Residential “Break-Ins” Are Typically “Crimes Of Opportunity”

• Keep your ears and eyes open for suspicious vehicles and people around your home.
• Do not confront possible suspects.
• Record the license plate numbers and description of suspicious vehicles.
• Record detailed descriptions of occupants of suspicious vehicles.
• Report your concerns and observations immediately to the Police.

• Mark your property with a Trace Identified pen (www.traceidentifiedcom) or a unique identifier. This may discourage theft of valuables and will provide an easy way to identify stolen property.
• Record the contents of your home or cottage (including serial number) on paper or make a video recording and download it to a safe and easily retrieved place that is unlikely to be lost or stolen.
• Consider installing a home security system.
• Do not announce your absence on an answering machine or through social media (e.g. Facebook).
• Check identification of sales and service people. Use the phone number in the phone book or on the website, not a number the person at the door provides.
• Don’t hide keys in secret places. Instead leave a duplicate with a friend or trusted neighbour.
  

• Emergency Services (9-1-1) should be called if there is a crime in progress or an immediate threat to the safety of persons or property.
• If you arrive at your home and suspect there has been a break-in do NOT enter - the criminal may still be inside.
• Go immediately to a neighbour and call the Police.
• Do NOT touch anything or clean up until the Police have inspected for evidence.
• Note the license number of any suspicious vehicle.
• Note the description of any suspicious person(s).
  

• Make sure exterior doors are solid core wood or metal.
• Install a good quality deadbolt lock on the door and a minimum four-hole security strike plate on your door frame. Use screws that are a minimum two inches in length, and longer where possible, so that they penetrate the main (unseen) structure that supports the door frame.
• Secure sliding glass doors with commercially available bars or locks, or put a wooden dowel or broom handle in the door track. Burglars look for sliding glass doors because they are the easiest to open.
• Keep garage and tool shed locked. Don’t give a burglar the resources to break into your home.
• Remove all obstructions in your yard that could conceal a burglar breaking into your house.
• Limit access to out of reach windows, lower roofs, second story windows and balconies. Lock up ladders and other objects that can be used as platforms whenever possible. Watch for large, overhanging tree limbs that may provide a means of access.
• Ask a trusted neighbour to use your driveway or parking space when leaving the house for extended periods. If you are away, make sure that your residence looks like it is occupied. Have the sidewalks shoveled, mail collected, grass cut etc. Set the lights to come on and off at different intervals.
• Make “would-be” thieves visible, install motion lights or leave an exterior light on to illuminate entranceways and rear yards.

Since most residential break and enters happen during the day time when the homeowner is not home, it is important to realize that there is little chance of you encountering a burglar provided you do not do anything to hide the fact that you are home if someone knocks on your door. It is therefore important that you respond to all door knocks by speaking through a locked door unless you recognize the person. This includes training your children to safely respond to the door knock by having them let you know that someone is there or speaking through a locked door advising the person that you are busy.