Preventing burglary everyone's responsibility |
| May 6, 2013 |
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By Detective Dave McClelland Boundary County Sheriff’s Office Burglary prevention is everyone’s responsibility. How many times have you seen someone you didn’t know walking or driving down a neighbor’s driveway, and before taking time to perceive their legitimacy, immediately dismissed it, as you had somewhere else to go? Your neighbor may have just been victimized. It could have been your house. We need to look out for our neighbors. I’m not saying call the Sheriff’s Office every time someone unknown drives down a neighbor’s driveway; just take notice. Do the occupants appear to be acting suspiciously? Are they looking around, appearing to be checking for potential witnesses? Is someone getting out of a car and the car drives away and loiters just down the road? Write down license numbers, take cell phone photos, write down descriptors of what you see and date/time mark them. This is the type of information we need to track down the hapless individual who violated your home and property. Another great invention for the prosecution of criminals is game cameras. Not just one, but two or three. Keep the batteries up and every once in awhile, pull the cards and check the photos. You may only catch some nice wildlife photos, but you may just catch someone “casing” your property. By the way, hide the cameras well or that will be the first thing they steal. Even if they haven’t burglarized your house, an identifiable photo is certainly enough for me or another deputy to contact the individual and have them explain why they were on your property. The best defense is a good offense. What I mean by that is make your house and property a “hard target," and don’t help fund someone’s illegitimate habits with your guns and jewelry. A good Neighborhood Watch program is a very effective tool that will raise neighbor awareness and actually brings neighbors closer together through networking. Many burglaries that I investigate see an overwhelming amount of people not writing down and securing serial numbers of their guns, cameras and other valuables. No serial numbers? Make some kind of mark or number that only you know about, somewhere on the item and photograph it along with your other items. Having serial numbers and photographs also makes life easier for the homeowner attempting to put through an insurance claim. Think about how much money you have wrapped up in your valuables. Is thousands of dollars worth of property worth a few hundred dollars in precautions? That’s up to you. But never say, “it can’t happen to me,” because it can, especially as our economy continues to worsen and despite what Washington D.C. tells us. Want to make lifelong friends with a neighbor? Have the information authorities need that puts that “individual” who ripped off your neighbor in prison. Stay safe. |