- Never leave a house key available: under a doormat, in a flower pot, on the ledge of the door. These are the first places a burglar will look.
- Sliding doors and windows should all have "ventilation" locks as well as auxiliary locks to bolster security.
- Be sure to include good locks for garage, patio or other doors that lead out through storage areas or a spare room.
- For more information on locks, contact your local law enforcement agency.
- Use timers so that lights, radio, T.V., go on and off throughout the house to indicate someone is home.
- For longer trips be sure to stop mail and newspaper delivery or have a neighbor collect them daily.
- IN SHORT - MAKE YOUR HOME LOOK "LIVED IN".
Remember, if you come home and see a broken window or a jimmied door, don't go in. Confronting a burglar can be dangerous. Phone the police immediately.
- Consider alarm systems or trained security dogs for additional protection.
- Whenever you move to a new home, have the locks changed.
- Post Operation I.D. stickers in your doors and windows to warn housebreakers to stay away.
- Burglars don't want marked merchandise. It's difficult to fence and evidence of guilt if they are caught.
- So mark your items as conspicuously as possible without defacing them.
- Photograph those items that cannot be engraved (jewelry, silverware, antiques).
- Operation I.D. also facilitates the return of stolen property when it is recovered.
- Law enforcement officers can't be everywhere at once, but you and your neighbors can. You're the ones who really know what's going on in the neighborhood.
- Put that neighborhood know-how to work. It's simple: just use your eyes and ears and then your telephone. If you spot something suspicious, call the police.
- Don't try to stop a criminal yourself - it can be dangerous.
- Neighbors working together in cooperation with law enforcement make one of the best crime fighting teams around.