Do your windows & doors look enticing to burglars? Let us help you burglar-proof your home

Have you ever suffered from an in home burglary? I have and I wanted to share with you my story below, a story that over 312,000 kiwis experienced in 2018. And When you get burglarized, it’s not just your stuff that you lose. It's a feeling of being unsafe in your own home. It's in a situation like this you start to think about the dollar value of safety. Sure I can replace my $1400 laptop, but how do you get that feeling of being safe in my own home back.

“There were around 312,000 burglaries in 2018, with 17.5 per cent of households falling victim, some repeatedly. One in eight adults experienced a burglary in 2018.” - Source The best investment in loving life; window locks and door screens

I was, 27 years old, it was the school holidays, there I was, driving to work, I was about 20 minutes down the road when I realised I left my hair straightener on. So I hung a U- turn and pulled in the drive to dart in and turn it off.

As I walked up to the front door I could see the back patio door through the window, hanging open. My housemates were all at work… I wondered who was home, then as I walked in and gazed into my type A neat freak housemates now messy room, my heart sank into my stomach… OH MY GOD I’VE BEEN ROBBED.

Armed with my keys between my fingers I crept around the house, listening for signs of burglars, now - if I had have seen any - I do now think I would have not been equipped to deal with them, but I was running on adrenaline at that point.

After a minutes of cautiously walking into the living room and kitchen I realised that I was in the house alone, and I could breathe again.

Then it dawned on me - MY LAPTOP WAS SITTING ON MY BED! I sprinted into my room to find it untouched - I exhaled deeply.

Then I bee lined to my flatmates room to find his dawns turned out, half eaten chocolate on the bed, and a state of disarray. I immediately rang him to tell him about the burglary to ask him if he left anything valuable in his room.

His tablet - GONE
His personal laptop - Gone
His Easter chocolate - Gone
The $50 sitting in his dresser - GONE.
The alcohol from the liquor cabinet gone

I then moved on to call the police, who surmised it was likely local neighbourhood teens watching the place, then breaking in to steal a few electronics and chocolate. They think I had interrupted their crime screen so they had only gotten to the first room before being interrupted and fleeing back out the back patio door.

They had gotten in by lifting the sliding door and sliding it across from outside. The lock on the door was loose and was easily wiggled open.

This could have easily been stopped by some extra security to our back sliding door. Back doors are often only fitted with a simple lock and knob, leaving them more vulnerable than the front. A patio bolt would have added an extra layer of protection with a push to lock option and a key with a dead lock. Patio Bolts are fitted to normally the inside of a sliding door at the back top they prevent the door from being slide and second stop it from being lifted. It is amazing that something as simple as a modern latch or bolt could be the difference to walking in the door to your worldly possessions being there - or into an empty house.

Tip: When we fit patio bolts in peoples properties we often put a second hole so the door can be bolted in the open position to allow air to flow through the house but a gap small enough to stop people from walking through an open door uninvited. There are a number of different versions of patio bolts but all have a bolt lockable by key some are small and some are large but all do the same thing. This can also be colour matched to your joinery.

Exceed technicians can colour match patio bolts to your existing joinery. They can provide any New Zealand powdercoat colour at an awesome price, talk to your local FO.

• Make your home looked lived in, trim the hedges, mow the laws, bring the rubbish bins in.
• Don’t leave valuable items like keys out in easy view for opportunistic thieves.
• Add one key locks to windows and doors so they can be unlocked or locked with one key.
• Install window security stays so a person could not fit through the gap, this also have the benefit of making sure your kids do not fall out.
• Upgrade beads and rubbers to hold any glass in place.
• Install a multi point locking system for any doors.
• Install key operated deadlocks for doors.
• Install digital deadlocks and grant short term access to people as needed during certain hours.
• Install hinge bolts to stop doors from being lifted out of their frames.
• Install hydraulic or automatic door closers.
• Install an alarmInstall automatic security lighting
• Install security screens on all doors to keep your family safe
• Get someone to evaluate your home security (we can do this for you - sing out if you need help with that)

We can provide a security check of your home and make recommendations for the type of hardware you could use to defend your home against criminals and get peace of mind. We can colour match most bolts and locks for your back doors to your joinery and come with a fully equipped van with everything we need to secure your home.