Making Your Home Look Unattractive to Burglars
Chubb Personal Insurance

Making Your Home Look Unattractive To Burglars

KEEP YOUR HOME WELL LIT. Both interior and exterior lighting are important to keep intruders at bay. Your home is best protected when there are signs of life and activity inside.

Inside light and appliance timers to turn radios and televisions on and off are inexpensive. Used regularly – whether you are home or out of town – they can be an effective means of ensuring your home looks occupied. These devices are best used when the curtains are drawn, at both the front and back of the home.

Outside lighting that is bright and well placed at doors and along pathways is a significant deterrent to the criminal who doesn’t want to be seen or identified. These lights should be powerful enough to provide 100 foot visibility. Light timers and photo-cells are useful to control outside lights as well. Garage or porch lights left on all day and night is a pretty good indication that you are away. Infra-red motion and heat-motion sensor lights are recommended at the rear of your home.

REDUCE FOLIAGE COVER. Obscured doors and windows are targets for forcible entry. Keep your trees, hedges and bushes trimmed to reduce the amount of cover on your property. Cut shrubs below window level and trim trees away from your house.

Don't assume that upper floor windows are too high for a burglar's reach - check for branches that come close to your house – perhaps an invitation for a second floor entry.

LOCK UP YOUR LADDERS AND TOOLS. Saws, axes, wire cutters, electric drills, hammers and ladders can come in very handy for the thief who didn’t bring his own. The preferred spot to store these items? Right inside the house.

GOING AWAY? GO FOR THE “LIVED-IN” LOOK. (click here for a checklist)