope and trust: You should do all of the above to add multiple layers of security to your home, even when protecting your stuff from those you trust. Trust is overrated; we do it too much. But still, we wouldn’t be able to function in an interdependent society without it. Just sayin’.

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

10 security tips when selling your house

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The housing market is coming back, and lots of people are selling their homes—and you may be considering it too. Will you use a real estate agent or do it yourself? No matter which path you choose, there are safety and security considerations for both. When opening your home to strangers, the risks to your family’s personal security increase dramatically.

For one illustration, KHOU reports, “Two women are accused of posing as a real estate agent and prospective buyer to burglarize a house. They allegedly called her Realtor last minute to say they were close by. Police said the women had given the license number and name of a legitimate real estate agent to obtain permission to enter. Once inside, they allegedly took watches, jewelry and a credit card.”

When selling your home and someone knocks on the door and begins to con the homeowner with the above not-too-far-fetched scenario, more than likely the home owner will let him or her in.

Use caution—and, if you use a real estate agent, discuss the following:

  1. Recognize that when placing ads or displaying a yard sign, scammers will notice too. You are going to have to set boundaries and begin to think differently in this process. It’s never OK for anyone to enter your home unannounced. Even if a person set an appointment, it’s best to have a real estate agent along. And always pay attention to whoever enters. Don’t just let a stranger (even one claiming to want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your home) roam free.
  2. Lock up: Remove your valuables or put them in a safe; medicines or anything else of resale value is often targeted. When suspecting or seeing someone steal something, just let the person have it. Never confront a thief, and never try to take it back. Leave your own house immediately, as a thief could turn violent instantly. Your job isn’t to prevent theft—merely to deter it.
  3. Be suspect: Being guarded and alert can keep you from getting into a vulnerable situation. Expect every bad guy or gal to show up in a nice car, well dressed, and even with family. Sometimes the person has business cards stating his or her profession. Regardless, don’t let your guard down.
  4. Signage and ads: Use advertising as your first layer of defense. Include phrases like “Appointment only” and “Driver’s license required for admission” and “Pre-approved documents required.” Include signage at the front door, such as “Video surveillance in use” or “Driver’s license required,” as well as signage showing you have a home security system.
  5. Use the buddy system: Strength comes in numbers. Having two or more people on site is best, so set appointments around spouse or friend availability.
  6. Identification: Request ID when people walk in. If they have a problem with this, then that’s a red flag and you need to tell them to leave.
  7. Determine any vulnerabilities: When showing a property, think in terms of where your screams would not be heard, such as a basement, attic, garage, etc. It may be necessary to send potential buyer to these areas alone.
  8. Dress appropriately: Expensive jewelry is a no-no. Pajamas or provocative attire sends the wrong message. Be professional.
  9. Intuition: Trust your gut and pay attention to your intuition. If something seems wrong, something is wrong.

10. Home security: Install a home security system with cameras. Not only does this help to secure the home, but it also increases resale value.

11 Easy and Simple Home Security Tips

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Occasionally it’s good to be reminded of the fundamentals of home security. Print this out and stick it on your bulletin board at work or on your refrigerator as a reminder to everyone in your family.

  1. Daytime burglaries: Many burglaries happens during daylight hours; very few occur at night—which means even when you step out to go to the store at noon, set your home security system to alarm.
  2. Traveling: Have a neighbor keep an eye on your house and get your mail and newspapers and grab your barrels on trash day. During the winter, have someone clear the snow around your house to make it look like someone’s home.
  3. Trick the burglars: Do things like leaving a radio or TV on, and put the lights on timers. The idea is to always make your house looked lived in.
  4. Neighborhood watch: Get to know your neighbors, and note who is coming and going and what their vehicles look like.
  5. Call 911: If something seems wrong, it is wrong. Trust your gut. Don’t wait to call 911 if something does not seem right. React, respond, see something, say something.
  6. Exterior: Bushes and shrubs should be trimmed back from doors and windows.
  7. Home security systems and cameras: Wired or wireless, use a professional or do it yourself. Spend a little or spend a lot. Get it monitored or not. (I prefer monitored.) With some cameras, you can hear audio via video. Just get alarmed.
  8. Lighting: Use bright lighting around your home, including motion lights or lights on timers. I like timers better.
  9. Engraving: Engraving systems allow you to imprint your driver’s license number or address on valuable items. This helps police return recovered items when bad guys are busted.

10. Doors: Use strong, high-quality deadbolt locks. Consider door reinforcement technologies on the jambs and hinges and around the locks. Use solid-core doors. Beef up sliding doors, as older versions can be opened by an experienced burglar.

