September 8, 2025 • 48 mins
In this episode of Locked In: Securing Your Home from Burglary, we’re diving into a critical subject that affects everyone—home burglary prevention. With break-ins on the rise in many communities, it's more important than ever to know how to secure your home and protect your loved ones. Join us as we break down the most effective and practical strategies to keep burglars out, from everyday habits to affordable tech solutions. We'll cover:
✅ Common mistakes homeowners make
✅ Low-cost ways to boost your home’s security
✅ Smart home devices worth investing in
✅ What burglars look for—and how to avoid being a target
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✅ Common mistakes homeowners make
✅ Low-cost ways to boost your home’s security
✅ Smart home devices worth investing in
✅ What burglars look for—and how to avoid being a target
Follow us on your favorite platforms:
YouTube, Apple Podcast, Podfriend, Overcast, Spotify, Spreaker, iHeart Radio, Deezer, Podchaser, Goodpods, Jio Saavn, Podcast Addict, Castbox, Pocket Cast and more...
Become an exclusive supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podca...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to the Hot Topics Podcast with Psyco forty
eighty one, the Lovely Lady, Lamb Chop, and the Fabulous
Columnia's Feather. Let's get into it. Welcome everyone to another
Hot Topics Podcast episode. I'm your host Cycle forty eighty
one for this beautiful, beautiful, mild weekend. So I'm here
(00:29):
solo again. It was a very busy weekend. Lamb Chop
and Blonniu's Feather had some engagements to attend, and you know,
I think we're all a little bit warned out for
the weekend. So I'm going solo today and this is
episode is going to be a little bit different, talk
(00:53):
a little serious because we're going to talk about security,
home security. You know, we're in September, about to go
in to October, change of seasons, holidays are coming, You're
gonna go into Thanksgiving and you got Christmas. So things
have changed and because a lot of things that people
(01:16):
should know, and we're gonna talk about that on a
serious note. So today's episode is gonna be called locked
in Securing your Home from Burglary. Now disclaimer, I'm not
telling you that everything is gonna be full proof. These
are certain things you could deter or prevent you from
being an easy target and easy target for burglaries. Okay,
(01:38):
so you know, we're gonna go over certain things like
trying to understand the mind of a burglar, some physical
security measures that you can do, some outdoor deterrence, and
we're gonna go into security systems, behavioral tips, We're gonna
(02:00):
get into a little bit about neighborhood awareness, and then
hopefully by the end of this episode, and it won't
be a long episode, but hopefully by the end of
this episode, you'll have some you know, better knowledge than
you had before you started to deter yourself from being
a victim of a burglary. So let's get into it.
(02:26):
So did you know, now, not a lot of people,
you know, if you're home, and I don't want to
scare you, but did you know that a home burglary
happens every twenty five seconds in the US? Think about that,
every twenty five seconds in the US, a burglary happens. Now,
let me explain what a burglary is. First of all,
(02:47):
So I know you know a lot of people from
what I've heard from people you know talking about this
and that a burglary is when somebody breaks into your home.
And this is the burglary we're talking about. There's also
commercial burglaries and stuff like that. But when somebody breaks
into your home with the intent of committing theft and
act of violence or whatever is not you know, somebody
(03:08):
coming in with a gun and tying you up and
all that type stuff, that's something different. That's a robbery,
and we normally would call it a home invasion robbery.
So but this is specifically a burglary. You know, when
somebody goes into your shit, somebody goes into your house,
you know, that's a burglary, totally different from robbery, which
(03:28):
is a crimes against person. Burglaries are crimes against property. Okay,
so that's the difference. And there's different degrees depend on
what state you're in. There's different degrees of burglary. Obviously
in the state of Maryland there's you know, first degrade, secondary,
third degree, fourth degree. We won't get into all that,
but it's not important. We're going to try to make
you safe. So the main goal again, like I said,
(03:53):
is to empower you and hopefully you'll let your neighbors
know or you know, family, friends, or whatever to take
these practical steps to secure your homes. Simple as that.
So and I'm gonna try to keep time here. I
don't have a lamp chop here to push me on
(04:14):
or you know, give me the signal to shut up.
So getting into let's understand what the mind of a
burglar is like again, that's abody who commits the burglary. Okay,
So here's a misconception. You know, I guess it's from
TV's and you know, even cartoons from back of the day.
(04:35):
Most burglaries actually occurred during the daytime. Did you guys
know that most burglaries happened during the daytime. Most people
think that burglaries happen at night, you know, somebody wearing
a mask and you know, the climbing to your window
and tiptoe through your house while you're sleep and you know,
take your watch off the dresser or something like that.
(04:56):
But no, burglars happened mostly during the daytime. I think
it's between like nine am and three pm. You know,
there weren't times where people are working. Now you can
kind of figure out why that would be. So because
I just said it, people are working, kids are in school,
(05:17):
and you know you're a burgler, would be less suspicious
if they're just walking down the neighborhood during the middle
of the day versus somebody creeping through a neighborhood at night.
And one of the things that thieves do look for
is just coming from the mind. They look for easy
targets first, unlocked doors, darkness, dark corners, predictable routines, things
(05:42):
like that, And there's a whole science to this, so
you know, you can actually if you live in Baltimore County,
boldhom City, I think they both do it, but you
can ask your local police department if they would come
to a presentation of sorts to help you deter burglaries
or what's the other thing they do, uh, detur burglars?
(06:06):
Oh yeah, and do a home security survey. Okay, they'll
come and actually show you physically how to deter burglars
and things you could do. It takes about fifteen twenty
minutes or more of your talkative person like I was.
But again, most of them happen at night, so they
look for the easy things, and burglaries are often crimes
(06:29):
of opportunities, not this whole intricate planning that people think.
You know, nobody unless you're you know, superstarred and they
know you got a ton of money. Nobody's going to
plan this like in Ocean's eleven, to break into your
house to get some clothes or some I don't even
think they even steal civil anymore. But you know, just
(06:52):
think common common things opportunities. Do not give them opportunity.
That's the one thing that you can actually prevent when
you there's a thing called a crime triangle. Okay, you
can't change their mindset, you can't change their desire to
do it or their ability to do it, but you
can change the excuse me, the opportunity. And let's give
(07:18):
you a heads up. You know it's probably allergy season.
Is that usually when the the seasons change, that's when
all the allergies pop up. So bear with me getting
back to it. The we're going to try to change
the opportunity for them to actually complete or be successful
in breaking into your home. Okay, some of the basic things.
(07:44):
Lock the doors. People, you know, I don't know if
they just you know, get complacent or have this false
sense of security, but lock your doors. That is the
like the easiest thing you could do. Lock your doors
and windows, you know, and that includes when you're home,
(08:05):
you know. And I just happened to see. I was
away this week and I noticed one of the neighbors,
not where I live, but where I was staying for
for the past week. And I noticed that the neighbor
always left his garage door open, and you know, obviously
has stuff in that because it was stuff. We could
(08:26):
see it from the outside, and there was stuff on
the outside because you know, you would think that he's
having a garage sell something along those lines. But it
was open. And in most homes, the garage usually leads
into the home and those doors are not the best,
you know, just something to think about. Lock the doors
and windows even when you're at home. There's some things
(08:50):
you could do as well with the doors in the windows.
Obviously you know, have a dead boat lock. You know
you can have, oh but the dead boats. You want
to make sure you have a decent strike plate, okay,
and something that's important as the screws that's holding that together.
(09:12):
Believe it or not, you want to have those longer
screws and something you could look at. But if you've
had the short screws, if somebody wanted to kick it
in guess what. That whole thing is coming right off
the door. So you want to take a look at that.
You could do in the window locks. Let's get it.
With the window locks. You can have the different types
of window locks. And like I said, you can go
(09:33):
to your local home depot or home improvement center or whatever,
and I'm sure they have more new and improved windows
than last I checked. So usually they'll have some with
the little window locks in there, little crescent locks that
they still have those. There's also something that's built in
(09:53):
that flip out that prevents the window from going up,
so they do have those. And usually if you have
a modern house and you have good windows, those are
you know, they present a little bit more security. So
make sure the doors and windows are locked. And that
includes sliding glass doors. You know, those are very easy
(10:19):
to get into. And you know that little thing that
you see on your sliding glass doors, that little bar
that you drop down the uh, that doesn't work as
well because you can actually lift the door. I guess
I shouldn't be saying it, but you want to prevent
that door from being lifted off as track, okay, and
(10:40):
that's something as easy as screwinate die which is you know,
a screw or wooden piece you know, on the track
to keep it from being lifted up. You know, you
could put a block up there as well, wooden block.
