Environmental Issue & Sick Building Syndrome Blog

The best defense to becoming a victim of home robbery is to make your home a tougher target than your neighbor’s

Do not advertise that the home is vacant
Have the snow removed in winter and the grass cut and leaves raked in summer. Snow covered sidewalks and high grass mark vacant homes as easy targets.

Have the junk mail, fliers and newspapers picked up. Nothing says “come rob me” like strew garbage or a faded and rain stained pizza flier in the front door.  

Make the thieves question if anyone is home

Ask a neighbor to park their car in your driveway. Thieves do not want a homeowner returning home during a robbery.

Install lights on timers. Make sure that some timers are in rooms that a burglar can’t look into to tell if they are really occupied.    

Leave furniture and personal effects in the room that you can see from the door. Thieves can walk up to the front door appearing to be visitors to neighbors. If the room they see looks lived in, the aspiring thieves will believe the “house must be lived in.” You can cover the other windows with shades or blinds and the thieves will never know that the other rooms are empty. 

Toughen security in the home

Install door and jamb reinforcement plates such as the ones manufactured by Armor Concepts or Rebar Security Device. These metal plates are easy to install and make it very difficult to break into a door. These are available starting at $ 30.00, which is much less than the cost of replacing a door.    

Install an alarm system for the home. www.Simplisafe.com offers a wireless security system including motion sensors, alarm, cellular monitors and electronic notification of events. The easy to install system is available for $ 250.00 in equipment and from $15.00 to $ 25.00 a month for monitoring. This product does not require any contract and can be cancelled when the home sells. It can also be moved to another home. You may want to add a freeze alarm in cold weather at a cost of $30.00

Install a video camera system. If you do not want the expense of a functional system, install a fake system with lights such as made by UniqueExceptional. These are available for less than $20.00

Leave sound on in the home. A loud source of music or television robs the thieves of the ability to tell if someone is at home in another area of the house. That uncertainty can end a criminal attempt.   

Scare the daylights out of the thieves

Install a motion device that sounds an obnoxious loud alarm. These are inexpensive, scary and just like the expensive systems that notify police of a robbery. Swann has one available for about $ 20.00

Consider using plastic plumbing materials

CPVC and PEX are two popular plastic water pipe systems. They function as well as copper plumbing and have one very significant advantage. They do not have any value as scrap material.

For additional information and links to the vendors mentioned in the story, go to: www.envirospect.info/stolenpipes     

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