11. Windows: Bars on windows are an option, but a better option is locking them and using a shatter-resistant window film that helps prevent windows from being smashed in.

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

5 Home Security Tactics of the Uber Rich

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The uber rich have many reasons to invest in uber security. I met a woman who won a $300 million lottery, and she had some unfortunate stories about how low people go to get at and to moneyed individuals. So to protect life and limb, the uber class invest in:

  • Safe rooms: These include not just bulletproof but bombproof glass, walls, ceilings and floors. But for the ubers, it’s a “safe core” that includes bedrooms, bathrooms, a cooking area and food, and other necessities needed for survival for a week or more.
  • Pepper fog: Sure, you can grab a can of pepper spray and douse your home invaders, but how about outfitting your home with a sprinkler system-like pepper fog that can be accessed via an app?
  • NBC shelter: A nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) shelter can be 20 feet or more underground and is designed to keep a family alive for months with all the necessary supplies, including oxygen.
  • Mega control room: Security cameras for a residential installation are around $100-$200 apiece, more or less. But for the uber rich, they invest in pan-tilt zoom cameras that pick up body heat, incorporate facial recognition, and eventually will be able to predict what people will do next based on their body language.
  • Helipad: If you need a quick escape from an imminent home invasion, why not install a helipad on your roof?

It’s beginning to sound like it’s much too complicated to be uber rich. But heck, I’d be happy to give it a whirl! Wouldn’t you?

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

House Keys for the Kids…When Your Children are Ready

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Education.com reports that according to the U.S. census, one third of all school-age children in the United States are, for some part of the week, latchkey kids—that is, they go home to an empty house or apartment. The total number may be between five and seven million children between five and 13 years old. (I say five is just way too young.) Anyway, the Census Bureau found that 15 percent were home alone before school, 76 percent after school.

Whether due to necessity or because providing a 12-year-old house keys frees up a parent to run errands, the day will come when the decision to hand over the keys arises.

Parents are (mostly) the best judge of their child’s character and can disseminate when their kids are ready to be on their own and hand over the house keys. My parents, like many others, worked when I was a young teen and didn’t have many options for child care, so I got the keys at 14. And, like many kids, I promptly abused that privilege by having boatloads of kids over to the house.

Today, with technology at our fingertips, it has become much easier for a parent to monitor their child’s comings and goings with various mobile applications, security cameras and GPS devices.

Another advancement in technology is keyless door locks with a programmable touch pad. So latchkey kids become “touch-pad” kids! Ha!

Schlage’s Touchscreen Deadbolt is also enabled to work with Nexia Home Intelligence, a home automation system that allows you to control locks, thermostats, lights, cameras and more from wherever you and the internet happen to be. Lock or unlock your door from anywhere with your cell phone, or schedule lock codes to be active only on certain days at specific times. You can also receive text alerts when an alarm triggers or when specific codes provided to your kids are entered at the lock.

Once a parent comes to the conclusion it is necessary to provide keys to a kid, it might now be a good time to consider ditching the keys and handing over the passcode!

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

Top 5 Home Security System Scams

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When a home security salesman comes a-knockin’, beware, pay attention and know what you are getting into. He might not be who he says he is, or he might have tactics under his belt that will cost you big time.

WZZM reports, “For a couple of years now, the Federal Trade Commission has been warning people about shady practices by some door-to-door salespeople, especially those representing home security systems. While many reps are legitimate, others have found success using high pressure tactics and outright lies to get you to switch companies or sign you up for new service.”

Protect yourself:

  • Never let anyone inside your home. It’s just not a good idea.
  • Always ask for identification and keep the conversation outside.
  • Door-to-door salespeople should tell you their name, business name and the services they wish to sell before asking you any questions.
  • Salespeople should show you their state-issued “pocket card” or license and ID. Take the time to scrutinize their documentation.

The FTC lays out some tips to recognize when a scammer is on your doorstep:

  • They may make a time-limited offer and claim that you need to act now.
  • They may pressure their way into your home and then refuse to leave.
  • They may use scare tactics. For example, they may talk about a supposed rash of burglaries in your neighborhood.
  • The sales agents may state or imply that they are from your existing security company and that they’re there to “upgrade” or “replace” your current security system.
  • They may claim your security company has gone out of business, that they’ve taken over the accounts, and that you have to buy new equipment and sign new contracts.

At this point, with the internet being so accessible and all the major security companies at your fingertips—coupled with BestHomeSecurityXCompanies.com doing all the legwork for you—it makes no sense to even open the door when a salesman comes ringing.

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