Safe as Houses

S AFE AS H BY ANDRAYA KRUGER

OUSES

SECURITY, WHAT WORKS?

You have just moved into your new home with your family. Next on your list of the many things to take care of, is securing your home and making sure your family is safe. The insurance company has given you their requirements; insisting on,burglar guards for your windows and security gates for your doors, a safe for the storage of jewelry, an armed response alarm system and a lock-up garage or automated gate to keep your vehicles safe. However, you feel as if you should do more. According to the latest available statistics, of the 14,5 million households in South Africa 2.1 million have been affected by some form of robbery. This translates to 14.8% of South African households.

YOU ARE FEELING OVERWHELMED

by the many security options available to you as well as questioning whether or not you are going to be able to afford to implement everything. Purchasing external door and window beams, motion sensors, security cameras, a CCTV system and alarm system, electric or barbed wire fences, burglar guards and slam lock gates, can run into to tens of thousands of Rands. While all this is tempting, it is just not financially viable for the majority of South African home owners.

SO WHAT WORKS? What really are the most effective, essentials? Information gathered from numerous prisoners, currently serving time for burglary and home invasion, revealed which security options were the most and least affective. The main security factors that work, according to the inmates, have to do with movement, noise, visibility, ease of access and escape routes. When a burglar or a team of home invaders, target a home, they look for external and internal elements of the property that will hide them from prying eyes. Therefore, building high walls, hedges, and putting up thick curtains, immediately makes you high risk. If they can intrude and steal your valuables without neighbors or passersby seeing them, then it is easy for them to be successful. A concealed home also means that you must be hiding something valuable. Razor wire fencing with barbed wire or an electric fence is more of a deterrent, as your home is visible to others. Having a visible armed response company sign on your property is vital, so that the burglars know your home is being surveilled, and that they have limited time before armed response arrives, should the alarm sound. The inmates also confirmed that if a property has motion sensor cameras, they will not enter. This is because when these cameras detect movement, they alert you via your preferred device, giving the intruder no time at all to get in and out of the property undetected.

Noise scares intruders away, therefore having an audible alarm system activated by motion sensor lights and or beams, internally and externally are a wise investment. If, for any reason at all, you are unable to activate your alarm system and you are not at home, leaving a radio or a television on, tricks the intruder into thinking that someone is at home, causing them to rule your property out as a target

IS IT SAFE TO HAVE A SAFE?

Inmates admit that they will do anything to get you or your family members to open your safe, even if it means harming you. This proves that safes are actually I dangerous. Hollow doors or doors with decorative glass can be kicked down or smashed openad are easy access points. Therefore investing in plate glass, slam lock security gates and solid wooden doors, are the safest way to go. Once a burglar rea lises that he cannot enter your home easily, he will give up and move on.

WHAT EXTRA STEPS CAN YOU TAKE TO ENSURE YOURS AND YOUR FAMILY’S SAFETY?

Be aware of your surroundings. Vacant land, a road, railway line or a forest, adjacent to your home, are easy escape routes and access points. Get to know your neighbors. Join the Neighborhood Watch and local Whatsapp groups as well as the Community Policing Forums. Once your neighbors know you well enough, they will pick up on your routines and behaviors. This is helpful; as they will notice strange activity in your home during the times they know you are not at home. It would be prudent to learn from the men and women who have been caught and convicted for robbing South African homes. Focus on the key essentials. Audible alarm with early warning systems such as external beams, motion sensor lights and cameras linked to your armed response company. Clear visibility with live electric or barbed wire fencing that limit ease of access are good additions. Finally, invest in slam lock security gates, strong doors and burglar guards.