Home invasion formerly known as burglary is type of crime that you can do something to prevent. Home invasion falls into two categories burglary and robbery. In my book "Crime Awareness 101" I discuss differences of both and what you can do. In this article I am going to address preventative steps to protect your home from being unlawfully entered. What is home invasion? Home invasion is where someone enters a dwelling with intent to commit a felony, larceny (theft), or assault. In most cases these criminals look for easy opportunities or in other words look for path of least resistance. In fact it is stated that statistically a home invasion criminal will not at most spend more then two minutes attempting to break into a home. By understanding this, your best defense is to create a path of great resistance. Here some suggestions to securing your home.

     Install deadbolt locks. The downside of deadbolt locks is that deadbolt goes into wood jam which makes up doorway. Because most doorway jams are only about three quarters of an inch think, and fact that deadbolt is not long enough to penetrate into stud. A good kick or two and that door is going to fly open splitting door jam. During my time as a Police Officer I had to kick open a few doors and it’s not all that hard to do. The alternative is to get steel jams. The steel jams will not splinter like wood thus making it very difficult to kick in door. I have also had my experiences attempting to kick in a steel jammed door, in which I was unsuccessful. We usually had to use a battering ram, or have Fire Department come and pry door open. This took some time and caused a lot of commotion something a criminal is not going to waste their time doing. Unfortunately installing steel jams on all your exterior doors is a costly proposition. However in researching this article I came across a company that does have an excellent alternative. What they provide is a steel plate called “Strike Master II” it’s about five feet long and easily installs on door jam. It is installed on side of door jam that doorknob and deadbolt secure to. By installing their product you in a sense have just created a steel jam but without any of high cost, or extensive labor. For more information about all their products you can click here.

     Patio doors are another entry way that needs to be secured. Many people do not realize that some patio doors can be lifted up slightly and disengage from their locking mechanism. This is especially true for door walls that are a few years old and jams have expanded. An easy and cheap way to secure a patio door is to put a pole in between patio door end and wall. Place pole on track where patio door slides when opening up. This will prevent door wall from being opened until pole is removed. You can use an old broom stick handle or even a board. You want to cut it to same length as open track area when door wall is closed. To keep door from being lifted up and removed you can install a flat headed metal screw into top of patio door frame one should be about six inches from edge and one in middle. Make sure screw is just above door so that it will not interfere with door sliding open or close. You can also purchase products which have been specially designed for patio door security such as patio door security bars, patio door pins, and patio door locks, etc… You can find these items at your local hardware store. The same thing goes for your windows make sure they are locked and secured same way.