Windows – the easy way into your home

Okay, you’ve got your doors nice and secure. Nobody will break into your home now, right?

Wrong.

Case in point. I was called in to secure a home that had been broken into. When I arrived at the inner city residence, the homeowners were obviously upset. The house had been turned upside down. The burglars had gotten away with two plasma televisions, jewellery, cash, computers – just about everything valuable.

When I surveyed how the perpetrators had gained entry, I saw that the front door was wide open, yet it had not been smashed. It was quite obvious to me why this particular house had been targeted. Unlike neighbouring homes, it had no alarm installed, and no gates along its perimeter. The burglars had just walked down to the side of the house and smashed a window to get inside. Yes, there were deadlbolts installed on all the doors, but the keys had been left in the lock on the back of a side door. To compound the error, all the locks in the house could be opened with one key. Smart burglars – they took the key out of the side door and opened the deadbolt to the front door and walked right out of the house. No problem getting those large TVs out.

Solution
All windows in a house and business need to be locked. There are many different window styles, and each has a proper corresponding lock. Windows can be made of wood or aluminium. They can be sliding, sash or awning. Here are examples of what these look like with their preinstalled locks.

Awning window with proper lock:

 

Sash window with proper lock:

 

Sliding window with proper lock:

 

These preinstalled locks may not be sufficient.

We recommend that a secondary lock be installed. Remember, windows are obviously a very easy point of entry for burglars because they are made of glass. Therefore, these must be key locked at all times. In addition to locks, there are other measures you can take to secure your windows. Once you have secured proper locks, you are ready to look into these.