About Your Garage
When a criminal is sneaking around a neighborhood looking for the next home they can victimize, they will usually look for some specific things. They don't want a confrontation with the people living in the house and they don't want to get caught, so they are going to look for an easy place they think they can get into and out of quickly while carrying away items. Garages tend to be the easiest targets. Learn why below and learn what you can do to change this fact about your garage.
The location of your garage is bad for you but can be good for thieves – Most homes are designed with the garage on one side of the home, or even in a way that has them completely detached from the house. A separated garage may seem like an advantage because it keeps you from hearing all the noises going on in it while someone is clanging around in there and because it is situated in a place where you won't have to walk through it to get to the other side of your home. While this sounds great, it also means you won't hear what's happening if a thief is in there moving stuff around. The thief can probably even open the door wide and the distance to the garage will prevent you from noticing.
The garage can be a perfect place to keep some very expensive tools and equipment – Your garage is the obvious spot for you to keep your tools and other equipment, especially if you tend to use those things for projects inside the garage. The problem with this is thieves know most people keep these things in the garage, so if they get inside then they can grab some quality items they can sell for a good amount of cash.
Preventing thieves from knowing what is in your garage can decrease the odds of someone targeting your garage – While there are many reasons you would want to keep your garage door open while you are out there working, such as allowing fumes to escape and allowing in natural light, leaving the door open puts you at more risk. Criminals can drive by and quickly take pictures of your garage, even when you are right there. They can then upload those pictures on a computer and use them to make a shopping list of what they want to take out of your garage. The thieves will even know right where you keep everything. You can prevent this by having a dark screen installed that goes inside of the garage. It spans the length of the garage and has a screen door you can go in and out of. It lets light in and fumes out, while making it hard to see inside the garage from outside of it.
Thieves know they can usually get in without being seen or heard – Since thieves count on the fact that they can sneak in and out without you being alerted, you want to make it as hard as possible for them to accomplish this. Put up motion-activated lights by the doors and windows, have dark curtains that can't be seen through put up, have a locksmith update the locks on all doors, and make sure the garage doors are strong. If it has an emergency lever, have a locksmith show you how to disable this while they are there as well.