So those are things you could do to prevent it
from being easy. Okay, simple as that. But we want
(11:02):
to take a quick break for our sponsors. Yes, we
have sponsors. Anybody who's you know, adding a commercial to
our podcast, they are a sponsor. But check it out. Okay,
So we looked at some security measures for the windows.
(11:26):
You can also install a security film on the glass.
And what that does is it keeps the window from
being shattered. I mean it'll shatter, but it won't come
it won't break through. So it gives you a little
bit more added protection. And I know most people out there,
you know, you don't want to look like you have
a crivate neighborhood. And you know, I'm not gonna say
(11:48):
go ahead and install bars on that, but that's what
you want to do. That's what you want to do.
But just think about that part. That's something that's a
homeowner discretion and we can get into you know, what's
safe because you don't want to put bars in your
windows where and may violate some security codes or prevent
(12:09):
you from getting out in case of a fire or something.
On those lines. You know, because when certain emergencies have
been people panic and you don't always do the easy
things that you would do when you're not in a panic.
So yeah, now you can also use smart locks. I
(12:32):
have one on my home, but you know, automatically eat
locks at a certain time, you know, you might need
a code or you know, use a fingerprint something. On
those lines, they have so many different locks, high tech
stuff that's really really good. So you know, if you're
a techie like me, you you know, you can go
to your home depot, you can go to you know,
(12:54):
even Walmart or Best Buy, any of those stores or
stores on the line that have all these different gadgets
that might help. And if you have a front door,
hopefully it has a peep hole, you want to at
least and you can't get one hundred and eighty degree view,
but you want to at least have let's say one
(13:16):
hundred and twenty degree one hundred and twenty degree view.
When you look at your peep hole, you can see
the sides, not just what's in front of you. So
that's important. And if you have the door that has
the glass panes in the doors, I don't know what
to say about that, but hopefully you got something one
(13:37):
of those shatter proof glasses or something strong that'll keep
somebody from just poking that glass door in or that
panel and then reaching in and unlocking your door. So
that's something to keep in mind when you you know,
when you're improving your home or buying a home, some
things that look nice are not that practical. So you
want to look at the practical aspects of things as well.
(14:01):
And I guess you could do that the same the
same thing to the windows. And the thing is you
want to have visibility, and we're going to talk about
that too. When it comes to visibility regarding the outside.
One thing I thought was always funny is when people put,
you know, outdoor lighting or all these different security features
(14:21):
in there, but they don't look at the landscaping. You know,
you might have a nice lighting, you know, on your home,
or even the lighting that's on the street, but it's
covered by trees. You know, it serves no purpose. So
we're going to talk about the outdoor deterrence and some
(14:45):
things too. It's really again it's common sense things. So motions.
This is my favorite motion sensor lights. You want to
have that all around any entrance, driveways, backyards, things that
you know that when it lights, people really don't have
a purpose or a reason for them being on your
(15:07):
property during certain times of night. Right. I'm not saying
you put a motion sensor that hits the sidewalk in front,
but it it comes in your grass or in your driveway,
your front porch steps, anything along those lines. You know,
that's always a good thing to have. And again, they
have people. I hear people saying, well, it's gonna make
(15:28):
my you know, my electricity bill go up, and that's
a concern for everybody. But they have things that's so
easy now because you can get the solo ones that
actually automatically come on at night or again, it depends
on how you have it set. It'll come on when
somebody comes within the view of the sensor, right, so
(15:52):
it's not going to stay on. I prefer and this
is from the days when I was a police officer. Oh,
let me stop this for a minute. I want to
give a shout out and congratulations for one of my
longtime friends schoolmate just recently retired after twenty nine years
of service at Baltimore City Police Department, Corried Landing. Congratulations,
(16:15):
and you know, I hope you enjoy your next phase
of life. Don't work too hard because twenty nine years
in the police department, especially in Baltimore City, that could
wear somebody out, you know, and unfortunately we all have
people that we worked with that didn't make it, so
you know, that's an accomplishment. So congratulations. But yeah, So
(16:38):
we looked at the motion lights, the sensor lights around
the entrances, all entrances, driveways, backyards. We've talked about the
lighting trim the shrubs, the bushes and the trees that
block the windows, that block your lighting. That was one
of the worst things that you could see. It. You
can go to people's homes and they have lighting. They
(17:01):
got the bush or a tall bush that looks like
a tree almost that covers the lighting. What's the purpose
or you don't want any shrubbery that's going to be
able to give a potential burglar a hiding spot. Even
if the place came driving down the street, you know,
they just happened to be checking out the neighborhood and
(17:21):
they can't see anybody hiding in the bushes, So trim
those trees back, trim those bushes back, keep it down
low enough where you know you can at least see
out your window or if you're coming to your home,
you want to be able to see your home, Okay.
And if you have trees around, you know, you might
(17:42):
want to cut the tree branches and leaves and stuff
like that, so at least you know, you want to
cut it upwards where they don't hang down and cover everything.
Visibility is key. And again look at your the placements
of your light, because again it makes no sense or
doesn't serve a purpose if you have all these fancy
(18:03):
lights and cameras if the trees and the shrubbery you're
in the way, you know, and and I don't know
if you're if you're a family person, and you know
you don't want somebody coming home at night and have
to walk through some you know, thick trees or bushes
that can hide anybody. You know, that's that's just a
(18:24):
safety thing. So definitely want to get that. I think
out of most of the things that we talked about,
that's some of the easiest and important things to do. Right.
You could do it. Even things like using gravel or
noisy surface things near your points of entry. Like you
(18:46):
have the gravel, you can hear somebody walking on the gravel,
whatever you can use that stones. You know, criminals don't
want to be seen, they don't want to be heard.
Those are the two things you want look at. They
don't want to be seen and they don't want to
be heard. And when you have proper lighting the bushes
(19:07):
to cut down, you put those the noisy things around
your entry points, then it makes it harder not to
be seen or heard. Along with those lights, those censored lights.
You know, you have the cameras out there that make
(19:30):
noise that lets people know that they're on camera. So
at my house, if you come near my house or
my driveway in the back, guess what happens. I get
alerted and you get alerted as well. Beat beat be
beat beep. The neighbors can hear it going off. So
you're gonna be seen or you're gonna be heard. That's
(19:50):
my my surveillance and my lights. Okay, you want to
definitely keep your property well lit at night, and that's
can't say that enough times. Even if you have burglars
or break ins or any type of crime in the neighborhood.
Lighting is always best. What kills me is I know
(20:13):
some neighborhoods where they've been they've been victimized, they've had
a few burglars here or whatever. It might even be
a car break ins or whatever, and you could go
down the street and it's just dark. Nobody has the lighting,
nobody has a porch light on, nobody has the yard
light on. You know, it's just dark, and that just
(20:37):
gives a thief a you know, a perfect opportunity or
even a desire to do more. So those are things
you definitely want to look at. And as I said,
it's easy, easy, easy, easy. Now I mentioned the the
camera thing when I said I have a camera. I
have cameras on all sides of my house, and they
(20:58):
make noise and even core and they actually record at night.
Good clarity to hold nine. So we're gonna talk about
some security systems. But we're gonna take a break and
when we come back, we'll get into the security systems
and a few other things that's really really important. Okay,
(21:23):
we're back. You know I was gonna say back for
the payback, I must say that you know where that
is Jack the River at equal J. I don't know
why these songs always pop on my head when I
say certain words. But let me take a break and say, hey,
you know this is a word of the day. It's RoboCop. Now,
(21:46):
if you've been following us for the past year and
a half or maybe almost two years, now, you know
we have a word of the day. And if you
get the word of the day for every episode within
the month, and you email us at hot Topics as
TPIX Podcasts at gmail dot com, Hot Topics Podcasts at
(22:07):
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you will win the prize first one that gets it in.
And everything's timestamp obviously because it's email. If you get
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or monetary prize if we can't get you the actual
prize that we want to give you. So just keep
(22:28):
that in mind and make sure you subscribe because we'll
send an email out to our subscribers at the end
of each month to let them know, hey, the month's over,
get those words in the day Word of the days
in and we can get you your prize. So getting
back to the security systems. Some of the benefits of
(22:50):
installing security cameras and alarms is obviously you can use
it as a deterrent. You can actually use it as
a tool to view your property at any time. There's
some really updated, high tech you know things out there.
