Use it or lose it!

This weekend was unusually busy for me, because apart from gardening duties and having a nice time I conducted a home security survey of someone’s house on Saturday morning.

The gentleman I met there had bought the place about 12 months ago and, like all young people with a new place, had lots of ideas about how he was going to improve the home over the next few years.  He had sensibly changed the door locks and cylinders when he moved in and put a new chunky padbolt and padlock on the back gate (There’s an ungated service road to the rear). He’d invited me over to see what else I thought he should do. What a sensible bloke; not so much that he asked me for the advice, but that home security was high up on his list for home improvements! I do wish more people would think this way.

By and large the house was quite well secured. All the windows had locks, all the doors had locks that would meet the insurance company’s requirements, the garden fencing was pretty good and there was a working alarm system. However, the one big disappointment was his admission that he didn’t always lock the windows. In fact I found the majority of the rear windows had been left unlocked as I walked around the house. I see a lot of this during my travels; a good level of potential security that’s not being used.

Why is this? Well, I suppose it’s a combination of busy lives, inconvenience, can’t find the key and probably a lack of routine. Whatever the cause it’s something that we should all think about seriously. Burglary is driven by opportunity and you’d be surprised by how much we could reduce crime if we simply used the security we already have in place.

Use it or lose it is a cliché that is well suited to home security.

Opportunity for crime http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/home-security-assessment/736/opportunity-for-crime/