12 Easy Ways to Protect Your Home From Intruders
Even though burglary rates have been steadily declining in recent years ( down 26% between 2019 and 2023 ), many of us still fear being robbed or having our home invaded.
Alarm systems and other high-tech security features are indeed effective—a study once found that 83% of criminals check for an alarm before choosing a home to burglarize—but they don’t actually stop someone from breaking into your home. If you want to keep a determined criminal out in the first place, you don’t have to spend a fortune turning your home into some kind of smart fortress—there are plenty of cheap, low-tech measures that will make it harder for criminals to break into your safe space.
Guard the garage
If your home has a garage with an automatic door, it almost certainly has a manual release mechanism that allows you to open the door from the inside during a power outage or malfunction. This is an important security feature, but it can also be a vulnerability. As this video shows, a patient and skilled thief can fish out this manual release, open the garage door, and gain access to your home.
Providing a manual release is a simple way to make this much more difficult. There are two low-tech ways to do this:
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Install a garage shield. A garage shield is simply a barrier that is installed between the manual release and the door, and it simply (and effectively) prevents a coat hanger or other fishing tool from finding the manual release. You can make one yourself out of a piece of plywood if you are handy enough.
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Secure the tie wrap. Most manual garage door openers can be held closed by simply threading a small tie wrap through the release . The tie wrap should be strong enough to withstand the relatively light pull of a fishing line, but not strong enough to withstand a strong tug on the opener cord. You may want to test this a few times to make sure you can easily break the tie wrap—the worst time to find out your manual release isn’t working is during an active emergency.
Another thing you should do to secure your garage? Use a key fob instead of one that is attached to your car’s visor or in the glove compartment. Having a garage key fob in your car is convenient for you and criminals because they can break into your car to gain access to the key fob and then enter your home. If the garage key fob is attached to your keys, it stays with you at all times, eliminating that vector of intrusion.
Strengthen doors and windows
The most vulnerable areas of any home are the places where entry of any kind is possible—your doors and windows. Locks can be picked and glass can be broken, but a few simple, low-tech additions can greatly increase their resistance to intrusion:
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Reinforce door frames. One of the most effective ways to break into a locked door is to simply kick it in or pry the frame open with a crowbar. Reinforcing the door frame with a simple set of hardware makes it much more difficult for thieves to break in.
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Use tamper-resistant screws. If your door has any visible screws, replace them with tamper-resistant screws to prevent thieves from simply removing part or all of the door frame to gain access.
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Add extra window locks. The locks that come with standard sliding windows are good, but not completely invincible — plus, they’re either hooked or not, meaning your window is either locked or not. A hinged wedge lock can be positioned so that the window opens enough to let some air into the room, but not so far open that it allows entry, and can be swung open enough for normal use.
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Consider foot locks and sliding locks. If you have sliding doors that open onto a patio or backyard, or sliding windows instead of roll-up windows, adding locks along the track is an easy way to strengthen them. It’s relatively easy to slide sliding doors off the track to bypass standard locking mechanisms, so a foot lock on a set of sliding patio doors or an adjustable security bar on a set of sliding windows will make a break-in much more difficult.
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Secure your air conditioners. If you have window air conditioners in your home, it’s almost impossible for thieves to slip them through the window itself to get in. You can (and should!) secure the air conditioner to the window frame and add window locks to ensure that the sash can’t be moved from the outside.
Landscape design
Some simple landscaping and gardening solutions can make it much more difficult for burglars to get inside:
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Keep entrances visible to prevent thieves from breaking your locks without your knowledge.
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Trim your trees so that no one can climb into your windows.
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Surround your windows with thorny, diseased plants.
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Do not attach lattice or other surrogate ladders to walls.
And if you have a dog or a security system, installing a simple warning sign can be the first deterrent that will keep thieves from approaching your home at all.
Get a dog
Studies have shown that owning a dog reduces crime in a number of ways. A dog can be a deterrent and may even scare off someone who is successful in breaking in. And owning a dog in a neighborhood increases foot traffic and strengthens bonds between neighbors, making it more likely that someone will notice an attempted break-in and/or alert you to any suspicious activity they may see. So yes, getting a puppy will help keep people away from your home.