Home Security
Break-In

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

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

A middle-aged couple and visiting young woman were shocked from sleep early yesterday morning when four intruders broke through their home's front door. They bound them with duct tape and sexually assaulted the young woman. The incident follows a series of five home invasions in Montreal, which culminated in December when intruders bound two elderly couples in an apartment and scalded one man with boiling water. ... The psychological fallout of violent crime is likely to be profound. The impact of a crime on a victim rarely ends when the immediate physical danger is over. "They may not want to see friends, not participate in normal activities, not go out at all. But when the scene of the crime is the very place the victim felt safest, even the comfort of cocooning at home may be shattered," said psychologist Robert Denis of the Centre de Psychologie Gouin. ... How victims cope in the aftermath of a violent crime varies. A physical attack of any sort, anywhere, can destroy trust and any sense of personal security. Emotionally, many victims experience anger, fear, and paradoxically, guilt. "They may begin to blame themselves – why didn't I lock the door? Why did I invite that guest?" explained Caroline Mailhot of the Centre d'Aide aux Victimes d'Actes Criminels de Montreal. ... "Psychotherapy for victims generally involves helping the victim regain a sense of empowerment – dealing with the loss of power over one's self and a sense of great vulnerability," Denis said.
Excerpted from The Montreal Gazette – 08 March 2002

Newberry County SC – The father says, "The front door busted open and three guys come in with guns – hit me in the eye with the butt of the gun. They got me on the floor and just kept asking, 'Where's the money?' I said, 'I don't got no money.'" "He said, 'Is it really worth dying over having no money?' ... Terrified, the man's wife hid. Her daughter with cerebral palsy was also attacked. "They tied her up, busted her head and broke her arm. All I could think was how could I get help? If I hadn't got out, I feel we would all be dead. I really do." ... At that point, the mother ran. "When I ran out that door all I could hear was my daughter screaming, knowing I had to leave her behind. It was terrible. I didn't know if they'd be alive when I got back with help." ... The man the mother sought for help called 911 and grabbed a shotgun. He said when he confronted the suspects, they ran to a van. "I aimed toward the van and shot one time with a shotgun and they took off."
Excerpted from WIS-TV (SC) – 08 January 2008

See: Hostage Survival & Escape and Door Reinforcement.

Coming Home to a Burglary

The Whitaker family of four was returning to their home where a surprised burglar shot all of them.
Excerpted from The Fort Bend Southwest Sun (TX) – 15 December 2003

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.
Excerpted from Ira A. Lipman's How to Protect Yourself from Crime - Reader’s Digest 1997.

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 Ever an Intruder is Chasing You Through Your Home
If you don't have a Safe Room, do not stay indoors even if your kids are inside. Any one of you escaping will bring help more quickly (see Hostage Taking). Better yet, fortify your home security ahead of time. Since “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” the insights throughout Crime-Safety-Security.com will guide you through tons of prevention.

A strange man, armed with a knife and a meat cleaver, broke into her apartment. She woke up to find him in her bedroom, where, he told her, he intended to rape and murder her. For two hours, he repeatedly raped, stabbed, and slashed her, cutting her throat, stabbing her in the head seven times, and severing two of her fingers. Yet, she mustered all her wits, strength and guts to outsmart him and save her life. She kept him engaged in conversation then tried playing dead. Finally, she escaped the apartment. ... For the last four years, fear has been her constant companion. "I felt that I was under attack 24 hours a day. I didn't want to sleep because the nightmares and flashbacks were so intense," she says. "Behind every corner, every tree, I see a psycho waiting to kill me."
Excerpted from The Edmonton Journal – 12 January 2008

Choose how safe you want to be. Look at your home through a burglar’s eyes and improve the worst home security flaw first. See Apartment & Dormitory Security.

PREVENTING BREAK-INS:
Fortify your home security by burglarproofing your home with the hardware and electronics described in Security Products Buying Guide: Home - Intro, and always use them.

See Alarm Systems

Go to
• Home Security - Overview
• Break-In: Most homes are easy to invade. Make yours burglarproof. (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE)
• Walk-In: Half of all home invasions are through unlocked doors and windows! It's easy to always keep them locked at all times with the guidance in the Security Products Buying Guide: Home - Intro (below).
• Push-In: Never blindly open the door when someone knocks. If you are pushed-in, do not stay inside with him (even if other family members are home) – flee to the outside for help. See Hostage Taking. Better to use an intercom from www.smarthome.com.
• Mug-In: If you’re ambushed outside your home and ordered to go inside, do not go! As with a push-in, you’re better off outside. See Kidnapping.
• Scam-In: Do not open the door, not even an inch, to any stranger - no matter what they say - scam-artists are master manipulators (see Push-In above).
• Cracks in Security: subtle variations of Break-In, Walk-In, Push-In, Mug-In, and Scam-In home intrusions.
• College - Apartment & Dormitory Security: staying safe despite careless roommates.
• Good Neighbors: the final layer of home protection.
• Security Product Buying Guide: Home - Intro
• Door Reinforcement
• Window Reinforcement
• Garage & Yard Reinforcement
• Simple Home Electronics
• Alarm Systems
• Flaws in Electronic Security
• Apartment & Dormitory Security
• Safe Room
• Recap: for a quick summary of this entire section.

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

Prevent the vast majority of home intrusions - whether by burglar or invader 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 be spared.

Return to
Home Security - Overview
Crime-Safety-Security Home Page