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12 Ways to secure your Home

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The FBI says that in the U.S., one out of every 36 homes will be raided by thieves in any given year. Often, the burglars were able to get in due to the residents’ carelessness.

3BUnlike the movies, in which burglars are hiding in the shrubs at night waiting for the homeowner to return home, then jump out and press guns to their ribcages, ordering them inside, real life burglars often literally stroll right through an unlocked door and help themselves to all the goodies. There are many ways the home occupant can make it easy for burglars to get in unnoticed.

  • Unlocked doors and windows.
  • A sloppy yard. This makes a thief think nobody’s hardly ever home, and he’ll likely target the house for a break-in.
  • Shrubs and bushes that obscure entryways. Burglars love it when they can conceal themselves in the dark with the help of plant growth around windows and doors.
  • Posting travel plans on social media. Yes, burglars scout social media to see who’ll be away from the house.
  • Indiscriminately answering the doorbell. Burglars may pose as utility workers and talk their way inside. Or, they may push past the occupant and ransack the place while an accomplice restrains the occupant.
  • A chronically dark house. Don’t be a utility bill penny pincher. Enough lights should be on at night, including when you’re home, to make a burglar think there’s fully-awake people inside. Automatic timers that turn lights on and off will make the house look occupied, and will make it appear people are up in the middle of the night, when many break-ins occur.
  • Newspapers accumulating in the drive or a package sitting on the front stoop, suggesting nobody’s been home for a while.

Beef up Your Home’s Security

  • Get a security system for the house that has it all: motion detectors, surveillance cameras, smartphone connections. Even if money is tight, you can still fool many a burglar with a fake camera installed above the front door, and security company signs around the house—even though you don’t have a system. But really, these days, there are systems for all budgets.
  • Dog owners should hire a dog sitter rather than kennel their pet; a dog’s barking usually scares off a would-be intruder.
  • Put your paper and mail deliveries on a vacation hold.

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

A new kind of home security. Smart, voice controlled and autonomous

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One of the reasons you—and many others—don’t have your alarm on during the day is because you know you’ll keep forgetting to turn it off every time you want to step into the garage or go outside. So you just keep it off. And that’s not smart because many home invasions and burglaries occur during daylight hours.

ANG1Typically, home security systems require you to push buttons.

  • What if you panic and forget the code?
  • What if you accidentally disable it?
  • What if your naughty visiting nephew messes with it?

It’s high time for the kind of home security system you’ve seen on ‘The Jetsons’—one that’s activated automatically when you leave your home.

Enter Angee—an up-and-coming company devoted to a smart, voice-controlled home security system.

What can Angee’s system do for you?

  • Say so long to those unsightly wall keypads where you might accidentally hit the wrong button.
  • Kiss goodbye to having to remember numerical codes, worrying if your elderly parent will remember it and worrying if a burglar could crack it.
  • By detecting the Bluetooth signal from your phone, Angee will automatically arm when you leave, and disarm when you arrive home.
  • As a backup method of identification should you lose your phone, or the battery run out, you can use voice recognition to disarm Angee. This can also be used for two-step authentication if you want to be extra secure.
  • Enjoying your private moments? Don’t want Angee to observe? Just say “Turn away.” You can even set Angee to automatically activate privacy mode when specific people are present at home.

Video Surveillance

  • Instead of cameras trained on one spot, Angee’s surveillance will respond to motion and rotate to face it. This allows Angee to capture events, wherever the action is. This way, an intruder will not be able to avoid camera range.

Angee Knows You’re Coming

  • When Angee is paired up with your smartphone, it will perform commands once you get near enough to your house after being out. So if you want the alarm to be disarmed as you approach your front door, Angee will do this—because it will detect when your mobile device is within a certain range.

There is a working prototype and the team behind it is on Kickstarter right now asking for your support to start serial production and make the future of smart home security reality: http://meetangee.com/get/08a33a.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Angee. Learn more about Angee in this Video. See Disclosures.

Using a knife for survival

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An article at indefinitelywild.gizmodo.com informs on how to use a knife safely and efficiently for survival.

