Home Security:
BREAK-IN
Home Defense

Home security has two components: First, fortifying your home with hardware and electronics. Second, insisting your entire family always use them properly.

Break-In: An intruder breaches your home security either by quietly burgling an opening or smashing his way in.

Four intruders broke through a Montreal home's front door, beat the homeowners and raped a young female visitor. The invaders are suspected of five other home invasions in the area. In one, two elderly couples were bound and one man was scalded with boiling water. The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) of any violent crime often causes a victim to not want to leave home at all. But when the crime scene is the very cocoon of their homes, victims are especially traumatized. Many victims feel anger, fear, and ironically, guilt. They often blame themselves for not having been more careful. Psychotherapy for PTSD generally involves helping victims regain a sense of control over their lives.

In South Carolina, three gunmen burst through a home's front door, beat the father to the floor and demanded money. They also attacked his daughter with cerebral palsy – bashing her head and breaking her arm. At that point, the mother ran out a door to the sound of her daughter screaming, knowing she had to get help. A neighbor called 911 and grabbed a shotgun. He confronted the suspects and they ran to a van. He shot once at the van as they took off.

Standard residential doors expose people to a nightmare. See how to fortify your doors at Door Security Systems and Security Products - Door Reinforcement. Also see Survival Options - Hostage Survival.

Coming Home to a Burglary

The Whitaker family of four was returning to their Texas home where a surprised burglar shot all of them.

If you arrive home and notice signs of a burglary, do not enter – the burglar may still be inside. If you do confront a burglar, allow him to escape. Or, you should flee and call the police. Too many victims, men especially, try to capture or punish a burglar, which leads to a dangerous escalation of violence. Your valuables can be replaced.

One woman living alone rings the doorbell upon arriving home to alert any burglars to flee. Then she opens the door slightly to see if anyone has removed the small pile of money she’d casually strewn in plain view on a table just inside the door (visible only from indoors). If the money is still there, she assumes she’s indeed alone.

Types of Burglars and Invaders
• Professionals (often called “cat burglars”) are almost the only ones able to pick locks and defeat the more sophisticated home security measures. A tiny minority of all burglars, they prefer businesses or very wealthy homes and rarely target an ordinary home. They’re seldom dangerous unless trapped.
• Opportunists are most often juvenile delinquents (medium danger) stumbling onto easy pickings.
• Thrill-seekers are juvenile delinquents (medium danger), gang members (high danger), voyeurs (like to watch women sleeping – eventually becoming rapists), rapists, and murderers.
• Drug addicts, unskilled, unpredictable, and usually high on drugs, commit up to 90 percent of all burglaries and invasions but rarely plan them well. Terrified of arrest and drug withdrawal, they’re desperate, volatile, and often convinced you’re holding out on them. Irrational and prone to violence, they are very dangerous.

How Predators Choose a Home
Predators, male and female, may drive a vehicle with a phony (magnetic) business sign, push a baby-stroller, walk a dog, or jog past. They often prefer secluded homes with weak home security in low-crime areas where they’re least expected.

Some think the nicest yard indicates nice stuff inside; others think the shabbiest yard indicates shabby home security. Some prefer daylight, others the night. They can strike anywhere, anytime.

Some knock on your door to ask some flimflam question (or knock then duck out of sight). They want to see if anyone is home, if you have a dog, to assess your home security – they’re sniffing for prey – and no family is any safer than its most careless member.

Burglars usually flee from a confrontation, and become violent only if chased or trapped. But what if an intruder isn’t merely a burglar? What if he doesn’t flee from you or doesn’t want you to get away from him?

If you don't have a Security Products - Safe Room, do not stay indoors even if your kids are inside. Any one of you escaping will bring help more quickly (see Survival Options - Hostage Taking). Better yet, fortify your home security ahead of time.

PREVENTING BREAK-INS

For the first time, Crime-Safety-Security.com handily classifies all home invasions into five types to help you truly understand home security. To add to the familiar police terms of Break-In, Walk-In, and Push-In, I’ve created two new categories: Scam-In and Mug-In – as shown below:

Complete Home Defense: burglary prevention and the best home security products - from home security hardware to burglar alarm equipment

Even if you live in Sleepy Valley, safeguard your home security - predators like to prowl where the prey least expect them.

Prevent home intrusions by making sure all your family members use these home security strategies. Of course, predators will always find prey – but the most cautious targets will likely be spared.

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