The majority of housebreakers target expensive items that are easy to transport and sell with a minimum of hassle. They also want to get in and out quickly, which is why most house burglaries last less than 10 minutes. With all of this in mind, the focus is on securing easily moveable items of high value.

We all want to avoid burglaries in the first place, which is why having a strong deterrent is essential. Professional burglars often acknowledge that witnessing a functional alarm system is one of the most important factors in altering their minds about which properties to target.

Opportunist burglars, however, are either too rash, desperate, or just plain foolish and may attempt a break-in but making rookie errors, either leaving their DNA all over the crime scene or even vandalising properties with their own names.

Even if you have a very secure house, it’s a good idea to take extra steps to keep your most expensive objects safe by properly protecting them with additional measures.

According to Scottish recorded crime statistics, there were a little over 15,000 reported thefts by housebreaking in 2017-8.

Among the most popular items with housebreakers were:

High value goods

Anyone who has ever gone on vacation and stayed at a hotel would have seen a safe in their room, which is usually concealed within a cabinet. People seldom install safes in their own homes, maybe because they feel they must be hidden behind a painting, as in films, or that they must be a massive heavy metal cabinet that will take over the room. This is a mistake. A compact safe can be purchased fairly cheaply and can be mounted or concealed in a range of locations about the home. The cost of a typical home safe is far less than the cost of replacing stolen valuables or even the excess on a home insurance claim.

A small safe can easily hold a few high-value items that are only used occasionally, such as expensive jewellery, purses or cash that you don’t carry with you every day, and passports or other valuable documents that a cunning thief – and there are some – could use to steal your identity or raid your bank accounts.

One of the things that burglary victims often note is the turmoil that follows the break-in. Documents and personal items are thrown around, frequently as a decoy to make it more difficult to figure out what has been taken. Replacing passports, driver’s licences, title deeds, and education certificates is a nightmare that may take months or even years. Identity theft is a growing problem and your private details can be sold online to fraudsters following a break-in where personal papers are taken so securing these properly in addition to “normal” possessions is an important element of modern home security.

It’s crucial to note that a safe must be properly anchored to a wall or floor in order to prevent it from being removed without being opened. It’s also preferable to keep it hidden so that intruders seeking to break in and out quickly don’t notice it.

Daily use items

While safes are useful for certain objects, items that you use on a daily basis or that are big create a different difficulty. It’s pointless to promise yourself that you’ll put your laptop, wallet, vehicle keys, phone, and purse in the safe every time you go to bed or leave the house.

That isn’t to say you can’t do anything to protect these. A laptop can be attached and locked to a desk via a dedicated strong steel security cable. Additional goods in your pocket, such as smartphones and wallets, may be stored in a locked drawer, perhaps in the living room or kitchen, and you can get into the habit of placing them there when you come in—the other benefit being that you’ll know where they are when you leave.

Car and house keys are daily carry items that you don’t ever want stolen. You should never leave vehicle keys or home keys in the hallway. Burglars may use fishing rods or hooked lines to grab keys on a hall table through a letterbox. Installing a letterbox cover or grille is one option to prevent this, but keeping your keys out of sight in another room, such as the kitchen and preferably in a locked key safe, is a preferable option.

Install a quality home alarm system

If you’re in the market for intruder alarms in Glasgow, call Ultimate Alarms today to get the best system for your house or flat. We fit only high quality Pyronix systems offering state-of-the-art security for your home with a wide range of customisable options (including remote monitoring) to suit your needs.