Eastside Defender

Since we’ve seen several stories of daytime burglaries bubble to the top of local crime news, I thought I would offer a couple of burglary prevention links. It's advice most have heard before. More than once. Maybe this will inspire someone—even me—to take one more step toward making Northeast a “hard target” for these criminals.

First, the Minneapolis Police Department has a large library of crime prevention tips. From Minimum Home Security (pdf):

• Permanently secure basement and garage windows with bars, grillwork, glass block, etc. (NOTE: City ordinance prohibits permanently closing windows in any room used for sleeping.)
• Secure overhead garage doors with electric openers, hasps with padlocks or padlocks in door tracks. Change opener code from standard setting.
• Cover garage windows and use blinds and/or curtains for home windows so people cannot see in, especially at night.
• Lock your doors and windows at all times. Do not leave windows open unless locked or pinned with maximum window opening of six inches.
• Use light timers to make home look occupied when away.
• Eliminate easy opportunities for theft from your yard. Secure grills, bikes, tools and furniture.
• Join or start a block club and watch out for each other.
• Model good security habits, teaching them to your children.

Even inside my garage, I keep my bike locked. If a quick-strike opportunist burglar gets in (sometimes I forget to lock the garage), at least I will not offer him an easy getaway.

In the daytime, when lights don’t matter, you can put a radio or TV on a timer.

MPD’s Home Security Habits Checklist (pdf) asks:

• Do you lock your doors when you leave the house for even a few minutes?
• Do you leave a radio, TV, etc., on when your home is not occupied at night or during the day?
• Do you keep valuables such as bicycles and lawn equipment locked up and out of sight?
• Do you keep shrubbery and bushes well trimmed?
• If you have a fence, can your neighbors see through it or over it?

Yes, you see, I have heard these before. It took losing a bike when I forgot to lock the garage, and on another occasion, catching a notorious NE bad guy shuffling through my yard, to finally take more steps.

Last year, somebody broke the cheap locking doorknob—which I had been meaning to upgrade—to get inside my garage. They got away with only the 37¢ I had in the car. But they broke my glovebox—$200, which I still haven’t fixed—to find there was nothing in it. Now the garage has a proper deadbolt.

And, in case you're tired of hearing it from the cops and the NECP, here’s a bit from a private security consultant based in Los Angeles, The Crime Doctor:

To avoid becoming a burglary victim, it is important to first gain an understanding of who commits them and why.

The majority of home and apartment burglaries occur during the daytime when most people are away at work or school. … Burglaries are committed most often by young males under 25 years of age looking for items that are small, expensive, and can easily be converted to cash. Favorite items are cash, jewelry, guns, watches, laptop computers, VCRs, video players, CDs and other small electronic devices are high on the list. Quick cash is needed for living expenses and drugs. Statistics tell us that 70% of the burglars use some amount force to enter a dwelling, but their preference is to gain easy access through an open door or window. Ordinary household tools like screwdrivers, channel-lock pliers, small pry bars, and small hammers are most often used by burglars. Burglars continue to flourish because police can only clear about 13% of all reported burglaries and rarely catch the thief in the act.

Although home burglaries may seem random in occurrence, they actually involve a selection process. The burglar's selection process is simple. Choose an unoccupied home with the easiest access, the greatest amount of cover, and with the best escape routes.

He then lists the same common-sense stuff, but with more detail about how and why to implement each. And, yes, as an LA guy, The Crime Doctor has consulted on your favorite crime TV show.