One of the biggest reasons that consumers will pass on investing in a burglar alarm is based on the costs involved with owning one. Even though you can get a free burglar alarm for a small installation fee and a monthly charge under $40, people still balk at the idea simply because they believe that this sort of valuable investment would lead to much more responsibility. The truth is that burglar alarms are meant to take responsibility out of your hands and put it into those of professionals who will monitor your home for you, but there are some cost-effective steps you can take for a do-it-yourself method which is still better than nothing.
Lighting. Although many burglaries occur during the day when we are at work, there is still a proportion that happens at night when it’s difficult for your neighbors to witness and provides the burglar the cover of night to commit their crime. Installing some motion detecting lights on the exterior of your home above doors and possibly up the walkway to your home will deter the criminal from moving forward with targeting your house for a home invasion. Turning lights on inside of the home while you sleep is also effective because it tricks the criminal into believing there is someone home and awake in your house.
Dogs. Although they can be more costly than a burglar alarm over time, one aspect of having a dog is that you have an on duty alarm at all times. When a dog hears something they aren’t sure about, many breeds will bark to notify the other members of their pack that something isn’t right and it should be investigated.
Locks. Often a highly overlooked aspect of a home security method, the locks on our doors and windows don’t get as much attention as they could when it comes to keep ourselves and our families safe at home. There are many door locks out there that are designed to be nearly impossible to pick, and there are stoppers you can put on your windows which will stop the window from opening past a few inches. As long as you have these in place and locked, the criminal will only have the option of having to pick them or break one of your windows to enter, which will either take a lot of time, or make a lot of noise – both of which increase the odds that they will be caught.
Ultimately it is up to you to think of all the creative ways you can protect your home from the possibility of a burglar. Even with all of these precautions, it still may happen, especially if you use these precautions as a reason to become careless and use only one or two of them and neglect others. Burglar alarms are fortunately a way to remove the responsibility from us so we don’t have to worry about all of the above. We can just put a sticker on our windows, a sign in our front yard, and turn the alarm on when we leave the house or go to bed.
Photo credit: flickr
