It's not Hard to Protect Your Family from a Home Invasion
Imagine your family is asleep when you hear a bump in the night. The bump turns into a crash and the alarm ISN’T going off. Your mind is racing and your heart is pounding. How did this happen, you ask? You put the alarm company sign in the yard! Isn’t that supposed to stop break-ins? Did I forget to set the alarm? Where are my kids? Where is the intruder?
Protect your family from a home invasion by instituting a layered home defense strategy: Discipline, Deter, Fortify and Defend.
Discipline
The outermost layer of protecting your home starts with personal discipline for basic behaviors. If you’re going on a great trip, save the pictures until you get back. Also discipline refers to your commitment to arming your alarm system, locking your doors and closing your garage door.
Deter
The most overlooked part of any home defense strategy is one that deters thieves from targeting your home in the first place. If you can demonstrate that your home will be difficult to break into, thieves will move on.
Thieves don’t want to break into a home that is going to be well defended, they want easy targets. A simple deterrent is exterior lighting. Thieves don’t want to be seen so by adding lighting the less of a chance someone will get close to your home.
Fortify
The purpose of fortifying your home is to prevent, or delay, an intruder from entering your home by force. While this may conjure up visions of a home with bars on the windows and a moat with sharks that have lasers, in reality fortifications are much more practical.
Defend
The last layer of home security is the one you don’t want to use and that is to physically defend your family from an intruder. If you are physically defending your home, then all of your other layers have failed. Most people believe this is where they need to start thinking about securing their home. They are wrong.
Many people believe they’ll instantly gain the skills of Chuck Norris to beat up a bad guy in the dark with their hearts pounding out of their ear drums. This isn’t going to happen. TV and movies have lied to you for years. You need to execute a plan that will keep you and your family safe until help arrives.
For more on how to protect your family consider my book Home Defense: The Secure Dad’s Guide. It takes a deep dive into the layered home defense strategy. Plus you’ll find tips for simple ways to make your home more secure.
