CAPS Says Burglaries Up 375 Per Cent

CAPS Beat 2411 reports that in their beat they "jumped to 15 burglaries. In 2006 we had 4." It's not clear if the email's author, Mr. Morris, means that there were 4 burglaries in his beat in February 2006 or for all of 2006; the wording of his memo is ambiguous. Here is the full e-mail. I added all hyperlinks. There are two glaring omissions on this otherwise good list of common sense tips: 1) The word "alarm" does not appear on this list. Get a good burglar alarm system. It could wake you up in time to make proper use of... 2) A gun. Seriously, comrades, any serious robber could overcome most or all of the items on the list. If and when your home is invaded, that night table friend could prove handy. To: CAPS2411@yahoogroups.com From: "Henry M Morris" Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:19:49 -0000 Subject: [CAPS2411] Burglaries jump 375% in Feb. Is your house safe? In February, we jumped to 15 Burglaries. In 2006 we had 4. This is quite a difference. Thanks to Rich Concaildi, who was kind enough to bring a multipage "Burglary Prevention Checklist For Homes" to the CAPS meeting Tuesday. The original used a lot of empty space and filled several pages. I've retyped it here with all the excess space removed and some wording clarified. This is a really good checklist. If you follow it, you'll find all sorts of things you should consider fixing to make your home safer; many are things you might not have thought of. Even if you have all the proper considerations covered, it's not a bad idea to rethink your home's security every once in a while. Warm weather sees a rise in home burglaries. This is the right time to consider your house's shortcomings and fix them. I hope you'll print this out and take a serious look at how your home matches up with the list. Hank Start with the outside doors on your house and garage: 1. Are all of the outside doors made of metal or solid wood construction? 2. Are the door frames strong enough and tight enough to prevent forcing or spreading? 3. Are the door hinges inside, and thus protected from removal from the outside? 4. Are there windows in any door or within 40 inches of the locks? 5. Are all door locks adequate and in good repair? 6. Are strikes and strike plates adequate and properly installed? 7. Can the locking mechanism be reached through a mail slot, delivery port or pet entrance at the door? 8. Is there a screen or storm door with an adequate lock? 9. Are all entrances lighted with at least a 40 Watt light? 10. Can front entrances be observed from the street or public area? 11. Does the porch or landscaping offer concealment from view from the street or public area? 12. If there is a sliding glass door, is the sliding panel secured from being lifted out of its track? 13. Is the "charley-bar" or a key-operated auxiliary lock used on sliding glass doors? Next, check the entrances from your Garage and/or Basement: 14. Are all entrances to the living quarters from an attached garage or basement that has a door to the outside made of metal or solid wood? 15. Does the door from the attached garage to the living quarters have locks adequate for exterior entrances? 16. Does the door from a basement that has access to the outdoors to the living quarters have an adequate lock operated from the living quarters side? 17. Is the outside basement entrance lighted by an exterior light of at least 40 Watts? 18. Is the outside basement door concealed from the street or neighbors? When checking windows, apply the same standards to your garage windows as you do your house windows: 19. Do all windows have adequate locks in operating condition? 20. Do windows have screens or storm windows that lock from the inside? 21. Do any windows open into areas that may be hazardous or offer special risk to burglary? 22. Do windows that open into hazardous areas have security screens or grills? 23. Are exterior areas of windows free from concealing structure or landscaping? 24. Is the exterior adequately lighted at all window areas? 25. Are all the basement windows adequately secured against entrance? 26. Are trees and shrubbery kept trimmed back from upper floor windows? 27. Are ladders kept outside the house where they are accessible? How about the garage door, itself? 28. Is the automobile entrance door to the garage equipped with an adequate locking device? 29. Is the garage door kept closed and locked at all times? 30. Are the garage windows secured adequately in the same manner as ground-floor windows? 31. Is the outside utility entrance to the garage as secure as your ground-floor entrances in your house? 32. Are tools and ladders kept in the garage? 33. Are all garage doors lighted on the outside by at least a 40 Watt light? Are your fences and gates working properly? Does your gate latch properly? Is your gate latch accessible from outside the gate? Please take these check-points seriously.