If you leave your house to walk your dogs or take your children on a bike ride or walk, no matter how long the walk is, you should always lock your doors behind you. If you don’t, that is a perfect opportunity for someone to sneak in to your house without a forced entry and wait for your arrival or rob you while you are out. It doesn’t take long for someone to enter your home so don’t think a quick walk around the block and nothing can happen. Next time you get home, time yourself and see how long it takes you to get to the door and enter it, unlocked of course.

Never enter your home alone if you think someone has entered illegally. Either call a neighbor you trust, friend or family member to come over and of course dial 911 prior to any of you entering your house. Trusting your gut is huge and you know how you left your home, including any open windows etc. If something is off, don’t enter.

If a stranger rings your bell or knocks on the door and wants to use the phone you can take the number and make the phone call for them. If it is an honest call, they won’t mind at all and if there is any danger to it, they will most likely run. The worst thing you can do is allow them in to your home. Although you will feel bad about making them stay outside, your safety is too important.

Teach your children not to let others come into your home without your permission. Make sure you create a pre-approved list of people who are allowed in to your home and a pre-approved list of when they must contact you first prior to opening the door. The reason for this is because not all parents are as strict or aware as you may be and their kids may not abide by the same safety/precautionary guidelines that your children do. Knowing who is coming in and who your child associates with will give you a big advantage as a parent.

Never let someone in if you feel uneasy about them. Do not feel silly, just make up an excuse i.e. “you know, my husband is in bed and not feeling well at all….” This way you can go back inside and if the person had bad intentions, it may have scared them off and keep them from coming back knowing you have a male living with you. Regardless of why, if you feel the slightest bit uneasy, don’t question it, ask them to come back because now is not a good time.

When opening your front door, use your viewer to see who is outside before you open the door. If you don’t have a viewer, use the window panes to the side of the door and if you don’t have those, use any window in your home that offers a decent view of the front walk area outside your door. As silly as it seems, people are using all types of trickery to get in to someone’s home and you can’t be too careful.

When you are recording your voicemail for your cell phone, use a message like the following “you have reach 407-555-5555, please leave a message after the beep.” If you leave your name, a smart con-man could use that information against you to trick you by acting as if they know you. If you want, leave the automatic voicemail option the cell phone companies provide. This way there is no voice for a stranger to know if man or woman. Although you may love the personalized voicemails, it gives away information to potential aggressors.

If you are at home and feel someone may be inside, there are a few things to think about. Firstly, depending on your home and its layout, you may want to stay where you are so you don’t make noise. Next, you should grab your cell phone and call 911. Then you want to look for any durable object that could inflict damage if you were to strike someone with it. You know your home better then they do, if you decide to move, do your best to get out or place yourself somewhere with multiple exit opportunities. Do not lock yourself into a small place i.e. bathroom, closet. If it is safe to do so and you decide to leave your home, go to your neighbors and call 911 or jump in your car to leave if that is an option.

Do not leave your name on your voicemail/machine if you live alone. I would suggest leaving your phone number on the voicemail/machine instead. You do not want to give out your name to anyone who doesn’t or shouldn’t know it. The people who are close with already know that it is you. For all others, if you gave them your number or if they somehow got it, they can only confirm a phone number and not a person. You do not want people outside of whom you choose to get personal with you, there is no need for it. So if you choose not to leave a message, leave just the computerized voice that comes standards with phones. An added bonus is that if someone randomly got your number they won’t know if it is a female or male due to the computerized voice.

When you leave home while it is dark out, it is a wise thing to leave at least one light on in your home. If you make your home completely dark, then it becomes a prime target for someone to want to enter. They think one of two things; no one is home and I will go in or that everyone is sleeping and I will surprise them. Leaving a light on is smart but one suggestion is to never leave the same light on and or use multiple lights. It will only use up a small amount of electricity and help create the appearance of being home. This will once again draw attention to your home and that is something a criminal does not want. By rotating the lights you leave on it creates the illusion of presence but if the same light is always on then a bad guy may suspect it is a decoy.