5 Ways you can Mishandle your Home Security

Whereas home security is your responsibility, neighbourhood security is the responsibility of everyone who lives there. In this case, one lazy neighbour can place multiple homes at risk. Do you want to be kept up to date on the incidents, reports and crime statistics in your neighbourhood? Download the PatrolMan app today, not only is it an amazing neighbourhood watch app, but you’ll also be able to press the SOS button if you’re ever in an emergency situation.

The following are the easiest ways to jeopardize neighbourhood security. Please read and make a resolution not to be “that neighbour” who places everyone else’s home in danger.

1. Leave Garbage Bins Outside

After your garbage has been collected for the week, make every effort to remove it from its place at the curb as soon as possible. Bins left at the curb for an extended period are a good indication that no one is at home. And, of course, burglars read that cue as an invitation to enter.

2. Leave a Security Door Open

Security doors are great for their intended purpose of keeping burglars out and are even useful in warm climates as they can allow for increased ventilation and cooling. Occasionally, there are homes where some don’t bother to lock their security doors when they go to work. Such sends a signal to burglars that no one is home and that there is little attention being paid to security.

3. Leave Gates Open

Just like security doors, gates are sometimes left open. Instead of being closed and secured with a lock, a person who ignores home security often doesn’t pay attention to this neighbourhood security breach, either. A burglar loves an invitation to a side yard or a backyard where he can do his dirty work without being seen by a passer-by on the street.

4. The Lights Are On, But…

You know the rest. Outdoor lights left on all day or even interior lights burning throughout the daylight hours are a good sign that no one is at home and that they might even be away for an extended period of time. Whereas one focused on home and neighbourhood security will place lights on a timer when on vacation, one who is not may just never turn them off at all.

5. Leave Papers Piling Up

Post, sales flyers and pamphlets that are allowed to pile up on a driveway or in your post-box are a hallmark of bad neighbourhood security. Any basic criminal scouting the neighbourhood can see that such a home is an easy mark. And if one home is an easy mark, he usually figures there may be a few others in the immediate vicinity.

You can avoid being a victim of bad neighbourhood security by making sure you don’t make any of these mistakes. Sharing this post with your neighbours may also be the politest way to remind them to cut it out if you find them guilty of even a single one of these. You may even want to share a few of these violations at your next neighbourhood watch meeting in an effort to get your whole community on the same home security page.