1MSafety

  • For outdoors, carry a fixed-blade knife, as this is less likely to break.
  • The knife should always stay in its sheath. Otherwise, you could stumble and fall into it, slicing and dicing an organ.
  • Practice drawing the knife so that you don’t accidentally grab the sheath or somehow get cut. You may need to draw it at a second’s notice.
  • The draw should have two steps. First, take the handle with your forehand to loosen the blade in the sheath; push against the sheath with your thumb. Next, wrap thumb around handle and slowly withdraw the knife away from your body.
  • Always use slow movements with a knife.
  • When giving a knife to someone, use a forehand grip; rotate knife between forefinger and thumb. The handle should face the recipient, edge of knife pointed up. Do not release the knife until the recipient has a secure hold.
  • A sharper blade is safer because it requires less force, so always keep it sharpened.

Gripping a Knife

  • For most tasks, use a forehand grip: Knife is inside your fist, its edge facing your first finger.
  • This is why before you buy a knife, first make sure you can completely close a fist around the handle. Huge handles are no good.
  • A reverse grip is preferable when cutting cords of any type. The knife edge points towards the thumb. And pull with your shoulder or torso rather than arm to avoid an over-pull.
  • Chest lever grip. Hold blade with edge pointed in reverse direction to the forehand grip, pointed up towards knuckles.

Knife Uses

  • Chopping wood. Place knife with forehand grip against the wood. Use a wooden object shaped like a baton to “hammer” the blade through the wood.
  • Splitting wood. Place knife’s blade, using forehand grip, over the wood. Use the baton to drive it through in the direction of the grain.
  • Slicing. You’ve certainly already done this many times at home: slicing celery, carrots, lettuce, bread, apples (if you’re a man you should know how to do these things!). The key in survival or outdoor slicing is to slice with a forehand grip against a surface that mimics a cutting board at home.
  • Power cutting. Use the chest lever grip while securely holding the object you want to cut. Draw the blade through it hard, using your back muscles.
  • Controlled cutting. The chest lever grip is also used, but you work your way around the object being cut.
  • Drilling. Place tip of knife onto the object (knife is vertical) and begin twisting right and left. Don’t be too forceful or your hand might slip down the knife.

With any use or grip of a knife, always make sure—before you begin the task—that no body part is in the path of the knife if the knife were to slip.

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

Man Breaks into Home, hides under Bed for Days

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Wow, it’s true: The monster under the bed really does exist!

5HRecently in New Jersey a man broke into a home and hid under a bed in a spare room for possibly five days before being arrested. Margaret Adamcewicz reportedly stated that the man, Jason Hubbard, had dated her daughter five years ago, and it didn’t end well, and he decided to live under her bed.

Hubbard slithered his way into the home when one of its residents left a door open to take out the garbage. He slipped his way upstairs to the spare bedroom and made camp under the bed, even charging several cell phones using an outlet under the bed.

He was discovered when Adamcewicz’ husband heard a noise in the room, peeked under the bed and saw the freeloader. An adult son restrained him until the police arrived.

Not only was Hubbard charged with burglary, but he was also charged with stealing electricity.

How can you prevent a person from sneaking into your house and “living” under a bed? The same way you can help prevent someone from breaking in and stealing your valuables or abducting your child:

  • Keep doors locked at all times. If you can’t keep an eye on the door that you go through to get outside to take out the garbage or collect the mail, then lock it, even though you’ll be back in less than a minute.
  • Use “door reinforcement technology” (google it) for your door or some other beefed-up device to reinforce door security and prevent kick-throughs.
  • Never leave a note on your door that indicates you’re not home.
  • Keep windows locked, at least overnight and when you’re not home, and use a bar or special device that’s placed in the track to prevent horizontal-sliding windows from being slid open by intruders.
  • Keep your shades and curtains lowered and closed as much as possible so nobody can peer inside.
  • Before leaving the house for even short errands, turn the phone’s ringer to mute so prowlers don’t hear an unanswered phone.

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

Idiot Burglar takes Selfie

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About 7 a.m. on a Saturday a burglar entered a home through an unlocked side door (how anyone can sleep overnight while a door stays unlocked is a whole new article).

