A burglar will not just wake up one morning and hit your home. They are extremely resourceful and methodical, and will always carry out a recon before performing their final strike. As a smart homeowner, it is imperative to recognize a burglar’s tactics, so that you can immediately tell whether somebody is already targeting your home. Though the methods they employ are diverse, here are some of the common warning signs, which may alert you to their ill motives:
The fake service provider
Burglars may familiarize themselves with your property by pretending to be service providers. In most cases, they will approach you and introduce themselves as carpet cleaners, delivery men, landscapers, or painters who are roaming the neighborhood in search of clients. If you are not expecting a service call, don’t allow such strangers onto your property. They are simply scouting for potential targets.
Maintenance Check Guys
Similar to a fake service provider, fake maintenance check guys will want to access your home with the pretext offering maintenance services for your appliances, plumbing works, and HVAC amongst other vital home services. What they will be essentially doing is to survey your home for valuables and possibly create a discrete opening they could use later on to access your home. Again, if you never called for maintenance services to your home, never allow such intruders to access your home.
New Guys looking for direction
This is another common trick used by strangers to survey your home. They will approach your home pretending that they are new in the neighborhood and will request directions to certain places within the area. They may appear so convincing and you may be tempted to actually direct them to the destination they claim to be seeking out.
However, this is a tactic you should never fall for. Their counterparts will not be far away, and the moment you leave your home and lead them to the destination they say they are looking for, their friends will strike. In this day and age, there are high tech ways to discover such places, and so no one should ever be able to use this trick on you.