Home invasion formerly known as burglary is the type of crime that you can do something to prevent. Home invasion falls into two categories burglary and robbery. In my book “Crime Awareness 101″ I discuss the differences of both and what you can do. In this article I am going to address preventative steps to protect your home from being unlawfully entered. What is home invasion? Home invasion is where someone enters a dwelling with the intent to commit a felony, larceny (theft), or assault. In most cases these criminals look for easy opportunities or in other words look for the path of least resistance. In fact it is stated that statistically a home invasion criminal will not at the most spend more then two minutes attempting to break into a home. By understanding this, your best defense is to create a path of great resistance. Here some suggestions to securing your home.

Install deadbolt locks. The downside of deadbolt locks is that the deadbolt goes into the wood jam which makes up the doorway. Because most doorway jams are only about three quarters of an inch think, and the fact that the deadbolt is not long enough to penetrate into the stud. A good kick or two and that door is going to fly open splitting the door jam. During my time as a Police Officer I had to kick open a few doors and it’s not all that hard to do. The alternative is to get steel jams. The steel jams will not splinter like wood thus making it very difficult to kick in the door. I have also had my experiences attempting to kick in a steel jammed door, in which I was unsuccessful. We usually had to use a battering ram, or have the Fire Department come and pry the door open. This took some time and caused a lot of commotion something a criminal is not going to waste their time doing. Unfortunately installing steel jams on all your exterior doors is a costly proposition. However in researching this article I came across a company that does have an excellent alternative. What they provide is a steel plate called “Strike Master II” it’s about five feet long and easily installs on the door jam. It is installed on the side of the door jam that the doorknob and deadbolt secure to. By installing their product you in a sense have just created a steel jam but without any of the high cost, or extensive labor. For more information about all their products you can go here http://www.asafehome.net

Patio doors are another entry way that needs to be secured. Many people do not realize that some patio doors can be lifted up slightly and disengage from their locking mechanism. This is especially true for door walls that are a few years old and the jams have expanded. An easy and cheap way to secure a patio door is to put a pole in between the patio door end and the wall. Place the pole on the track where the patio door slides when opening up. This will prevent the door wall from being opened until the pole is removed. You can use an old broom stick handle or even a board. You want to cut it to the same length as the open track area when the door wall is closed. To keep the door from being lifted up and removed you can install a flat headed metal screw into the top of the patio door frame one should be about six inches from the edge and one in the middle. Make sure the screw is just above the door so that it will not interfere with the door sliding open or close. You can also purchase products which have been specially designed for patio door security such as patio door security bars, patio door pins, and patio door locks, etc… You can find these items at your local hardware store. The same thing goes for your windows make sure they are locked and secured the same way.

Note: be careful when you are installing anything which requires you to drill into your patio door frame you could result in damaging the door, or breaking the glass. If you are not that handy I would recommend you hire a contractor to do the work for you.

Lighting is an excellent deterrent to criminal activity at night. I recommend if possible installing outside lighting on motion detectors. That way the lights will go on when motion is detected. Many times they will detect small animals or some other thing and go on. Just because they go on doesn’t necessarily mean there is someone there. But having them go on is a good deterrent if someone was. Like stated above thieves don’t want to make a scene, and they surely do not want a light shining on them. If possible, it is suggested that you install flood lights on each of the four corners of you home. That way you could have perimeter lighting with motion detectors watching all sides of your home. When purchasing a motion detector spend the extra few dollars and get one of good quality.

Home alarm systems are also becoming popular and are a good deterrent. If you get just an audible alarm that will help, but I recommend that if you are getting an alarm system, get one that has a service that monitors your home and will contact the proper authorities when the alarm goes off. If someone does enter your home you want the police to be notified as quickly as possible. Also make sure your alarm company knows which police department to contact for your jurisdiction. We had numerous calls for police service from alarm companies whose customer’s residence was outside of our jurisdiction, this caused unnecessary delays in police response. If you do get an alarm make sure to put the notification stickers on the doors that state “This home is protected by…” A would be criminal might see those stickers and look for a house that isn’t alarmed.