(23:10):
But if you're gonna have a video camera some veilance
out there, it's really good to have it monitored. That's
for the alarms, So let me let me separate that.
You can have surveillance system around your home, and you
can also have an alarm system. But you can also
(23:30):
have a surveillance and an alarm. That's kind of combined.
But if you're going to have the alarm, you want
to have it monitored where they can it'll go to
a monitoring center and then they can have the place
come out and they usually check with you to make
sure that it's not a false alarm first. But you
(23:51):
want to have that in there. And if you have
the surveillance cameras, obviously you can see who's on your property.
Some of them allow you to talk, you can hear
the you know, the voices on the outside. Some of
them have an audible warning for people who are on
your property. Depends on how it's set. So it's a
(24:12):
great tool, you know. And like I said, there's a
lot of surveillance systems out there that's not too expensive
and have really good clarity. And again it makes that
that sound, so that's pretty good. One thing else, one
(24:32):
thing in addition to that and the stumble those words in,
have some signage, you know, something like you know, I
must say protected by biper that's a car. But you know,
having a sign out there that says this home is
protected by blank plank plank. You don't have to necessarily
put the the company, the alarm company, or the surveillance
(24:55):
company whatever out there. You know, that's giving them a
little bit of an advantage too if they if you
have an actual smart criminal, but just have a sign
out there that says, you know you're under surveillance, you know,
this property is protected by whatever. You know, it gives
and sad to say, that gives that that burglar the
(25:15):
opportunity to bypass your home to go to somebody else's
home who's not listening to this podcast. So yeah, throw
a sign out there. Signs cost nothing, you know. So
along with the alarms, what I feel, I personally feel
(25:37):
is a great tool, especially now everybody's on with the
Amazon this and getting the you know, home deliveries and
stuff like that. Get one of those doorbell cameras. You know,
you connected, you got an app on your phone and
just by everybody has a remote, not a remote, but
a smartphone. Get the doorbell camera. You know, it'll let
(26:05):
you know when somebody's you know, on your porch recorded
and you can actually a lot of times depend on
what you have. Most of them have this. You can
actually talk through the doorbell camera. And I think that's
a great tool. Sometimes people don't care, but I mean
it's again, if you are a burglar and you've seen
(26:26):
some uh seeing the house that had video cameras or
the doorbell cameras and all that type stuff, would you
go to that door or would you go to the
next door? Right? Simple things. Some of the things you
want to do is if you're considering getting a security system,
(26:51):
you know, you can actually have a company come out
there and get it, you know, professionally done and monitored.
You know, they usually know when are the best places
to place your video cameras or you can you know,
it's not too difficult, but you can get to do
it yourself systems. And I was gonna recommend one because
(27:12):
I really love this one, but I won't say it
because they're not a sponsor. But this one particular brand
is really good. You know, it's an indoor outdoor video
camera and the clarity is just just out of this world.
Even at nighttime it picks up. It sounds like you
(27:33):
wouldn't believe. I have a funny story about that one.
I'll say that for a later date. And they're easy
to install, but if you're not comfortable with that, you
can always call somebody in and gets you a whole
system set up where it includes the ring doorbell cameras
on the side, the lighting. You might even have something
(27:56):
included where you have the camera with the apicopitist called Oh,
I just had it in my head. The big lights
that usually people usually put in that backyards flood lights,
that's what it's called. That has the big flood lights
and stuff like that. You know, those are easy things
that you can do. And you know, if you're not
(28:19):
really up on stuff like that, just have somebody come in.
It's quick and painless. Just do that. It's not bad.
And I'm trying to think of some of the security systems.
I mean, they go from cheap to expensive. You know,
it depends on you know, what you could afford, how
(28:39):
high tech you wanted, how interactive you want it. As well.
When I used to have cameras, I put mine in
the inside as well, just because I had a dog
at home and I wanted to see what the dog
was doing, and it was my opportunity to talk through
the camera to the dog, you know, just to mess
with them. But yeah, they have a lot of different things,
a lot of different things. Just just go do your
(29:02):
research and you know, even go to like I said,
best Buy has them. We can put your hands on things.
Let's see how it goes. You know, don't ask the
local police departments. They're not gonna endorse any particular brand
of UH security cameras or alarms. I don't think that's
supposed to do that. But you know that's something you
(29:24):
could do on your own. So speaking about things that
you could do on your own, we're gonna go into
behavioral tips. This is huge, okay huge, and like I said,
all these things are really really simple. But we're gonna
go over some behavioral tips. When we come back from
our commercial break and we're back. And for those who
(29:53):
didn't know, Hey, this is the first week of NFL football.
I'm still glad football season has kicked off. You know.
There was some really really close games, some exciting games,
you know, and if your team didn't win, don't worry.
It's the first game of the season. There's a long
season ahead, but you know, some really really good games.
(30:14):
So I'm looking forward to the season. And you, if
you've been followers, you know who my team is. So
I'm not even mention it. Yes they won, all right.
So behavioral tips, here's some things that you can do
to deter burglaries. One, don't advertise your absence, okay, avoid
(30:35):
posting vacations in real time. Like this is what I see, right,
People go on vacation, they go on Facebook, TikTok or
Instagram and they have some lovely videos already. Update. What's
the other one? Twitter or X it's called X formally
(30:56):
known as Twitter, and they post their hourly activities, you know,
they put out there. You can tag your location, Oh,
I'm in Florida for the week. You know, Hey, they're
having parties and this and that whatever, and it doesn't
take you know a genius to figure out, Oh, that
person's out of town for the week. That means their
(31:18):
house couldn't be a target. Right. Don't advertise your absences,
avoid putting vacations online in real time. Now, if you
want to go someplace, it's easily you can have the
time beaver life, and then when you come back post
all that this is what I did last week. Something
as simple as that. It's not difficult. You know now
(31:42):
again that when you're away from a house, use some
timers for those lights. They have that there if you
use timers where your lights come on at certain times,
and even they have the automatic timer plugs where if
you wanted to have your lights on the inside come on,
the outside lights come on, or even the TV or
(32:06):
radio starts playing at certain times. Think of things like that.
You want to make sure that you have your house
looks lived in or is being occupied easy enough, even
when you go away, you know, you might ask your
neighbor who has multiple vehicles, Hey, you know I'm going
away for a week. If you have any company, you know,
(32:27):
tell them the park of my driveway, or you could
put your second car on my driveway. But to help
us out, you know, and it helps them out as well,
because you know it might be you a victim that
you know gives them the idea to come back and
do the next house. Anyway, and neighbors help neighbors. So
(32:49):
you're looking at your trash cans, you know, have your
neighbor a trust the neighbor or family member comes past
and take your trash out, put it on the curb
where it's usually sitting. Come collected when it's supposed to
be collected. Don't take off your neighbors and put if
you know the trash has to be picked up Monday morning,
(33:12):
don't put it out Friday night. You know that's just
being annoying and it's probably against the law anyway. But yeah,
you want to have that neighbor, family, friends, or whatever
come by pick up your mail, the newspapers, all that
type stuff, because you again, you want to make sure
that your home looks lived in and nothing says I'm
(33:34):
not there. Then when you have newspapers piled up in
front of your door, or mail that's popping out of
your mailbox or what do you call them things those
flyers that's so old that they are disintegrating, you won't
have your neighbor or trusted person. I'm gonna say that
(33:55):
a trusted person come and take your mail and all
other type stuff because you want to make it sure,
or you want to make sure that your house has
lived in or occupied. Right, change up your routines, make
your presence less predictable. Now you've heard me say that
(34:15):
on AVI was it the Purple The Personal Security Podcast episode?
We did less predictable. We are creatures of habit. I
know that I'm one too, but I do change up
every once in a while. But change up your routines.
Don't do the same thing where somebody can just sit
(34:37):
out there for about fifteen twenty minutes or even a
half a day and know your entire routine, the way,
the times that you walk, where you walk, how long
you're walking, you know the car. That's another thing too.
