It’s not the most common event in the world, by any means, but home invasions do happen. Although home invaders typically target material wealth and are most likely to do it when you’re not home, there is always the potential threat to your safety that you want to keep in mind. As such, securing the home can be a matter of protecting yourself and your family. What is the best approach to handling a home invasion threat?
Securing your home and belongings
First of all, the single best way to prevent home invasions is to deter those who would try to do it in the first place. This is the primary role of home security technologies. Aside from securing your home with gates, strong windows, and doors, you should also look at installations such as security cameras and automatic lights that can make your home a much less attractive target. Alarm systems can do much the same thing, but you may want to invest in one that also automatically gets in touch with either a security team or local law enforcement. Alarms are too easy for people to ignore, alone, so if you’re not at home, you want to make sure that someone is giving the appropriate response.
Physically protecting your home
If you’re able to, it’s often recommended that you avoid confronting home intruders. However, if you believe that you or your family might be at risk, then that may not be an option. In that case, having the right equipment, such as self defense weapons, at hand might be a good idea. You want to keep them somewhere safe and nearby, but make sure that they are well out of reach of any children. If you do get a self-defense weapon of any kind, you should make sure that you have some training with it, as well. You don’t want to be fumbling with it, or unaware of how to properly use it when the time comes.
A good relationship with your neighbors
There are reasons that humans are social animals. Not only has collaborating historically allowed us to share labor and contribute towards each other’s survival, but we are much less vulnerable when we are not alone, as well. One of the best reasons to get to know your neighbors is so that they can recognize you, and also, recognize when it’s not you in your garden or hanging out around your home. A good neighbor might pick up on sketchy behavior and either inform you or get in touch with the police. What’s more, getting to know your neighbors makes you much more likely to recognize them. As such, in the even more unlikely event that your home is targeted by someone in your area, you will be able to identify them.
It’s important to remember that home invasions are not a particularly common form of crime. The steps above can help you be ready in the event of one, but you shouldn’t be staying up at night, paranoid, and waiting for someone to test out how good your home security is.
