I hate to kick off the new year with a post like this, but this past Monday, my wife and I had our home broken into and our valuables taken.  The thief managed to strike during the light of day while the two of us were at work and had ample time to rifle through our belongings and make a safe exit.  Naturally, the break-in shook us up.  In fact, as I’m writing this, I have an installer out putting in a new home security system.

So, what can you do to make your home safer?  Here’s a quick - but certainly not complete - list of things to help ward off burglars.

• Consider buying some window alarms.  These little guys are cheap, run on batteries and can get quite loud.  For as crafty as thieves are, they sure can be dumb… so when they hear a loud alarm, they’ll likely bolt.  The downside to the window alarms is that they only go off when the window is raised, so would-be thieves could still break your window, just not unlatch and raise it to gain entry.
• Put some of your household lights on a timer.  Since I get up every morning at 5:30am for work, I typically go to bed around 10pm.  My wife and I usually keep our timers stashed away until we’re about to go on a vacation, but now we’ve got them turning on lights before we get home from work and after we go to bed.  We like to use the multi-setting timers so we can vary the on/off times and make it look more natural.

In closing, I hope a home invasion is something you never have to go through.  Just dealing with the insurance company alone makes me wish I caught the guy in the act so I could just write him a check and be on my way, rather than dealing with the hassles it brought on.