You can go to some neighborhoods during the daytime and
you can look down the block and see no vehicles
(34:58):
out there. Like everybody looks the same. And it just
assumed that if I go and bring into a house,
then nobody's gonna see me. No neighbor's gonna see me
because they're not home either. Right, But change up your
routine anyway. Another thing you want to do is, oh,
you know, I'm I'm gonna tell you here's some things
(35:19):
to do in the inside. This is this is this
is not so much of the turrent for burglaries, but
this is the things that you can do to help
yourself if you are a victim of a burglary. Write
down the serial numbers, make model serial numbers, all of
all those things of your valuables, you know, even things
that you can aggraeve and grave with your maybe your
(35:40):
driver's license number or your telephone number. Where if somebody
was to come across a burglar with or a suspicious
person that have, you know, a TV or radio or
whatever they have, they can identify it. And you keep
those numbers in a safe place. Oh, you know, that's
(36:01):
that's important. You know, nothing more challenging when you have
a burglary and they have all your valuables, but there's
no way to identify the valuables even on a police report. Well,
you know, I don't have a serial number to give you.
I don't have a I don't even remember the color
(36:21):
of such and such. So you want to write those
things down. So if you are a victim. God forbid,
you have that information to give the police when they
come to take the report. But yeah, don't inside. Don't
put all your keys in an easy spot for them
to take. So if they break in your house, they
also have your keys and they can take your car too.
(36:43):
That has happened before. So change. That's a behavioral thing.
Put the keys in a in a not so obvious place,
and under the doormat is an obvious place. Don't do that.
Everybody knows to check under the doormat. Okay, So let's
(37:05):
see some other some other routines you could do. We
talked about uh oh routines. Cut your grass. If you
got high grass, nothing says I'm not home or I
don't care that when you have of your grass is
a foot tall, or you can pre arrange it with
the neighborhood, some of the neighborhood kids or whoever cuts
(37:27):
your grass. Maybe somebody can come through and just cut
your grass. You know you want to do that. That's
that's a good habit to have. Let's see. I think
that's all I can think of right now for the
behavioral tips and grabbing your your possessions, secure your keys,
(37:49):
take account of your keys. Make sure you know where
your keys are and then you can account for every key.
If you lose a key, you might want to consider
changing your locks. Consider it. You know people lose keys
all the time. You know that's a lot of money
to go in and change every lock you have on
your house. But you want to make sure you have
account of accountability over your keys. You definitely want to
(38:15):
do that. Yeah, So anyway, you have any questions, you
can ask your local police department, or you can send
us an email and we'll see if we can answer
your questions. But those are your behaviors, and we're going
to go into neighborhood awareness, and that probably should have
went the opposite direction, should have started at the neighborhood
(38:39):
and then talked about things going inside to your inside
your house. But it is what it is, neighborhood awareness.
And this is this is funny because you know, you
can live in a place for twenty thirty years and
not know your neighbors. So the first thing I'm gonna
say is get to know your neighbors. You don't have
to be buddy buddy with them, but get to know them.
(39:00):
You know you might need them one day you might
they might have some information. Oh you know that person
doesn't live there, that person is unfamiliar to that property.
Then we called the police. Right If my neighbors, I
know my neighbors have children. If I see, you know,
the child climbing in the window, I know that the
(39:23):
child lost their key. You know, that's different. But if
it's somebody's lurking around my neighbor's home and I know
who lives there, I know a little bit more than
just who lives there, that might prompt me to call
the police. So it's always good to get to know
your neighbors because neighbors look out for each other. With
(39:46):
that said, if you have a community association or a
homeowners association, get involved with the neighborhood watch program. Now,
studies have shown that in communities where they have a
neighborhood watch or what you call it, citizens on patrol,
crime is significantly lower. Okay, nothing beats an old, nosy
(40:09):
neighbor or you know, the neighborhood snitch that walks around.
They say, what you want makes a safer neighborhood. But
definitely if you can actually check with your local police
department and see how you can get that started as well.
Some places have grants that you can start up that
you know, help you out with signage or training to
(40:35):
make sure you have an actual working neighborhood watch program
or citizens on patrol, so don't be so shy. Then
you have this slogan or statement that people say, if
you see something, say something, you always hear that, right,
(41:00):
report suspicious activity immediately, don't wait till monday. This is
this is a killer. Right on Friday, my officer, on Friday,
I saw these guys, you know, walking around my neighbor's
property or you know, at such and such and they
hit on all black and you know it was closed,
(41:22):
and you know, I just wanted to wait till monday
to you know, let you know about it. Don't do that.
Don't do that, report suspicious activity immediately. The worst thing
that can happen is the police get there, deter something
from happening, or they identify a possible suspect or somebody
(41:46):
who would have been a suspect. Right, there's no harm
in that report suspicious activity. And if you want to
do it, one thing you want to do is get
a good description you know, height, weight, clothing, and the
height and weight is going to be difficult, you know,
looking out the window, whatever you can kind of estimate
(42:08):
and clothing say they're dark clothing, light clothing, because if
it was a night you may not be able to
really tell. You know, if you're not sure, you can
say dark or or light instead of oh it was
blue or black you don't know. You want to race
if you hear them talking, speech, their mannerisms, anything along
(42:29):
those lines, anything that they have in en hands, tools,
anything that you've heard, if you hear radio, you know,
all of those things you want to notice and then
report it to the police so they can respond accordingly.
And that's not too difficult. So have I said anything
too difficult yet? I don't think so. This is you know,
(42:53):
you don't have to be a super detective or you know,
prepare for the zion be apocalypse, just to you know,
do these things here. So we talked about the security systems,
the lighting behaviors, We talked about early things. We talked
about the mind of a burglar, some physical security measures.
(43:17):
I said, this is quick, but you know, they have
these presentations that the police department does to help you out.
But it's something quick for a podcast episode because we
we want to make sure that you are safe. You know.
So what else did we talked about? I think that's
about it. So nothing out here was difficult. We talked
(43:41):
about outdoor deterrent. So again, when you want to talk
about prevention, prevention is key. There's layers you got, you know, physical, digital, social, right,
those are the layers that you have. And the more
very that you create, the less appealing your home becomes.
(44:03):
Because they are they like the opportunity, and if your
property looks like it's not going to be an easy job,
they'll go to a property that may look easier. Now
I fail to mention this though, One of the things
(44:24):
that we would say is make sure that you keep
your property up because, believe it or not, criminals will
break into places that they feel is unoccupied, not just
not you know, going away from you know, on vacation
or anything like that, unoccupied because they might use that
as a base to get away from you know, you know,
(44:45):
crime apprehension, or use that to do other crimes in
the area. You know, some people just breaking the homes
and go in there and do all types of stuff, smoke, arson, whatever.
So make sure that your home looks like is lived
in even though you would think that, oh, that house
over there, you know, has the broken window, which is
(45:07):
broken window theory. They have the high grass vines all
up around the house. Whatever, it's probably not going to
be lived in. Let me go, we could break it there.
Maybe we might find something in there. Trust me, that happens.
And we talked about the little small habits. Lock your doors,
(45:29):
lock your windows, all those things make a big difference.
So but again, if you have any questions, you can
send us an email at hot topics that's topix Podcasts
at gmail dot com, or which I prefer this, or
call your local police department. You know, you can call
(45:49):
the district or precinct whatever they call it, ask for
the community affairs or community outreach or anything along those lines,
and you know they might be able to answer your questions.