3BThe dumb criminal saw an iPhone and unknowingly triggered a video selfie—showing him standing in the living room during this recent L.A. crime—while three residents were fast asleep including two teen girls. (Again, why didn’t the adult of the home, a woman, lock all the doors…)

A similar scene played out in the UK when a woman tried to unlock a hot iPhone. It had an app called iGotYa. This application automatically sends a photo to the owner.

Another case has the owner of a phone receiving an e-mail of a photo of a man who tried to access the phone with a wrong PIN.

These “got ya” moments can happen to an innocent finder of a lost phone.

There’s yet another case of a man who apparently stole a phone on the beach while its lax female owner went skinny dipping. This occurred in Dubai, and the thief was not able to figure out how to switch off the auto-photo upload tool. As a result, a video ensued called “Life of a stranger who stole my iPhone.”

There are easier ways to locate a lost phone than a “got ya” type app, though this application might one day come in handy for the woman whose unlocked door let in the burglar—who is still at large and nameless.

Android

  • Google has a “Find My Phone” tool. Just type this into the Google search engine and take it from there.
  • There are many paid and free apps that provide numerous commands for remote control such as wiping data, locking the phone, setting off an alarm and resetting the passcode.

Apple

  • Apple has “Find my iPhone”.
  • The lost phone is tracked.
  • Users can remotely wipe it.
  • Just locking it (without wiping it) can still leave messages viewable to anyone who comes upon the phone.

A “kill switch” would allow the phone’s owner to remotely wipe all data and render the phone unusable. In California a new law was passed mandating that, starting this past July, all mobiles sold in the state must have a kill switch.

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

How to deal with difficult people

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It’s been said that nobody can make you feel bad about yourself without your permission. Well bah! Some people don’t wait for your permission to denigrate you. They are toxic. Lifehacker.com offers some ways to deal with such people.

10DLove Yourself

If someone’s words have made you feel bad about yourself, then spend some time giving yourself pats on the back and positive labels. Make this a habit.

Empathy and Compassion

Towards the offender? Yes. Like Madonna says in her song, “Oh Father,” You didn’t mean to be cruel; somebody hurt you too.

Talk to the Offender

This part takes place after you can feel some compassion for them. See if you can connect with this person. Admit that making a connection is trying, and you want their support. Arrange ahead of time with yourself that you will not feel defeated if this effort does not yield favorable results.

Talk to Others

Find someone you trust, and share with that person how the toxic individual makes you feel. This is not a sign of weakness. You certainly won’t feel worse after you’ve vented a little. And if the listener offers advice, be a good sport and graciously accept it.

You Are Whom You Associate With

It’s been said that we are the composite of the five people we hang out with the most. Ooh, that is scary, isn’t it? Maybe not; depends whom you always hang out with. But anyways, make sure you associate only with positive, upbeat people. They share your attitudes; they believe in the same important things that you do.

Don’t Mimic Their Behavior

If someone’s being toxic and you get mad, realize that your hostile reaction may escalate the situation (though I’d be lying if I said that reacting with some serious feistiness never makes them retreat).

Snip the Ties

If all else fails, you may have to sever the relationship, or at least, minimize contact. Do what you feel like doing…and don’t do what you don’t feel like doing. So if you don’t feel like visiting them when they invite you to their place, then simply don’t. If a toxic person is in town and you don’t feel like visiting, then don’t. Keep things simple. No elaborate explanations are required.

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

44 Tips to protecting your home from danger

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There are enough tips on how to protect your home to make a professional burglar dizzy. In no particular order, check them out: 6H

