With the summer holidays in full swing and lockdown restrictions slowly easing across the country, many Scots are venturing out of their homes to return to the office, head out on day trips, staycations or even holidays abroad. This means our homes will be unattended more than we’ve been used to over the past 18 months, so it is important to ensure your home is safe as we take our first, tentative steps toward freedom.
In November 2020, Scottish security company Boundary recruited someone a bit different, when the company set about hiring a former burglar to join its team. The successful candidate was Luke Harris who, having first broken into his neighbour’s house at the age of 12, spent 14 years as a career burglar, before turning his life around age 26. Now aged 32, he works as a consultant for Boundary assisting with product testing and advice articles, among other tasks. Boundary security consultant, Luke Harris, who gave up a life of crime and is now working to help people keep homes secure, has put the following tips together to help prevent burglaries this summer.
Close windows and blinds
Many people leave their blinds open when they’re away from home to give the illusion their house is occupied. In fact, this isn’t necessarily the best idea when occupants aren’t in the house, as it gives a full view of the valuables you may have in your home, and many thieves are opportunists. This of course extends to checking that all windows are shut and locked when you’re not at home, even in hot weather.
Don’t share your movements on social media
Although it is tempting to share the news of any exciting trips away or days out with friends and family on social media ahead of time, try to avoid posting about it, and only tell those closest to you – the people that you trust. Simply save your picturesque posts for when you get back and don’t shout about the fact your home is, or is about to be, unoccupied.
Neighbourhood watch
If you have a friendly neighbour (or neighbours) you can trust, I’d definitely advise asking them to regularly check in on your home and keep an eye out for you. It could be worth asking them to remove newspapers and post from your doormat (especially if they can be seen through a glass panel) or having them open and shut the curtains. Neighbours are genuinely one of your best defences against burglars, so don’t be afraid to call on them.
It’s time to lockdown
Ensuring you securely lock all access points is another simple way to keep your home safe when you leave your home, so it is vital to double check this. We are spending an increasing amount of time in our gardens due to the warm weather, which means that you may not hear an unwanted visitor entering your home. It’s important to ensure your doors are locked even when you are home to keep yourself and your belongings safe. The first point of call for burglars is to simply try the front door.
Park it up
If you’re not travelling in your car, leave it parked on your driveway or near to your home – this can be a real deterrent for those unwanted visitors scoping out potential targets.
If you’re using your car for your getaway, it’s worth asking a neighbour, friend, or relative that lives nearby to park on your drive. Burglars are constantly scoping houses to see which are empty, so any way you can make them think it is not will help you immeasurably.
Install a home security system
Police data shows that 84% of burglars will avoid homes with visible home security systems so investing in a smart home security system will help you outsmart criminals and deter them from breaking in. Boundary has been developed with the latest, intuitive technology to do exactly that.
You can integrate its state-of-the-art system with your existing smart home devices, and set up clever rules to bamboozle burglars, like play a dog barking or a loud siren on speakers if the alarm goes off or you can link to your smart light bulbs and have lights turn on and off randomly to simulate occupancy when the alarm is set and you’re not at home.
This article was brought to you in association with Boundary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article