I'm gonna say nine point nine out of ten they'll
probably be able to answer your questions. So I'm gonna
leave it here. I don't want this to be too
(46:10):
long because you know, if you're like me, my patience
is my attention span is very short. So you guys
can do us a favor, do yourself a favor. You'll
invite other listeners. You know, maybe they'll want to share
their home safety tips, maybe they might be able to
learn something from this episode. So and then invite others
(46:34):
to subscribe. You subscribe yourself obviously. That's www. Dot Hot Topics,
t opi x Hot Topics podcast dot com. And we're
on a bunch of platforms, Apple, Spotify, say those the
two most popular. I think iHeartRadio and YouTube is like
(47:05):
twelve of them. But yeah, check us out Hot Topics
Podcasts and you can also check us out with our
and our little videos and stuff like that on Facebook,
TikTok Ig, Tumblr, YouTube, Blue Sky Threads. And we have
coming up this month we have h missus and I
(47:30):
hope she's I said missus. Let's say mckita Scott. She's
going to be a candidate for Baltimore County fourth District Council. Okay,
so you know, if you have any questions, you can
email your questions in. We'll try to you know, ask
those questions. She'll be on I think is the end
(47:52):
of the month. But this is your opportunity to you know,
get involved with the election process, see what they see,
what or hear what they have to say, and maybe
it'll help you decide, be a responsible voter, help you
decide who you want to vote for. So anyway, thank
you guys for listening. Chiming in again you know you
(48:14):
want to say, like foul share you know the whole line,
and have a good week. Thank you family for listening
to the latest episode of Hot Topics. As usual, listen,
like Share, Subscribe Ti
You're listening to the Hot Topics Podcast with Psyco forty
eighty one, the Lovely Lady, Lamb Chop, and the Fabulous
Columnia's Feather. Let's get into it. Welcome everyone to another
Hot Topics Podcast episode. I'm your host Cycle forty eighty
one for this beautiful, beautiful, mild weekend. So I'm here
(00:29):
solo again. It was a very busy weekend. Lamb Chop
and Blonniu's Feather had some engagements to attend, and you know,
I think we're all a little bit warned out for
the weekend. So I'm going solo today and this is
episode is going to be a little bit different, talk
(00:53):
a little serious because we're going to talk about security,
home security. You know, we're in September, about to go
in to October, change of seasons, holidays are coming, You're
gonna go into Thanksgiving and you got Christmas. So things
have changed and because a lot of things that people
(01:16):
should know, and we're gonna talk about that on a
serious note. So today's episode is gonna be called locked
in Securing your Home from Burglary. Now disclaimer, I'm not
telling you that everything is gonna be full proof. These
are certain things you could deter or prevent you from
being an easy target and easy target for burglaries. Okay,
(01:38):
so you know, we're gonna go over certain things like
trying to understand the mind of a burglar, some physical
security measures that you can do, some outdoor deterrence, and
we're gonna go into security systems, behavioral tips, We're gonna
(02:00):
get into a little bit about neighborhood awareness, and then
hopefully by the end of this episode, and it won't
be a long episode, but hopefully by the end of
this episode, you'll have some you know, better knowledge than
you had before you started to deter yourself from being
a victim of a burglary. So let's get into it.
(02:26):
So did you know, now, not a lot of people,
you know, if you're home, and I don't want to
scare you, but did you know that a home burglary
happens every twenty five seconds in the US? Think about that,
every twenty five seconds in the US, a burglary happens. Now,
let me explain what a burglary is. First of all,
(02:47):
So I know you know a lot of people from
what I've heard from people you know talking about this
and that a burglary is when somebody breaks into your home.
And this is the burglary we're talking about. There's also
commercial burglaries and stuff like that. But when somebody breaks
into your home with the intent of committing theft and
act of violence or whatever is not you know, somebody
(03:08):
coming in with a gun and tying you up and
all that type stuff, that's something different. That's a robbery,
and we normally would call it a home invasion robbery.
So but this is specifically a burglary. You know, when
somebody goes into your shit, somebody goes into your house,
you know, that's a burglary, totally different from robbery, which
(03:28):
is a crimes against person. Burglaries are crimes against property. Okay,
so that's the difference. And there's different degrees depend on
what state you're in. There's different degrees of burglary. Obviously
in the state of Maryland there's you know, first degrade, secondary,
third degree, fourth degree. We won't get into all that,
but it's not important. We're going to try to make
you safe. So the main goal again, like I said,
(03:53):
is to empower you and hopefully you'll let your neighbors
know or you know, family, friends, or whatever to take
these practical steps to secure your homes. Simple as that.
So and I'm gonna try to keep time here. I
don't have a lamp chop here to push me on
(04:14):
or you know, give me the signal to shut up.
So getting into let's understand what the mind of a
burglar is like again, that's abody who commits the burglary. Okay,
So here's a misconception. You know, I guess it's from
TV's and you know, even cartoons from back of the day.
(04:35):
Most burglaries actually occurred during the daytime. Did you guys
know that most burglaries happened during the daytime. Most people
think that burglaries happen at night, you know, somebody wearing
a mask and you know, the climbing to your window
and tiptoe through your house while you're sleep and you know,
take your watch off the dresser or something like that.
(04:56):
But no, burglars happened mostly during the daytime. I think
it's between like nine am and three pm. You know,
there weren't times where people are working. Now you can
kind of figure out why that would be. So because
I just said it, people are working, kids are in school,
(05:17):
and you know you're a burgler, would be less suspicious
if they're just walking down the neighborhood during the middle
of the day versus somebody creeping through a neighborhood at night.
And one of the things that thieves do look for
is just coming from the mind. They look for easy
targets first, unlocked doors, darkness, dark corners, predictable routines, things
(05:42):
like that, And there's a whole science to this, so
you know, you can actually if you live in Baltimore County,
boldhom City, I think they both do it, but you
can ask your local police department if they would come
to a presentation of sorts to help you deter burglaries
or what's the other thing they do, uh, detur burglars?
(06:06):
Oh yeah, and do a home security survey. Okay, they'll
come and actually show you physically how to deter burglars
and things you could do. It takes about fifteen twenty
minutes or more of your talkative person like I was.
But again, most of them happen at night, so they
look for the easy things, and burglaries are often crimes
(06:29):
of opportunities, not this whole intricate planning that people think.
You know, nobody unless you're you know, superstarred and they
know you got a ton of money. Nobody's going to
plan this like in Ocean's eleven, to break into your
house to get some clothes or some I don't even
think they even steal civil anymore. But you know, just
(06:52):
think common common things opportunities. Do not give them opportunity.
That's the one thing that you can actually prevent when
you there's a thing called a crime triangle. Okay, you
can't change their mindset, you can't change their desire to
do it or their ability to do it, but you
can change the excuse me, the opportunity. And let's give
(07:18):
you a heads up. You know it's probably allergy season.
Is that usually when the the seasons change, that's when
all the allergies pop up. So bear with me getting
back to it. The we're going to try to change
the opportunity for them to actually complete or be successful
in breaking into your home. Okay, some of the basic things.
(07:44):
Lock the doors. People, you know, I don't know if
they just you know, get complacent or have this false
sense of security, but lock your doors. That is the
like the easiest thing you could do. Lock your doors
and windows, you know, and that includes when you're home,
(08:05):
you know. And I just happened to see. I was
away this week and I noticed one of the neighbors,
not where I live, but where I was staying for
for the past week. And I noticed that the neighbor
always left his garage door open, and you know, obviously
has stuff in that because it was stuff. We could
(08:26):
see it from the outside, and there was stuff on
the outside because you know, you would think that he's
having a garage sell something along those lines. But it
was open. And in most homes, the garage usually leads
into the home and those doors are not the best,
you know, just something to think about. Lock the doors
and windows even when you're at home. There's some things
(08:50):
you could do as well with the doors in the windows.
Obviously you know, have a dead boat lock. You know
you can have, oh but the dead boats. You want
to make sure you have a decent strike plate, okay,
and something that's important as the screws that's holding that together.
(09:12):
Believe it or not, you want to have those longer
screws and something you could look at. But if you've
had the short screws, if somebody wanted to kick it
in guess what. That whole thing is coming right off
the door. So you want to take a look at that.
You could do in the window locks. Let's get it.
With the window locks. You can have the different types
of window locks. And like I said, you can go
(09:33):
to your local home depot or home improvement center or whatever,
and I'm sure they have more new and improved windows
than last I checked. So usually they'll have some with
the little window locks in there, little crescent locks that
they still have those. There's also something that's built in
(09:53):
that flip out that prevents the window from going up,
so they do have those. And usually if you have
a modern house and you have good windows, those are
you know, they present a little bit more security. So
make sure the doors and windows are locked. And that
includes sliding glass doors. You know, those are very easy
(10:19):
to get into. And you know that little thing that
you see on your sliding glass doors, that little bar
that you drop down the uh, that doesn't work as
well because you can actually lift the door. I guess
I shouldn't be saying it, but you want to prevent
that door from being lifted off as track, okay, and
(10:40):
that's something as easy as screwinate die which is you know,
a screw or wooden piece you know, on the track
to keep it from being lifted up. You know, you
could put a block up there as well, wooden block.
So those are things you could do to prevent it
from being easy. Okay, simple as that. But we want
(11:02):
to take a quick break for our sponsors. Yes, we
have sponsors. Anybody who's you know, adding a commercial to
our podcast, they are a sponsor. But check it out. Okay,
So we looked at some security measures for the windows.
