Security in the Suburbs
by Tess Pennington
Ready Nutrition
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by Tess Pennington: Cash
Is Out, Bartering Is King
If you live
in suburbia, security starts from the inside out. Your home should
be a fortress, although not so blatantly that it catches the attention
of casual passers-by, making them wonder, “What’s in there?”
Some simple updates can harden your domicile against intruders.
- Doors
should be sturdy and steel core. The frame around the door
is equally important. Even the strongest door will not hold up
to a determined intruder if it is seated in a flimsy frame. Look
for a sturdy steel door-jam. Always use at least 3 inch screws
to anchor the components of your door and its frame.
- Install
hardware for a door bar. Envision the bars reinforcing doors
in medieval castles or on barns. By installing brackets into studs
on either side of doors to the exterior of the house, you can
have a bar that goes across the door from side to side. The bar
can be a very heavy piece of wood, or it can be iron or another
metal. Unless you are in a high crime neighbourhood, this barricade
would not be necessary under normal situations. However, during
a SHTF scenario, it will make your doors virtually impenetrable
without the aid of a battering ram with a team of burly men behind
it.
- Secure
your windows. Particular attention should be paid to windows
on the ground floor. Install a sturdy piece of wood cut to fit
so that the window cannot be raised from the outside. Consider
coating windows with a shatterproof film. Keep valuables out of
sight from the windows. If your door has a window in it, or if
it has sidelights, a piece of decorative metal grid work can easily
be screwed in over the window, making it impossible for an intruder
to break the window and reach through to unlock the door.
Once you’ve
made the house itself more difficult
to penetrate, concentrate on making it less appealing to criminals.
They do not want to draw attention to themselves and will pass by
homes that look more difficult to access.
- Install
motion lights around the perimeter of your home. If they are
solar-powered they will also work in a SHTF and grid-down scenario.
- Practice
defensive landscaping. Use thorn-bearing
plants around your home to make ground floor windows less
vulnerable to access.
- Install
cameras. Even fake cameras give criminals the feeling they
are “being watched” – just make sure they are the
kind with a light on them.
- Beware
of dog. People who don’t have a furry friend can still
make use of this tactic by posting signs on their property. Criminals
are looking for easy targets – fending off a growling canine
can be dangerous for them and also draws attention to them. Often,
they will choose a different home to rob based on this factor
alone.
- Fence
your yard. Enclosing your entire property with a fence is
a deterrent. Doorbells and cameras can be installed at the gate,
giving you a safer distance from those who come to your home.
This added layer of distance can make a home invasion-style attack
far more difficult to perpetrate. If the top of the fence is “decoratively”
spiked, it serves to make it difficult for someone to jump or
climb the fence.
Read
the rest of the article
May
28, 2012
Tess Pennington
joined the Dallas chapter of the American Red Cross in 1999 Tess
worked as an Armed Forces Emergency Services Center specialist and
is well versed in emergency and disaster management and response.
You can follow her regular updates on Preparedness,
Homesteading,
and a host of other topics at ReadyNutrition.com.
Copyright ©
2012 Ready
Nutrition
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