  • Get a peephole.
  • If you don’t have a large dog, make it look like you do, but don’t be obvious. A worn, large leash draped over an outdoor chair would be more convincing than a large food bowl near your door.
  • Put a beware of dog sign in the back (front is too obvious a ploy).
  • If there’s not a man in the house, leave out an old pair of men’s work boots or tool box on the front stoop.
  • Keep doors locked at all times.
  • Never leave the garage door open unless you must pass under it.
  • Never leave a ladder outside.
  • Place a real or fake video surveillance camera above the front door where anyone can easily see it.
  • Get a security system that includes motion detecting lights at all entry points.
  • Make sure no shrubs conceal windows. Plant thorny bushes by windows.
  • Stash what valuables you can in a sock inside your child’s bureau (burglars rarely check children’s rooms).
  • For other valuables, store in a fireproof safe.
  • Use Charlie bars or stoppers on the tracks of your windows.
  • Cover your windows with penetration-proof film.
  • Use deadbolts.
  • Keep your shades down and curtains drawn at night.
  • Make sure no valuables are visible through any windows.
  • Before you leave for vacation, arrange to have someone mow your lawn and park their car in your driveway.
  • Before you leave for travel, put a vacation hold on your mail and newspaper delivery.
  • Use an automatic timed lighting system for when you’re away.
  • Make sure all the screens in your windows are in excellent condition.
  • Make sure all the locks on your windows work—and keep your windows locked overnight!
  • Have a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector on each floor.
  • Conduct staged fire escape drills for the entire family.
  • Never post vacation plans or even evening plans on social media.
  • Put your home security’s sign in the front and back yards.
  • Put their decals on your front door and windows.
  • Don’t allow dried-up leaves or brush to collect on your property.
  • Have a “secret room” built.
  • Don’t answer the door unless you’re expecting someone.
  • Always check your windows after a service person has left the house (they may have unlocked one as an entry point for a later burglary).
  • Never reveal to service people, salespeople, survey takers, preachers or anyone else at your door of your travel plans.
  • Make sure your voice mail recording doesn’t say, “We’re not home now…”
  • Make sure your house’s address numbers are big and easily viewable.
  • If you can’t quit smoking, then rinse the butts before discarding.
  • Keep all flammable material away from the house.
  • Give a spare house key to a trusted neighbor; never leave it under a welcome mat, flower pot or plastic rock.
  • Never step outside the house while the fireplace or a candle is burning.
  • Never leave hot things plugged in unless you’re using them.
  • Install high-grade door reinforcement technology. Door Devil, is the door jamb reinforcement I use.
  • Before leaving the house, turn your phone’s ringer to silent so prowlers don’t hear unanswered ringing.
  • Never have packages sitting outside your door; use a sign-for service.
  • Keep a phone at your bedside.
  • Assume the man at your door claiming to represent your alarm company, whom you’re not expecting, wants to rob you.

Robert Siciliano is a home and personal security expert to DoorDevil.com discussing Anti-Kick door reinforcement on YouTube. Disclosures.

DC Murders as horrific as it gets

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The latest report says that Darron Dellon Dennis Wint did not act alone in the arson murder of a Washington, D.C., family and their housekeeper. You might wonder how a $4.5 million mansion—presumably with top-flight smoke alarms—could burn enough to kill the occupants.

7HA cnn.com report says they were held against their will since the day prior to the May 14 fire. Wint is being held without bond.

It’s too soon, however, to draw conclusions, as other people are being interviewed by police.

Wint was arrested a week after the bodies of Savvas and Amy Savopoulos, and their son Philip were discovered. Housekeeper Veralicia Figueroa died later at a hospital.

The victims were discovered bound up and injured from blunt force, continues the cnn.com report. Philip, age 10, was apparently stabbed and tortured.

Bernardo Alfaro, the housekeeper’s husband, stated that Veralicia did not return home the night of May 13. (It’s fair to wonder why he didn’t pay a visit to the mansion that night, because next morning he finally did.)

Alfaro received a text message from someone claiming to be Savopoulos, telling him that his wife, who couldn’t drive, was with Amy in a hospital. Someone identifying herself as Amy called a second housekeeper and told her to stay home.

It’s believed that money was the motivation for the murders. Apparently, Wint and accomplices stole $40,000 that was dropped off at the mansion by a Savopoulos employee.

How was Wint caught? On May 13, two pizzas were delivered to the mansion while the victims were bound up. A woman instructed that the pizza be dropped off at the door (it had already been paid for via Amy’s credit card). Wint’s DNA was found on the crust.