(11:26):
You can also install a security film on the glass.
And what that does is it keeps the window from
being shattered. I mean it'll shatter, but it won't come
it won't break through. So it gives you a little
bit more added protection. And I know most people out there,
you know, you don't want to look like you have
a crivate neighborhood. And you know, I'm not gonna say
(11:48):
go ahead and install bars on that, but that's what
you want to do. That's what you want to do.
But just think about that part. That's something that's a
homeowner discretion and we can get into you know, what's
safe because you don't want to put bars in your
windows where and may violate some security codes or prevent
(12:09):
you from getting out in case of a fire or something.
On those lines. You know, because when certain emergencies have
been people panic and you don't always do the easy
things that you would do when you're not in a panic.
So yeah, now you can also use smart locks. I
(12:32):
have one on my home, but you know, automatically eat
locks at a certain time, you know, you might need
a code or you know, use a fingerprint something. On
those lines, they have so many different locks, high tech
stuff that's really really good. So you know, if you're
a techie like me, you you know, you can go
to your home depot, you can go to you know,
(12:54):
even Walmart or Best Buy, any of those stores or
stores on the line that have all these different gadgets
that might help. And if you have a front door,
hopefully it has a peep hole, you want to at
least and you can't get one hundred and eighty degree view,
but you want to at least have let's say one
(13:16):
hundred and twenty degree one hundred and twenty degree view.
When you look at your peep hole, you can see
the sides, not just what's in front of you. So
that's important. And if you have the door that has
the glass panes in the doors, I don't know what
to say about that, but hopefully you got something one
(13:37):
of those shatter proof glasses or something strong that'll keep
somebody from just poking that glass door in or that
panel and then reaching in and unlocking your door. So
that's something to keep in mind when you you know,
when you're improving your home or buying a home, some
things that look nice are not that practical. So you
want to look at the practical aspects of things as well.
(14:01):
And I guess you could do that the same the
same thing to the windows. And the thing is you
want to have visibility, and we're going to talk about
that too. When it comes to visibility regarding the outside.
One thing I thought was always funny is when people put,
you know, outdoor lighting or all these different security features
(14:21):
in there, but they don't look at the landscaping. You know,
you might have a nice lighting, you know, on your home,
or even the lighting that's on the street, but it's
covered by trees. You know, it serves no purpose. So
we're going to talk about the outdoor deterrence and some
(14:45):
things too. It's really again it's common sense things. So motions.
This is my favorite motion sensor lights. You want to
have that all around any entrance, driveways, backyards, things that
you know that when it lights, people really don't have
a purpose or a reason for them being on your
(15:07):
property during certain times of night. Right. I'm not saying
you put a motion sensor that hits the sidewalk in front,
but it it comes in your grass or in your driveway,
your front porch steps, anything along those lines. You know,
that's always a good thing to have. And again, they
have people. I hear people saying, well, it's gonna make
(15:28):
my you know, my electricity bill go up, and that's
a concern for everybody. But they have things that's so
easy now because you can get the solo ones that
actually automatically come on at night or again, it depends
on how you have it set. It'll come on when
somebody comes within the view of the sensor, right, so
(15:52):
it's not going to stay on. I prefer and this
is from the days when I was a police officer. Oh,
let me stop this for a minute. I want to
give a shout out and congratulations for one of my
longtime friends schoolmate just recently retired after twenty nine years
of service at Baltimore City Police Department, Corried Landing. Congratulations,
(16:15):
and you know, I hope you enjoy your next phase
of life. Don't work too hard because twenty nine years
in the police department, especially in Baltimore City, that could
wear somebody out, you know, and unfortunately we all have
people that we worked with that didn't make it, so
you know, that's an accomplishment. So congratulations. But yeah, So
(16:38):
we looked at the motion lights, the sensor lights around
the entrances, all entrances, driveways, backyards. We've talked about the
lighting trim the shrubs, the bushes and the trees that
block the windows, that block your lighting. That was one
of the worst things that you could see. It. You
can go to people's homes and they have lighting. They
(17:01):
got the bush or a tall bush that looks like
a tree almost that covers the lighting. What's the purpose
or you don't want any shrubbery that's going to be
able to give a potential burglar a hiding spot. Even
if the place came driving down the street, you know,
they just happened to be checking out the neighborhood and
(17:21):
they can't see anybody hiding in the bushes, So trim
those trees back, trim those bushes back, keep it down
low enough where you know you can at least see
out your window or if you're coming to your home,
you want to be able to see your home, Okay.
And if you have trees around, you know, you might
(17:42):
want to cut the tree branches and leaves and stuff
like that, so at least you know, you want to
cut it upwards where they don't hang down and cover everything.
Visibility is key. And again look at your the placements
of your light, because again it makes no sense or
doesn't serve a purpose if you have all these fancy
(18:03):
lights and cameras if the trees and the shrubbery you're
in the way, you know, and and I don't know
if you're if you're a family person, and you know
you don't want somebody coming home at night and have
to walk through some you know, thick trees or bushes
that can hide anybody. You know, that's that's just a
(18:24):
safety thing. So definitely want to get that. I think
out of most of the things that we talked about,
that's some of the easiest and important things to do. Right.
You could do it. Even things like using gravel or
noisy surface things near your points of entry. Like you
(18:46):
have the gravel, you can hear somebody walking on the gravel,
whatever you can use that stones. You know, criminals don't
want to be seen, they don't want to be heard.
Those are the two things you want look at. They
don't want to be seen and they don't want to
be heard. And when you have proper lighting the bushes
(19:07):
to cut down, you put those the noisy things around
your entry points, then it makes it harder not to
be seen or heard. Along with those lights, those censored lights.
You know, you have the cameras out there that make
(19:30):
noise that lets people know that they're on camera. So
at my house, if you come near my house or
my driveway in the back, guess what happens. I get
alerted and you get alerted as well. Beat beat be
beat beep. The neighbors can hear it going off. So
you're gonna be seen or you're gonna be heard. That's
(19:50):
my my surveillance and my lights. Okay, you want to
definitely keep your property well lit at night, and that's
can't say that enough times. Even if you have burglars
or break ins or any type of crime in the neighborhood.
Lighting is always best. What kills me is I know
(20:13):
some neighborhoods where they've been they've been victimized, they've had
a few burglars here or whatever. It might even be
a car break ins or whatever, and you could go
down the street and it's just dark. Nobody has the lighting,
nobody has a porch light on, nobody has the yard
light on. You know, it's just dark, and that just
(20:37):
gives a thief a you know, a perfect opportunity or
even a desire to do more. So those are things
you definitely want to look at. And as I said,
it's easy, easy, easy, easy. Now I mentioned the the
camera thing when I said I have a camera. I
have cameras on all sides of my house, and they
(20:58):
make noise and even core and they actually record at night.
Good clarity to hold nine. So we're gonna talk about
some security systems. But we're gonna take a break and
when we come back, we'll get into the security systems
and a few other things that's really really important. Okay,
(21:23):
we're back. You know I was gonna say back for
the payback, I must say that you know where that
is Jack the River at equal J. I don't know
why these songs always pop on my head when I
say certain words. But let me take a break and say, hey,
you know this is a word of the day. It's RoboCop. Now,
(21:46):
if you've been following us for the past year and
a half or maybe almost two years, now, you know
we have a word of the day. And if you
get the word of the day for every episode within
the month, and you email us at hot Topics as
TPIX Podcasts at gmail dot com, Hot Topics Podcasts at
(22:07):
gmail dot com, hit us with the words of the day,
you will win the prize first one that gets it in.
And everything's timestamp obviously because it's email. If you get
it in, you'll have the opportunity to win a prize
or monetary prize if we can't get you the actual
prize that we want to give you. So just keep
(22:28):
that in mind and make sure you subscribe because we'll
send an email out to our subscribers at the end
of each month to let them know, hey, the month's over,
get those words in the day Word of the days
in and we can get you your prize. So getting
back to the security systems. Some of the benefits of
(22:50):
installing security cameras and alarms is obviously you can use
it as a deterrent. You can actually use it as
a tool to view your property at any time. There's
some really updated, high tech you know things out there.
(23:10):
But if you're gonna have a video camera some veilance
out there, it's really good to have it monitored. That's
for the alarms, So let me let me separate that.
You can have surveillance system around your home, and you
can also have an alarm system. But you can also
(23:30):
have a surveillance and an alarm. That's kind of combined.
