Your home is your castle, but with burglars using more and more innovative methods, how do you protect it?
According to Statista, England and Wales saw more than 267,000 burglaries in 2021, so it's more important than ever to ensure you're doing everything you can to defend your belongings.
Here's a number of tips and tricks experts recommend to prevent criminals breaking into your home and stealing your valuables.
Protect your (keyless entry) car
Security expert Robin Knox told The Sun: "Keyless entry cars emit a signal that unlocks the vehicle when you are in a certain range and doesn’t need a key to start the ignition," he says.
"All that criminals need to do is stand by your letterbox and essentially record that signal - by taking a snapshot of the code – which they then play back to get into your car."
Getting an RFID blocking case stop the signal from your key being sent out, can help mitigate this security weakness, Robin said.
Use two front door locks
Michael Fraser, an ex-burglar and now security guru, told The Sun:
“If you have just got one lock on your door it’s a guaranteed entrance point for the burglar because that cylinder isn't actually a lock, it just holds the door in place.
Ben Birchall
"You should have two locks on your front door and always use the second lock, burglars can lean on your front door and if it moves more than two millimetres they know the second lock is not engaged so they can easily break in."
Avoid giving virtual tours when selling your house
Michael Fraser also advised against giving virtual tours when looking to sell your property. Post-Covid, estate agents often encourage this method as for many prospective buyers it's more convenient. However Michael says agreeing to this is a mistake.
"It’s such an easy crime to commit because you can look inside a property online by using the virtual tour, it’s basically like online shopping for criminals," he explains.
"You can see the layout of someone’s home, if they have alarms in their rooms and most importantly the types of items they could steal."
Be careful what you leave lying around
Security expert Robin Knox says objects lying outside your property can be commandeered by criminals to break in.
"If you’re caught carrying tools to break into someone’s home you are classed as going equipped and that’s an offence, so most clever burglars won’t do that."
"Instead they will use stuff left around your house like ladders in your back garden or your wheelie bin to gain access to break a window or they may break into your shed to look for tools.
"They may also use a heavy item like a big plant pot to break in too or if you have a pile of bricks it’s worth clearing them up as you’re essentially providing someone with the key to your house."
Rubbish and recycling bins line a street in Sunningdale, Berkshire.
Steve Parsons