Your outdoor lights
At night, a burglar’s best friend is a dark home, according to Nationwide’s research. Fortunately, deterring criminals banking on the cover of darkness may be as simple as turning on your outdoor lights at night. Not a fan of wasting all that electricity? Go with motion-activated floodlights, especially in your backyard or dark corners of your home, Paulsen says.
Your mailbox
It takes two minutes online or on the phone to put a hold on your mail while you’re gone and subvert the number one signal burglars look for: an overflowing porch or mailbox.
Your dog
Dog owners, you’re in luck: A survey of 86 convicted thieves found that a “large sounding” dog is the single greatest deterrent to robbing your house, Paulsen says. And that goes for small, noisy dogs as well as larger, threatening-looking ones. If you can’t or don’t want to have a dog, you can buy a dog barking machine and set it to respond the doorbell or knocks or put it on a motion sensor, he advises. “Even a ‘beware of Rottweiler’ sign in your front window can help,” he adds.
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Source: RD.com
