There are many areas of your home and your yard that could easily entice a criminal to enter and burglarize your home, your outdoor valuable assets, and your property. However, if you step back for a minute, you can start to analyze the weaknesses of your yard from a criminal’s point of view. Taking into consideration these 3 areas of your property can significantly negate your chances of crime happening within your vicinity or to your belongings.
First, you might not truly understand the importance of your garage and when forgotten, how big of a mistake that could be. Not only is a garage a main entry point into your home and usually contains several valuables, most people fail to regularly lock their back door, the one that gives you access to the house from the garage. Regardless of whether or not your car is parked in the garage with the garage open, or outside of the garage in the driveway, never make the mistake of leaving your garage door opener unattended. Criminals will find any access point and if the garage door opener provides that, they wouldn’t waste a second not having it in their hands (for immediate or future use).
Second, have you ever left a spare key under the mat, in a hide-away key holder, on top of the door threshold, or in another random place? According to the FBI in 2018, almost 37% of burglaries did not occur with forceable entry, meaning a “hiding” spare key could have easily been their way into the home.¹ In addition to things just left out, be careful not to leave any valuables in your yard after a weekend, such as tools or any other valuable outdoor assets.
Lastly, is your air conditioning unit located outside of your house? If it is, is it securely locked in place? Air conditioning units are extremely valuable assets to your home and when located outside, you must take proper precautions to protect crime from occurring to yours. One easy step to take is to place a “cage” over the AC unit and lock it into place. This will make the unit much harder for criminals to remove and take a lot longer to do so.
Becoming aware of these three weak points of your yard and home will help reduce the likelihood of crime occurring. Take proper measures to protect your home, your valuable outdoor assets, and your property.
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