Distraction burglary is a crime in which elderly persons are often the targets. The burglar seeks to draw a resident out of the house on a pretext. While the resident is occupied, an accomplice enters the home and picks up valuables such as money and jewellery.

Elderly individuals may be easy targets as they are more likely to live alone or they may need help in maintaining their property. Most ruse burglars tend to be more active in warmer months, when they are more likely to drive around neighbourhoods looking for senior citizens outside their homes tending their gardens or working on the exterior of their houses.

Recently, distraction burglars used water ruse to steal. According to Ripley and Heanor News, “burglars struck twice at a sheltered housing court for elderly people in Loscoe, near Heanor in Derbyshire.

“The burglaries took place at Bellfield Court and cash was stolen in both cases. […] a 93-year-old woman answered the door to a man claiming that a neighbour had been complaining about poor water flow. He said he wanted to check the water supply and the woman invited him in.”

To prevent distraction burglary, be suspicious of anyone who comes to your door saying they are utility worker, public official, police officer, door-to-door salesperson, lost person asking for directions, or surveyor. In a recent variation, criminals tell the residents that they have won a gift card or other prize.

Choose home safes to store and protect your valuables items such as jewellery, gold, share certificates, annuities, wills, other valuable documents and cash.

Experiencing a fire that affects your house is a frightening, sickening and very upsetting experience. It is very important to know what to do to protect yourself and others from any possibility of harm.

Consider investing in a fire-resistant home safe. Most home safes are designed to protect their contents from fire. Fire is the number one concern of most buyers because, during an average lifetime, there’s a one in four chance of experiencing a household fire. The fire resistant safe is designed to give your valuables protection in case of a fire.
Placement of the safe in a part of the house that is less vulnerable to fire damage will help. Surrounding the safe with a simple fireproof structure will also increase the amount of time that a safe can resist high temperatures. One of the safest places for a fireproof safe is embedded in the concrete wall of a basement while a poor location would be anywhere in the upper structure of a building.

Success varies with the type of materials stored inside the safe since different items suffer damage at different temperatures. Consequently, 30 minutes of protection is most common for home safes, although you can also find safes that offer one or more hours’ worth.

Safes designed for documents need their interiors to stay under 350 degrees, while home safes designed to hold digital media are rated to stand up to stricter guidelines and need a much lower temperature to survive a fire. They are made of thick, fire resistant material that is designed to keep the interior as cool as possible during a burn, but don’t usually offer much protection in the case of theft.

On March 16, an LA home was burglarised and property was taken from the residence.

According to Police reports, the unknown suspects jumped over a security gate, used an unknown hard object to smash the side glass door and entered the residence. Once inside the home the suspects searched the location looking for items of value. The suspects set off the security alarms.

Police say the burglars took the safe from a walk-in closet, and used a rug to move it down some stairs and out the front door. The victim’s safe was believed to contain personal documents, jewellery and cash valued at approximately $10,000,000.00. That is quite amazing to have that much value in a home safe.

Investigators, however, have expressed some reservations about the value of the items because the owner has been unable to provide documentation. Moreover, the homeowners said their house is insured, but the contents of the safe were not.

Homeowners should know that burglary resistant safes can be bolted to the ground, or can be concealed in a wall or anchored in a concrete floor. The burglar-resistant safe is constructed with solid metal walls and a heavy door resistant to attack by drilling, cutting or prying. Hardened and drill resistant metals are often used to slow down attempts to break in to this type of home safe.

Choose a safe with at least 2 solid steel anti-drill rotating bolts. Select a safe with recessed doors for insertion protection, anti-labyrinth mechanism, tamper-proof security screws and bolt-side reinforced mechanism. Furthermore, choose one that features a good quality lock equipped with relocking device so that just in case an amateurish thief tries to tamper with the lock, the device automatically relocks the bolts.