5 Weak Points that Burglars are Looking for

Bur­glars don’t choose their tar­gets by acci­dent. They look for spe­cif­ic weak points that allow them to enter the prop­er­ty with the least risk pos­si­ble. Elim­i­nat­ing these weak points can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the chances of your home being bur­glar­ized. And on the flip­side, a fail­ure to fix them could make your home a tar­get.

Here are some of the top weak points that bur­glars are look­ing for.

1) Poorly lit entryways

This is one of the main things bur­glars are look­ing for when they choose their tar­gets: poor­ly lit door­ways – par­tic­u­lar­ly on homes that look com­plete­ly dark. Back doors, side doors and base­ment doors are the most com­mon cul­prits. Even if a front light is turned on, an unlit base­ment door allows bur­glars to approach the house unde­tect­ed and to break in with min­i­mal noise.

Solu­tion: Keep a light turned on by every entrance to your home, even if you per­son­al­ly don’t use that entrance often.

2) Unlocked doors/windows

Bur­glars don’t want to break any win­dows or bust open doors unless they have to. They would pre­fer to sim­ply turn the han­dle and let them­selves in. And a sur­pris­ing num­ber of homes are left unlocked. Bur­glars will often skip from house to house until they find a door that opens. The same goes for win­dows, espe­cial­ly in the sum­mer months. Leav­ing a win­dow open at night might allow a nice breeze, but it’s also a giant mag­net for intrud­ers.

Solu­tion: Shut and lock every door and win­dow, espe­cial­ly at night or while you’re away.

3) Weak door locks and doorframes

Just because you’ve locked the doors doesn’t mean bur­glars won’t be able to enter. Poor-qual­i­ty locks and a lack of dead­bolts allow bur­glars to break in with lit­tle force. So whether you’re away for the week­end or at work dur­ing the day, intrud­ers can still get inside with­out much effort or noise.

Solu­tion: Add high-qual­i­ty dead­bolts to every door, and con­sid­er door & win­dow rein­force­ments to make it even hard­er for bur­glars to break inside.

4) Lack of an alarm system

Most house­holds do not have a secu­ri­ty sys­tem. Bur­glars are look­ing for the ones that don’t. In some cas­es, pro­tect­ed homes that dis­play a secu­ri­ty yard sign or win­dow decal are enough to scare a bur­glar off. But the ulti­mate test occurs when bur­glars attempt to break in. If there is a secu­ri­ty sys­tem in place, the alarm will sound, mak­ing the bur­glar flee. But if there is no alarm sys­tem at all, the bur­glar does not hes­i­tate to enter.

Solu­tion: Pro­tect your home with a pro­fes­sion­al­ly installed and mon­i­tored home secu­ri­ty sys­tem.

5) Open garage doors

An open garage door is an open invi­ta­tion for bur­glars. Whether the home­own­er has sim­ply for­got­ten to close it, or has left it open a small crack, bur­glars will glad­ly exploit this weak point. In a best-case sce­nario, they’ll grab a few items from the garage and run. But in a scari­er sce­nario, they’ll try to gain access to the home for greater valu­ables, whether you’re inside, asleep or away.

Solu­tion: Always keep garage doors closed and secured.

Request a free security consultation

For more infor­ma­tion on secur­ing your home with a pro­fes­sion­al­ly installed alarm sys­tem, con­tact PROTECTION PLUS today to request a no-oblig­a­tion secu­ri­ty sys­tem con­sul­ta­tion today.