How to Keep Your Home Safe From Robbers

Keep your home locked. Use deadbolt locks on doors for additional resistance to potential home robbers. Lock all windows, gates and patio doors. Make sure you look the garage door as well. Many homeowners leave this door open for convenience and because they believe the robbers can't get into the closed garage; however, if a robber does get into the garage, he can walk right into your home. If you have a sliding door or windows that slide horizontally, insert a bar or stick in the sliders so that potential robbers cannot simply slide the door open. Use "double key" locks on glass doors to prevent robbers from breaking the glass and reaching through to unlock the door. These locks require a key to unlock the door, both from the inside and outside.

Light up your home. Flood lights, outdoor lights and motion sensors can all deter a potential robber. If a burglar approaches your home and is bathed in a spotlight, he is unlikely to continue to linger to try to rob the house.

Install an alarm system. The best alarms are monitored by a service which sends a signal directly to local police or rescue agencies if something is amiss. The alarm should be set to trigger if someone enters the house without disabling it or if a window or glass is shattered.

Turn to your neighbors for help. This can involve setting up a formal neighborhood watch program or asking your neighbors to keep an eye on your house and bring in your mail and papers when you go out of town so the house doesn't look empty. If you set up a neighborhood watch, your whole neighborhood can benefit. Make sure details of the neighborhood watch are well publicized--signs around the neighborhood may help--so the robbers know residents are vigilant.

Keep your bushes and trees trimmed so burglars can't hide in them while they try to get into the house or use them to try to gain access to an upper window. The Winston-Salem Police Department suggests keeping bushes and shrubs near your house three feet or shorter, and making sure the lowest branch on a tree is six feet off the ground so it can't easily be climbed.