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]]>These feelings will often lead to a person yelling out or some other action that leads to a confrontation. This is not a good idea, even if you think you’re Charles Bronson from the Death Wish movies and capable of dealing out some vigilante justice to the criminal that just wronged you. We must remember that none of our possessions are worth getting hurt or killed over. Your first thoughts, even if you have to override the urge to go in and stop the thief or thieves and save your belongings, should be of keeping yourself and your loved ones safe. A confrontation with the intruder could mean you are between him and his only escape. That could force him into upping the ante and committing violence. You do not want to be an obstacle to the intruder’s survival and freedom. This can turn into a very dangerous situation if the intruder is armed, desperate, or violent.
A much wiser and safer course of action is to go as quickly and quietly as possible to a neighbor’s house and call the police. Then call the neighbor on the other side of your house and enlist them in helping you watch your house from a safe place while you await the police. This also illustrates why it is important to know your neighbors. Looking out for each other, and having a safe place to go in an emergency is important.
If you don’t have a neighbor’s house you can go to quickly and safely, get back in your car and go somewhere safe. If you rode your bike home or walked, do the same, leave and get somewhere safe to call the police.
Here are some general things to tell the police when reporting a crime. This is information they want to know:
When reporting a burglar or intruder, you will want to give who you are, the address where the intruder is, where you are, information you know such as how many inside, if still inside, strange car outside, etc. If you don’t know if the intruder is still inside or not, tell the police that and you will still wait until they have cleared the house before going home and inside. Never go inside to look around and see if the intruder is still inside yourself. That goes back to the above where your possessions are not worth getting hurt or killed over and you don’t want to force a confrontation.
Hopefully you will never return home to such a situation, but if you do, remember this advice and stay safe.
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]]>The Survive and Defend membership pages will contain a lot of information on fortifying and defending your home. For purposes of this blog, I will provide a few tips on what I mean by layers of deterrence.
Layer One: External Deterrents. This is your first layer with the goal of stopping an attack before it even begins. Cut of the possibility of something happening to you, your family or home. External deterrents include: fences, motion detecting lighting, security system signage and decals in window, beware of dog signs, bushes and other things away from windows (unless thick with thorns), remove anything outside that could aid a criminal, actually having a dog in the yard and not just a sign.
Layer Two: Fortify Your Home. For this second layer, think like a criminal and look for ways you would break into your home. Strengthen the weak points you find. Reinforce doors and windows (all entry points to your home). Make sure you have quality locks and use them.
Layer Three: Security Systems. This level includes professionally installed monitoring systems, but also includes anything else you use to monitor for a breach in your home. The key here is to be warned so a criminal doesn’t surprise you. Items may include: professional security system, breakage alarms on windows, battery powered alarms (in case your power is shut off first), door stop alarms, etc.
Layer Four: Home Layout. If you can control a criminal’s movement once he has gained entry into your home, it can provide you extra time which is crucial. Furniture placement can do this, as can decoy valuables to lead a person to a certain part of your home. One strategy is to have it so a criminal will be attracted to, or forced to, move into a location that provides you the advantage to attack back and stop him. This is obviously for those circumstances where escaping to safety is not an option.
Layer Five: Safe Room. The safe room is a place where you and your family can immediately get to in case of a home invasion. It can be fortified to the extent your circumstances, location and budget allow. The layer four above may be designed to funnel a criminal the opposite direction you and your family are going to reach your safe room. This site will have much more information on safe rooms in the future.
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