5 ways to stop intruders targeting your property

Have you got your pride-and-joy 4K TV in full view of your living room window for all passers by to marvel at? Or left your window open on a hot day, thinking no one could fit through anyway, and headed out for the day?

Most will walk straight by your house and ignore it, and a handful will, at most, think how nice your TV looks and become distracted with the overwhelming urge to upgrade their own. But all it takes is for one of those passers-by to notice the blatant opportunity for intrusion.

To help you learn the must-do moves and must-avoid mistakes, I’ve put together a quick guide covering the five main reasons you’re unknowingly increasing the risk of intruders targeting your property.

Easy Access

We’re all guilty of this from time to time - letting our guard down when we’re in a safe and familiar environment. And most of the time, nothing happens but us having a good time. But whether you’re at home or our place of business, intruders will, unfortunately, prey on your trust and openness.

Any reformed burglar will tell you the first thing they do when entering a property is to try to open any unlocked doors. But attempting to open doors is only the first step in an intruder’s canvas of a potential theft opportunity. The whole process may go something like this:

1. Look for evidence of an owner not being home (for instance, letters on the floor, cars not on drive, or the lights and televisions turned off).

2. Attempt to open doors.

3. Look for open windows (lower and upper floors).

4. Look for security systems, dogs, or potential theft interruptions.

5. Attempt to access the rear of the property.

6. Looking for expensive items in clear view.

7. Searching out weak entry points (glass windows and patio doors).

The great thing about all of these things is that fixing them is simply a matter of forming good habits, such as: locking windows on your way out, closing curtains, keeping laptops out of plain view. You can quickly go from a high-risk target to a more forgettable property by just ‘keeping your head down’.

Guaranteed Gains

To an intruder, a ‘guaranteed gain’ is what they get from a property known to contain items that are worth the risk of breaking and entering. The high-risk, high-reward gamble often leads intruders to search for guaranteed gains in commercial properties, as they tend to store higher-value items, and are typically unoccupied at night.

A commercial property has a very typical profile, very commonly housing items of value such as laptops, power tools, machinery, or appliances. Retail stores, or commercial properties open for people to walk past or around during the day, are also a target for burglars, who have the opportunity to canvas the property during the day.

The usual advice is to hide away valuable items at the end of the day, such as keeping laptops in cupboards, and storing valuable tools in tool chests. Whilst it’s a useful tip, a cupboard or toolchest is unlikely to deter someone who’s already successfully broken into a locked building, given they know where to find it.

So, what else can you do? The answer really depends on what you’re trying to protect. If you have a team of employees with laptops, encourage them to take them home at the end of every day. If your property is broken into, much of your equipment won’t be there!

What about tools? Most businesses have shadow boards to organise their tools, so if you’re able to keep your shadow board under lock and key in non-business hours, then you’re increasing the likelihood that an intruder will move on to easier, less valuable pickings

Advertising Your Location

At some point in your life, you’ve probably been guilty of wanting to show off your new big purchases. And why not? You should be proud of your achievements, and you’ve worked extremely hard for what you own. The problem is that posting pictures of them on Instagram and Facebook can attract the attention of people who don’t see it the same way. They see your new car as an opportunity for a short-term gain.

For instance, here’s the typical digital canvasing a burglar may go through when you post online:

1. They use the location search on the social media platform and search for their target area (usually affluent areas with distinctive features on the houses).

2. The burglar scans through location-stamped photos looking for obvious signs of wealth - expensive cars, watches, computers, game consoles, and so on.

3. Once they’ve identified a target, they trawl that user’s online profile to pinpoint their location and pattern of life.

4. This pattern (where you go, what you do, and when) will inform the burglar of when they should attempt to break into your property. Maybe you post about your gym routine, your coffee shop trips, or your work life. This is all establishing a pattern of life, and a timeframe in which your property is unoccupied.

You don’t have to be a total hermit to stay safe, and if you follow the guidance below you’ll likely never have the above happen to you:

• Remove geo-tagging from your posts - if they can’t figure out where you are, then you’re instantly going to become less attractive!

• Do not post specifics about your routine and daily life - what shops you go to, where you work, where you live, and so on.

• Keep your ‘show-off’ posts to your real-life friends, or, if you need to show the world, make them stories or limited-time posts.

Unattended Property

We can’t keep our eyes on everything at once, especially where you may have equipment spread out over a large area. Maybe you own an isolated container with farming equipment, or an en bloc garage with your prized motocross bikes? These are all good examples of unattended property. Subconsciously, we know that we’re taking the risk when we leave our property unattended, and it causes us great anxiety and stress.

So, what can you do to reduce the stress and anxiety of unattended property? Here are three ways you can produce the likelihood of an attack, and protecting your livelihood or hobby:

• Ensure that your property is hidden from view, any windows/viewing holes are covered, and any obvious signs of worth are disguised.

• Don’t share details of where you store your equipment - neither online, or anywhere untrustworthy persons could overhear.

• Invest in a standalone proximity alerting system that can instantly alert you of any unwanted activity near your property.

Bad Luck

Sometimes you’ve done everything right - you’ve locked all your doors, installed all the security measures you can, and followed all the best practices we’ve outlined above. The problem is, it still wasn’t enough to deter the intruder, and they’ve deemed it worth the risk of being caught.

Fortunately, we have the antidote to bad luck and overly-confident intruders. At Stop Intruders, we believe that no matter how bad your luck is, intruders ought to leave your property with their tail between their legs - and their hands empty!

I hope you found this article useful, and thank you for reading.