Wint’s attorney says that this DNA doesn’t prove Wint was inside the house. So how did his DNA get there? Wint’s record doesn’t help: charges of theft, assault and sexual offense.

Neighbors of Wint’s parents say that Wint had choices and that “he was not raised this way.” Few people want their kids to grow up into murderers and groom them for such. But one must wonder what kind of emptiness and darkness existed in the childhood of a man who grows up to burn to death four innocent people.

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

Craigslist encounter ends very badly

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At least one woman is happy that her driver drove like a drunk. That’s because his erratic driving caught the attention of troopers who pulled him over. They then heard a woman calling for help—from the backseat. She was bound and gagged with a bag over her head.

emailThe 41-year-old man had posted an ad on Craigslist; he wanted a submissive partner. His phony profile attracted the 22-year-old woman (who I must wonder, why would she be interested in a man who wants a submissive partner? Doesn’t this sound mighty suspicious?).

The victim chatted online and agreed to meet him. She thought nothing of meeting him in a secluded, remote location near his home.

Then she got into his car. Once inside, she noticed that he didn’t even look anything like the photo he had sent her.

Let’s stop here a moment. Just how dark was their initial meeting spot that she didn’t realize then that he looked nothing like the picture?

She told him to pull over. Instead he assaulted her and tied her up, tossing her in the backseat. She kicked at the man and backseat, causing him to swerve like a drunk.

None of this would have happened had she insisted on meeting in a public spot, and severing the connection with him if he kept insisting on the secluded, dark area.

How to Fight off an Attacker

  • Hit the gym and strengthen your body. Not only will a strong-looking body make a man think twice about attacking, but if he does, a strong body has a much better chance of fighting back and/or escaping.
  • We all know to go for the groin. Go after it like a savage. Hit, yank, pull.
  • Jab stiff fingers into his eye. Why this is rarely done I’ll never know, because it’s extremely effective.
  • Basic self-defense techniques, delivered to the neck, can stun a man and give you time to escape.
  • Slam a palm into his nose. Keep going after it. The pain and gush of blood will disorient him. A self-defense course will teach you how to elbow his nose if he’s behind you.
  • Smash a foot into his knee. You have a better chance of bringing him down if you come in from the side—because your foot will be striking against ligaments, rather than bone.

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

How to hide your Cash at Home

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It’s good to have a stash of cash for emergencies. If the grid goes down and the power goes out, an ATM or bank does you no good. But there are security issues too. Where do you put it? A safe is certainly a smart idea. You can get creative too.

1SWhat burglar would not think to look under a mattress for money? The mattress isn’t exactly a most ingenious place to stash money. However, if you have lots to stash, and put just a little under the mattress, this decoy could trick a burglar into thinking that there’s no other hidden money to search for.

At any rate, whether you want to go the decoy route or avoid the mattress altogether, here are some great locations for hiding cash in an envelope.

  • Inside an old sock (roll up the envelope)
  • Taped to the bottom of a low shelf or drawer (e.g., bottom of sock drawer)
  • Think of other places to tape the envelope: back of refrigerator, bottom of crib, bottom of sofa, top of sink cabinet, top of interior of the credenza, etc.
  • Inside a Tupperware container in the freezer
  • Beneath the passenger seat of your car
  • Inside a Band-Aid container or empty vitamin bottle (tightly roll up a wad of cash)
  • Inside a bible. There’s that saying, “A person who would steal would never open a bible, and a person who’d open a bible would never steal.”
  • Inside a picture frame between the support and the photo
  • In an empty cereal box, rice box or canister that once contained oatmeal flakes, protein powder, ground coffee or whatever
  • Inside a muddy pair of boots that you never wear
  • Underneath a heavy potted artificial plant (a real plant, since it gets watered, would require a saucer to separate the envelope from the bottom of the pot).
  • Between the stack of paper in your printer (but when you use the machine, remove that stack and insert a second stack for actual use, then when done, replace it with the stack that contains the envelope).
  • Taped to the inside of the door to the electrical cabinet
  • Inside a photo album
  • Inside a fake electric wall socket (these can be purchased)

Ask your kids to come up with additional ideas; you never know just what “crazy” but clever idea a child will come up with.

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