Thursday, 11 December 2014
Did you know that your garden is used by burglars as a way of assessing whether they should rob you or not?
They will look around your garden for signs of wealth and if there are items to be stolen.
Even if you have your house set up like Fort Knox there are elements within your garden that can play into a burglars hands. Below we’ll outline what these are and how you can stop them using your garden to their advantage.
Trees and Shrubs
If you have large bushes, shrubs or trees in your garden this can be like a playground to a thief. Some will climb trees at night for a better look or hide behind bushes to see what items you have to steal and learn your behaviours (e.g. what time you go to bed, do you go out regularly on certain nights of the week).
Trees and bushes also provide them cover and places to hide behind as they approach your home during the break-in. We’d highly recommend keeping them well trimmed and not give them any place to hide.
Cut that Grass
If your grass has grown tall and it’s been a while since you gave it a trim this will be a red flag to a burglar. It sends the message to them that you may be away on holiday and the house is unoccupied. We advise you keep on top of your lawn or ask a neighbour to give it a cut if you are away on holiday for a long time.
Fences
It may sound crazy but houses with large fences are often bigger targets for burglaries. A large fence designed to keep people out is seen by some thieves as being in place to protect high value items worth stealing. So despite the fact it makes it harder for a thief they will sometimes think it’s worth the risk. If you have a large fence we’d recommend putting a security light directly onto the fence so it will cast a spotlight on the burglar should they decide to climb over it.
In addition to keeping on top of the above three areas we here at Lock Shop Direct would recommend the following to put off thieves:
- Alarms – make sure your home alarm box is visible (or dummy alarm box is visible) so they can see you have an extra layer of protection.
- Security lights – these are still one of the most effective deterrents and are available for at low prices. A burglar prefers to operate in darkness so counter this by throwing light on them.
- You could even put up a dummy CCTV camera which are available for not much money.
Author: Paul Young
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