20 Tips to Prevent a Home Invasion

We've had a string of shootings over the past couple weeks including two home invasions here in Las Vegas.  One of the home invasions was by a person who knew the family in the house; there are no details yet on the shooter in the second home invasion.  Needless to say, such occurrences lead the news and freak out the neighbors and make everyone else wonder if such a thing could happen to them.  Here are some home invasion prevention tips:

1. Most home invasion robberies happen in bad neighborhoods.  Occasionally a high value target (aka a home in a very nice neighborhood) is burglarized or robbed but most crime happens in (duh) high crime areas.
2. Make it a habit to always lock your doors anytime you enter or leave your home.  Many crimes are crimes of opportunity and an unlocked door can be an irresistible opportunity to a criminal.
3. Keep your garage door and outbuilding doors locked unless you are immediately accessing them.
4. Make sure your windows are kept locked and make sure they are in good repair (not broken) as well as of good quality (low e double-pane windows as opposed to thin single pane windows).
5. Make sure your garage door and the doors to your home (front door, back door) are solid (ie sold wood or steel doors) with no windows and include dead bolt locks.
6. Have a fenced yard and make sure the fence is locked after you enter or leave your property.  This is another layer of deterrent for opportunistic criminals. 
7. Have a dog.  Even a small, yappy thing will be useful as an alarm when a stranger comes near your home.  A bigger dog is a bigger deterrent.
8. Install a security system (these are getting cheaper to buy and easier to install as each year passes).
9. Have a panic alarm system in your house that is both audible and alerts the police when pushed.
10. Keep anything of value out of sight unless you are using it.  A safe, cash, jewelry, electronics and other small and attractive items should not be left laying around where the kid's friends and/or service people who come to your house can see/grab them or decided to come back at night and steal them.
11. Don't brag about what you have and instill this in your children as well.  If people think you have a safe full of cash and gold, word will get around and someone will decide they should come and relieve you of your valuable stuff, sometimes at gun point.
12. Have flood lights that can illuminate all parts of your property.  Have these and other exterior lights on a motion sensor as well so they will light up if someone enters your property.
13. Keep your property in good condition (no overgrown bushes, no stacks of flyers on the front stoop, etc).  You want your property to look well cared for and obviously lived in.
14. Look at your landscaping as another line of defense.  You don't want to have a trellis or tall, easily climbable tree that will allow easy access to the second floor of your home.  You do want to have roses or other thorny shrubs under the lower level windows of your home to make entry more difficult.
15. Don't leave your keys, cell phone, and wallet where they can be seen from the front door or through a window.
16. Keep your blinds closed at night (if you don't do this, with the lights on at night, anyone walking by can clearly see what you and your family are doing).
17. Be aware of what is happening around your neighborhood.  Know who your neighbors are, notice anyone who doesn't belong in your neighborhood, notice cars that drive by and people who walk by, videotape anything unusual, etc.
18. Always do a check when leaving your home and before going to bed.  Check all doors and windows to make sure they are locked, set the alarm, make sure the stove is turned off and security lights are on, etc.
19. If someone knocks on your door, you don't have to open it.  Yell through the door and tell the person you aren't interested in what they have to sell.  This way, they know someone is home but they don't have an easy entry into the home if their purpose is robbery.
20. Have a stash of firearms and know how to use them.  Unfortunately, when it comes down to it, if someone is coming after you with a gun, your only defense is a gun of your own.  At this point the police will be too far away and the assailant will probably be beyond reasoning with.

More good tips here.