When going on vacation I recommend you have a friend of family member (someone trustworthy) to stay in your home while you are gone. If that is not possible have a neighbor, friend, or family member keep an eye on your home and come by daily to take in the mail and any newspapers you have delivered. They should also do a daily walk around the house and check to make sure all windows and doors are secure. We have had people go away for a couple weeks only to come back and find there home broken into. Later it was determined that their home was broken into only a couple days after they left. The rest of the time it sat wide open to the elements of weather, and possibly another thief.

The best way to turn your home into a fortress is to carefully and strategically consider all your options. First you need to make a layout of your property and look at an aerial diagram of your home. Then you will need an aerial of the neighborhood, you can go to Google maps for this. Aerials pictures can provide you with possible escape routes of burglars. Drainage ditches, side roads, school playgrounds and wooded areas. You can also get an idea of every possible way the burglars might try to park a moving van without being seen or without being noticed. Often burglars look for areas where they can park a van or pick-up undetected for hours while they load up your prize possessions.

Some people believe they are safer when there is more shrubbery and such, but in fact it could make things much worse. Having a wall or a gate is great but not if the bad guys have the gate code and know when you are away. A simple slip of the tongue to landscaper to an employee who tells a friend at the all-night bar and pool hall could mean disaster to your personal belongings. For instance the landscape owner tells his employees to skip the Johnson’s Residence for the next two-weeks so come in later on Wednesday this week and next week. Then the employee talking to friends on Tuesday night at the pool hall tells his friends he can stay out all night because he doesn’t work early on Wednesday. The Johnson’s are away and then he goes on to tell his buddies what an incredible house, yard and garage you have? He mentions the back gate, perhaps gives the code perhaps not? Then his buddies or acquaintance gets with some friends and has two-weeks to plan the break in and take all your stuff, load it up, undetected. You see the problem.

So how can you make your home into a fortress to protect your family while you are home and to protect your stuff when you are away? First you need a top-notch alarm system covering all obvious entries and a motion alarm for inside the house, which goes to an alarm company. Watch out some burglaries are inside jobs from the security company itself. Sometimes it is best to have two sets of alarms, think of triple redundancy? Resetting the gate codes when you are away is also smart. If your houses catches on fire the fire department will ram the gate, but no one will have free access to your property.

Big guns are nice too. We are not talking anything illegal but you should have a very powerful set of weapons to kill encroachers who might also be armed. Figure out where in advance the bad guys might seek refuge once they get close to the house and try to enter. Be sure to shoot to kill with each shot. Gun safety is using two-hands. Think on this.

Home security is more important today than ever. You may have even considered Kevlar Sheets for your home or car. They are available and there are some companies who specialize in these things. The military uses them in Humvees and other vehicles. In the Vietnam War the spotter planes and helicopter pilots would put bullet-proof vests on the floor boards since the AK-47 rounds would come up thru the aluminum and kill pilots. Without getting too dramatic you might wish to employ the same strategy in your home.

Carbon Kevlar sheeting can be placed in walls in certain safe rooms to protect you and your family. You can put them in the ceiling so when Cinco de Mayo comes around and everyone is firing guns into the air no stray bullets will come thru your roof and kill you while you sleep; like you can sleep anyway with a bunch of drunken, mariachi playing, pinata cracking, loud yelling folks are having an all-night party anyway? Don’t laugh you know what I am saying here. If you have a two-story you might wish to put them in the floor boards in kids rooms; perhaps in the walls of the master bedroom. You can purchase these sheets on the Internet; here is one company we found:

http://www.geminicomposites.com/products/kevlarsheet.html

Another major important thing to have is a good alarm system, one which you can rely on to give you those precious moments you need to get the family into a safe protected room and for you to lock and load and go hunt yourself down some soon to be dead burglars. Think about home safety, alarms, Kevlar and a good weapon to take out the evil do’ers who have invaded your family’s domain.