Strengthening Your Home Security After a Burglary

You just arrived home, but you immediately notice that something is off. The door is kicked in, or the window is shattered. Upon entering the room you find your house in utter chaos: the drawers have been emptied, all the books are thrown to the ground and any valuable jewelry and electronics have gone missing. The sad truth is obvious: your home was burglarized. Hopefully you never have to experience this in real life, but you should still know the follow-up steps on how to bring your life back to track, as well as strengthening your defenses.

Recovering your money and lost items

According to studies, home invasions are committed by criminals who live nearby. This also means that your stolen stuff probably lands at local pawn shops or on the black market. After a few days, visit some local pawn stores and take a good long look at the wares. With any luck, you’ll be able to recover some of your family heirloom.

Electronics, such as tablets and smartphones, are fitted with a feature or app that allows remote activation of the GPS tracker, effectively signaling its position to you. Last but not least, don’t forget to call your insurance company. With their payout, you can rebuy most of the common household items you’ve lost. Be sure to notify them within 24 hours of the robbery, and have all the necessary paperwork (including the police reports with the estimated value of lost items). The company will probably send over an adjuster. In this case cease the cleanup, since the adjuster must also witness the situation in its unchanged state.

Reinforcing your security

Being able to restore your home is one thing, but you must assure that it won’t become the target of burglars again. This of course involves raising the level of your home’s security. Install a home security system. If you already have one, then upgrade it by adding extra alarms and sensors, plus a surveillance system.

Professional monitoring is often disliked because of the hefty monthly fee, but the security monitoring team’s help is invaluable during a home invasion. The monitoring agent not only acts on your behalf when it comes to responding to the attack, but they contact the police should a burglary take place, forward the surveillance footage to the dispatched officers (so they can catch the fleeing criminals on the screen), or even try intimidating the burglars mid-action by shouting at them through the home station’s two-way audio system.