Home break-ins happen 8,000 times each day in America. Only 15% of those criminals are ever caught!
My story started a while ago while searching for a new local home to rent while we wait for the military to send us on to the next post. Being that we have moved over 12 times in 18 years we have gotten rather good at scouting areas and doing the research to be sure we can be as safe as possible. Now the city we were looking at has a bad reputation actually in the military community, and statistics prove that reputation right. However I had heard over and over that there are good neighborhoods in the city and so I went hunting for those. I thought I found one. All looked good as far as my research went into crime in that area. So we signed the lease and started moving in.
Know when you are a Target
Move-Ins make you a target as it turns out, but we knew this, so we would take small trips with our van and pull into the garage and close the garage door before unloading. We would only do this once or twice a day trying to make sure we have room for the real move in day with the big truck.
We had left the new house around 10pm that night, by 4pm the next day someone broke in. They kicked in the back door, broke the frame, broke the dead bolt. The 4 inch screws holding it in didn’t help at all! I was shocked to say the least. We hunted the house to make sure no one was there and called the police.
(Someone had to be very strong to kick this door in, and talented to do so in a way that didn’t break the glass too!) Locks don’t keep you safe!
Don’t go looking for trouble!
I learned that you shouldn’t look for the people who robbed you in the house. You need to leave soon as you notice the issue and call 911. You don’t want to find the people breaking into your home, you could be risking your life!
The new landlord was great, even on a weekend he showed up, he hired a repairman that was a neighbors friend right then and there and they spent all evening and the next morning first repairing the damage to the door frame and wall, and then installing security doors over the doors that are there.
Security Doors are not that costly!
You don’t need the $500 steal door to protect your home, you can get nice looking bared security doors that go over your current doors for about $100. The repairman deals with a lot of break-ins like this in the city and had the tools and wood and such to fix it all right in his car, and he knew just what to get to prevent it happening again!
Make sure the home security system company is a good one and not one out to rob you again!
Another thing I learned was that your shouldn’t just rush and call a security system company to come install a system. Do your research. I panicked and failed in this department and oh the pain of that mistake. A big name brand company doesn’t mean what I thought it did! There will be a whole other post on my dealings with ADT soon I promise!
If they broke into your home once….
You guessed it, chances are they will try again! They know what you have, what you will replace, and what the home layout is. So you have to protect your stuff and most importantly your family! In our case, each room only had a few boxes. They dumped them all and made a big mess. I can’t be sure about everything they took. I know they found boxes to electronics that had other items in them, so they know we have those electronics! There are things you can do to make your home safer and I will get to a post about that soon, and also of course post if another break-in happens despite all we are doing to prevent it!
Over all, the statistics of home break-ins to me is shocking, and in 36 years I have never had to really know them. Of course crime happens everywhere and I wonder if I will ever feel like my family will be safe again. It helps knowing there are steps we can take. Wish us luck!