But if you're going to have the alarm, you want
to have it monitored where they can it'll go to
a monitoring center and then they can have the place
come out and they usually check with you to make
sure that it's not a false alarm first. But you
(23:51):
want to have that in there. And if you have
the surveillance cameras, obviously you can see who's on your property.
Some of them allow you to talk, you can hear
the you know, the voices on the outside. Some of
them have an audible warning for people who are on
your property. Depends on how it's set. So it's a
(24:12):
great tool, you know. And like I said, there's a
lot of surveillance systems out there that's not too expensive
and have really good clarity. And again it makes that
that sound, so that's pretty good. One thing else, one
(24:32):
thing in addition to that and the stumble those words in,
have some signage, you know, something like you know, I
must say protected by biper that's a car. But you know,
having a sign out there that says this home is
protected by blank plank plank. You don't have to necessarily
put the the company, the alarm company, or the surveillance
(24:55):
company whatever out there. You know, that's giving them a
little bit of an advantage too if they if you
have an actual smart criminal, but just have a sign
out there that says, you know you're under surveillance, you know,
this property is protected by whatever. You know, it gives
and sad to say, that gives that that burglar the
(25:15):
opportunity to bypass your home to go to somebody else's
home who's not listening to this podcast. So yeah, throw
a sign out there. Signs cost nothing, you know. So
along with the alarms, what I feel, I personally feel
(25:37):
is a great tool, especially now everybody's on with the
Amazon this and getting the you know, home deliveries and
stuff like that. Get one of those doorbell cameras. You know,
you connected, you got an app on your phone and
just by everybody has a remote, not a remote, but
a smartphone. Get the doorbell camera. You know, it'll let
(26:05):
you know when somebody's you know, on your porch recorded
and you can actually a lot of times depend on
what you have. Most of them have this. You can
actually talk through the doorbell camera. And I think that's
a great tool. Sometimes people don't care, but I mean
it's again, if you are a burglar and you've seen
(26:26):
some uh seeing the house that had video cameras or
the doorbell cameras and all that type stuff, would you
go to that door or would you go to the
next door? Right? Simple things. Some of the things you
want to do is if you're considering getting a security system,
(26:51):
you know, you can actually have a company come out
there and get it, you know, professionally done and monitored.
You know, they usually know when are the best places
to place your video cameras or you can you know,
it's not too difficult, but you can get to do
it yourself systems. And I was gonna recommend one because
(27:12):
I really love this one, but I won't say it
because they're not a sponsor. But this one particular brand
is really good. You know, it's an indoor outdoor video
camera and the clarity is just just out of this world.
Even at nighttime it picks up. It sounds like you
(27:33):
wouldn't believe. I have a funny story about that one.
I'll say that for a later date. And they're easy
to install, but if you're not comfortable with that, you
can always call somebody in and gets you a whole
system set up where it includes the ring doorbell cameras
on the side, the lighting. You might even have something
(27:56):
included where you have the camera with the apicopitist called Oh,
I just had it in my head. The big lights
that usually people usually put in that backyards flood lights,
that's what it's called. That has the big flood lights
and stuff like that. You know, those are easy things
that you can do. And you know, if you're not
(28:19):
really up on stuff like that, just have somebody come in.
It's quick and painless. Just do that. It's not bad.
And I'm trying to think of some of the security systems.
I mean, they go from cheap to expensive. You know,
it depends on you know, what you could afford, how
(28:39):
high tech you wanted, how interactive you want it. As well.
When I used to have cameras, I put mine in
the inside as well, just because I had a dog
at home and I wanted to see what the dog
was doing, and it was my opportunity to talk through
the camera to the dog, you know, just to mess
with them. But yeah, they have a lot of different things,
a lot of different things. Just just go do your
(29:02):
research and you know, even go to like I said,
best Buy has them. We can put your hands on things.
Let's see how it goes. You know, don't ask the
local police departments. They're not gonna endorse any particular brand
of UH security cameras or alarms. I don't think that's
supposed to do that. But you know that's something you
(29:24):
could do on your own. So speaking about things that
you could do on your own, we're gonna go into
behavioral tips. This is huge, okay huge, and like I said,
all these things are really really simple. But we're gonna
go over some behavioral tips. When we come back from
our commercial break and we're back. And for those who
(29:53):
didn't know, Hey, this is the first week of NFL football.
I'm still glad football season has kicked off. You know.
There was some really really close games, some exciting games,
you know, and if your team didn't win, don't worry.
It's the first game of the season. There's a long
season ahead, but you know, some really really good games.
(30:14):
So I'm looking forward to the season. And you, if
you've been followers, you know who my team is. So
I'm not even mention it. Yes they won, all right.
So behavioral tips, here's some things that you can do
to deter burglaries. One, don't advertise your absence, okay, avoid
(30:35):
posting vacations in real time. Like this is what I see, right,
People go on vacation, they go on Facebook, TikTok or
Instagram and they have some lovely videos already. Update. What's
the other one? Twitter or X it's called X formally
(30:56):
known as Twitter, and they post their hourly activities, you know,
they put out there. You can tag your location, Oh,
I'm in Florida for the week. You know, Hey, they're
having parties and this and that whatever, and it doesn't
take you know a genius to figure out, Oh, that
person's out of town for the week. That means their
(31:18):
house couldn't be a target. Right. Don't advertise your absences,
avoid putting vacations online in real time. Now, if you
want to go someplace, it's easily you can have the
time beaver life, and then when you come back post
all that this is what I did last week. Something
as simple as that. It's not difficult. You know now
(31:42):
again that when you're away from a house, use some
timers for those lights. They have that there if you
use timers where your lights come on at certain times,
and even they have the automatic timer plugs where if
you wanted to have your lights on the inside come on,
the outside lights come on, or even the TV or
(32:06):
radio starts playing at certain times. Think of things like that.
You want to make sure that you have your house
looks lived in or is being occupied easy enough, even
when you go away, you know, you might ask your
neighbor who has multiple vehicles, Hey, you know I'm going
away for a week. If you have any company, you know,
(32:27):
tell them the park of my driveway, or you could
put your second car on my driveway. But to help
us out, you know, and it helps them out as well,
because you know it might be you a victim that
you know gives them the idea to come back and
do the next house. Anyway, and neighbors help neighbors. So
(32:49):
you're looking at your trash cans, you know, have your
neighbor a trust the neighbor or family member comes past
and take your trash out, put it on the curb
where it's usually sitting. Come collected when it's supposed to
be collected. Don't take off your neighbors and put if
you know the trash has to be picked up Monday morning,
(33:12):
don't put it out Friday night. You know that's just
being annoying and it's probably against the law anyway. But yeah,
you want to have that neighbor, family, friends, or whatever
come by pick up your mail, the newspapers, all that
type stuff, because you again, you want to make sure
that your home looks lived in and nothing says I'm
(33:34):
not there. Then when you have newspapers piled up in
front of your door, or mail that's popping out of
your mailbox or what do you call them things those
flyers that's so old that they are disintegrating, you won't
have your neighbor or trusted person. I'm gonna say that
(33:55):
a trusted person come and take your mail and all
other type stuff because you want to make it sure,
or you want to make sure that your house has
lived in or occupied. Right, change up your routines, make
your presence less predictable. Now you've heard me say that
(34:15):
on AVI was it the Purple The Personal Security Podcast episode?
We did less predictable. We are creatures of habit. I
know that I'm one too, but I do change up
every once in a while. But change up your routines.
Don't do the same thing where somebody can just sit
(34:37):
out there for about fifteen twenty minutes or even a
half a day and know your entire routine, the way,
the times that you walk, where you walk, how long
you're walking, you know the car. That's another thing too.
You can go to some neighborhoods during the daytime and
you can look down the block and see no vehicles
(34:58):
out there. Like everybody looks the same. And it just
assumed that if I go and bring into a house,
then nobody's gonna see me. No neighbor's gonna see me
because they're not home either. Right, But change up your
routine anyway. Another thing you want to do is, oh,
you know, I'm I'm gonna tell you here's some things
(35:19):
to do in the inside. This is this is this
is not so much of the turrent for burglaries, but
this is the things that you can do to help
yourself if you are a victim of a burglary. Write
down the serial numbers, make model serial numbers, all of
all those things of your valuables, you know, even things
that you can aggraeve and grave with your maybe your
(35:40):
driver's license number or your telephone number. Where if somebody
was to come across a burglar with or a suspicious
person that have, you know, a TV or radio or
whatever they have, they can identify it. And you keep
those numbers in a safe place. Oh, you know, that's
(36:01):
that's important. You know, nothing more challenging when you have
a burglary and they have all your valuables, but there's
no way to identify the valuables even on a police report. Well,
you know, I don't have a serial number to give you.
