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Is your home a Soft Target? Examining home security and how to keep burglars at bay
Criminals are looking to take advantage of families traveling for the holidays. FOX 26 Reporter Gaby Hart shows you how to make sure you're not a soft target this holiday season.
HOUSTON - It’s the time of year where people are traveling to visit loved ones for the holidays and while homeowners are away, criminals are looking to play.
"If they’re casing a home or looking for a place; they’re really trying to determine whether someone’s there or if the home’s vacant." Said Home security expert Chris Compagna.
Campagna is with Home Security Systems a family business that’s been providing home defense systems in the Houston area since 1972.
"What is the soft target? What is the easy target? Majority of burglaries take place in the back and sides of homes, that’s generally where people go to make entry where they can’t be seen." He said.
RELATED: Are you a soft target? Examining ways to make criminals think twice before victimizing you
Campagna tells Fox 26 that one way to protect your house while traveling is to make it look like someone is home.
However, leaving the same light on the entire time you’re gone won’t cut it anymore because criminals are getting smarter, but thankfully so is technology.
"Having lighting systems in the house so we can have the house illuminated and having different randomized schedules, so the lights come on and off, so it looks like someone is actually in the home." Campagna explained.
Most people know the basics to protect their homes like alarm systems, Ring doorbell and security cameras which he says are all effective.
Still, security experts recommend taking it a step further to really make sure your home becomes a hard target.
"Property awareness has become a larger and larger piece of the security industry. You can get notifications and visual notifications that somebody’s come onto your property." Campagna said.
Officer George Guerrero a 27-year veteran with Houston Police Dept. has some advice for homeowners as well.
"A dog barking. The security lights go off and all of a sudden you hear a dog barking? That’s a big turn off nobody wants to get bitten by a dog." Guerrero said.
And turns out you don’t actually have to have a dog to make the bad guys think you do.
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Are you a soft target? Why guns don't always work
FOX 26 Reporter Gabby Hart spoke with some experts on why sometimes having a gun doesn't always work for you.
"There’s alarms out there where it just sounds like a dog whether you have a dog or you don’t, it’s a neat little trick." Guerrero said.
In light of recent and violent home invasions that have played out in the Houston area, people should remember to protect their home even when they’re inside.
Campagna says don’t get comfortable, if you’re inside for the night set your alarm right away, and always communicate with strange visitors through your doorbell camera.
So what if even with all the right security measures in place a criminal still manages to make their way inside of your home?
"You have to go through them, you can’t go around them so you go through them." Said Joseph Pete, Co-owner of Level 6 Krav Maga in Houston.
Level 6 teaches intense and effective self-defense tactics.
"There comes a time when you have nowhere to go you have to fight through that person, and I’ll say be more offensive then defensive.
I use speed, I use time, I use any advantage that I have to put the assailant down so that I can get to safety. The longer I take, the more they look around my room for weapons." Pete said.
And some homeowners may think since they have a gun they’ll be able to fend off a criminal with no problem.
Lamont Perkins, Houston CCW instructor and owner of GUNNS training academy says if you’re not educated on how to react in a high-stress situation then a gun won’t do you any good.
"Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you’re safe because somebody can take that gun from you, always train for worst-case scenario." Said Perkins.
And Pete says there’s one technique that everyone at home should practice so if the worst-case scenario does happen, you’ll have an advantage.
"Can you walk through your apartment or house with the lights off or with your eyes closed and not bump into anything? If somebody’s in there at 2 or 3 in the morning and it’s dark you have the advantage because you know the terrain."