I don't have a I don't even remember the color
(36:21):
of such and such. So you want to write those
things down. So if you are a victim. God forbid,
you have that information to give the police when they
come to take the report. But yeah, don't inside. Don't
put all your keys in an easy spot for them
to take. So if they break in your house, they
also have your keys and they can take your car too.
(36:43):
That has happened before. So change. That's a behavioral thing.
Put the keys in a in a not so obvious place,
and under the doormat is an obvious place. Don't do that.
Everybody knows to check under the doormat. Okay, So let's
(37:05):
see some other some other routines you could do. We
talked about uh oh routines. Cut your grass. If you
got high grass, nothing says I'm not home or I
don't care that when you have of your grass is
a foot tall, or you can pre arrange it with
the neighborhood, some of the neighborhood kids or whoever cuts
(37:27):
your grass. Maybe somebody can come through and just cut
your grass. You know you want to do that. That's
that's a good habit to have. Let's see. I think
that's all I can think of right now for the
behavioral tips and grabbing your your possessions, secure your keys,
(37:49):
take account of your keys. Make sure you know where
your keys are and then you can account for every key.
If you lose a key, you might want to consider
changing your locks. Consider it. You know people lose keys
all the time. You know that's a lot of money
to go in and change every lock you have on
your house. But you want to make sure you have
account of accountability over your keys. You definitely want to
(38:15):
do that. Yeah, So anyway, you have any questions, you
can ask your local police department, or you can send
us an email and we'll see if we can answer
your questions. But those are your behaviors, and we're going
to go into neighborhood awareness, and that probably should have
went the opposite direction, should have started at the neighborhood
(38:39):
and then talked about things going inside to your inside
your house. But it is what it is, neighborhood awareness.
And this is this is funny because you know, you
can live in a place for twenty thirty years and
not know your neighbors. So the first thing I'm gonna
say is get to know your neighbors. You don't have
to be buddy buddy with them, but get to know them.
(39:00):
You know you might need them one day you might
they might have some information. Oh you know that person
doesn't live there, that person is unfamiliar to that property.
Then we called the police. Right If my neighbors, I
know my neighbors have children. If I see, you know,
the child climbing in the window, I know that the
(39:23):
child lost their key. You know, that's different. But if
it's somebody's lurking around my neighbor's home and I know
who lives there, I know a little bit more than
just who lives there, that might prompt me to call
the police. So it's always good to get to know
your neighbors because neighbors look out for each other. With
(39:46):
that said, if you have a community association or a
homeowners association, get involved with the neighborhood watch program. Now,
studies have shown that in communities where they have a
neighborhood watch or what you call it, citizens on patrol,
crime is significantly lower. Okay, nothing beats an old, nosy
(40:09):
neighbor or you know, the neighborhood snitch that walks around.
They say, what you want makes a safer neighborhood. But
definitely if you can actually check with your local police
department and see how you can get that started as well.
Some places have grants that you can start up that
you know, help you out with signage or training to
(40:35):
make sure you have an actual working neighborhood watch program
or citizens on patrol, so don't be so shy. Then
you have this slogan or statement that people say, if
you see something, say something, you always hear that, right,
(41:00):
report suspicious activity immediately, don't wait till monday. This is
this is a killer. Right on Friday, my officer, on Friday,
I saw these guys, you know, walking around my neighbor's
property or you know, at such and such and they
hit on all black and you know it was closed,
(41:22):
and you know, I just wanted to wait till monday
to you know, let you know about it. Don't do that.
Don't do that, report suspicious activity immediately. The worst thing
that can happen is the police get there, deter something
from happening, or they identify a possible suspect or somebody
(41:46):
who would have been a suspect. Right, there's no harm
in that report suspicious activity. And if you want to
do it, one thing you want to do is get
a good description you know, height, weight, clothing, and the
height and weight is going to be difficult, you know,
looking out the window, whatever you can kind of estimate
(42:08):
and clothing say they're dark clothing, light clothing, because if
it was a night you may not be able to
really tell. You know, if you're not sure, you can
say dark or or light instead of oh it was
blue or black you don't know. You want to race
if you hear them talking, speech, their mannerisms, anything along
(42:29):
those lines, anything that they have in en hands, tools,
anything that you've heard, if you hear radio, you know,
all of those things you want to notice and then
report it to the police so they can respond accordingly.
And that's not too difficult. So have I said anything
too difficult yet? I don't think so. This is you know,
(42:53):
you don't have to be a super detective or you know,
prepare for the zion be apocalypse, just to you know,
do these things here. So we talked about the security systems,
the lighting behaviors, We talked about early things. We talked
about the mind of a burglar, some physical security measures.
(43:17):
I said, this is quick, but you know, they have
these presentations that the police department does to help you out.
But it's something quick for a podcast episode because we
we want to make sure that you are safe. You know.
So what else did we talked about? I think that's
about it. So nothing out here was difficult. We talked
(43:41):
about outdoor deterrent. So again, when you want to talk
about prevention, prevention is key. There's layers you got, you know, physical, digital, social, right,
those are the layers that you have. And the more
very that you create, the less appealing your home becomes.
(44:03):
Because they are they like the opportunity, and if your
property looks like it's not going to be an easy job,
they'll go to a property that may look easier. Now
I fail to mention this though, One of the things
(44:24):
that we would say is make sure that you keep
your property up because, believe it or not, criminals will
break into places that they feel is unoccupied, not just
not you know, going away from you know, on vacation
or anything like that, unoccupied because they might use that
as a base to get away from you know, you know,
(44:45):
crime apprehension, or use that to do other crimes in
the area. You know, some people just breaking the homes
and go in there and do all types of stuff, smoke, arson, whatever.
So make sure that your home looks like is lived
in even though you would think that, oh, that house
over there, you know, has the broken window, which is
(45:07):
broken window theory. They have the high grass vines all
up around the house. Whatever, it's probably not going to
be lived in. Let me go, we could break it there.
Maybe we might find something in there. Trust me, that happens.
And we talked about the little small habits. Lock your doors,
(45:29):
lock your windows, all those things make a big difference.
So but again, if you have any questions, you can
send us an email at hot topics that's topix Podcasts
at gmail dot com, or which I prefer this, or
call your local police department. You know, you can call
(45:49):
the district or precinct whatever they call it, ask for
the community affairs or community outreach or anything along those lines,
and you know they might be able to answer your questions.
I'm gonna say nine point nine out of ten they'll
probably be able to answer your questions. So I'm gonna
leave it here. I don't want this to be too
(46:10):
long because you know, if you're like me, my patience
is my attention span is very short. So you guys
can do us a favor, do yourself a favor. You'll
invite other listeners. You know, maybe they'll want to share
their home safety tips, maybe they might be able to
learn something from this episode. So and then invite others
(46:34):
to subscribe. You subscribe yourself obviously. That's www. Dot Hot Topics,
t opi x Hot Topics podcast dot com. And we're
on a bunch of platforms, Apple, Spotify, say those the
two most popular. I think iHeartRadio and YouTube is like
(47:05):
twelve of them. But yeah, check us out Hot Topics
Podcasts and you can also check us out with our
and our little videos and stuff like that on Facebook,
TikTok Ig, Tumblr, YouTube, Blue Sky Threads. And we have
coming up this month we have h missus and I
(47:30):
hope she's I said missus. Let's say mckita Scott. She's
going to be a candidate for Baltimore County fourth District Council. Okay,
so you know, if you have any questions, you can
email your questions in. We'll try to you know, ask
those questions. She'll be on I think is the end
(47:52):
of the month. But this is your opportunity to you know,
get involved with the election process, see what they see,
what or hear what they have to say, and maybe
it'll help you decide, be a responsible voter, help you
decide who you want to vote for. So anyway, thank
you guys for listening. Chiming in again you know you
(48:14):
want to say, like foul share you know the whole line,
and have a good week. Thank you family for listening
to the latest episode of Hot Topics. As usual, listen,
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