Investigators at Taraval Station have been seeing an increase of burglaries in our neighborhoods, the area around Lakeshore Ave, 9th Ave to 25th Ave and also around Lincoln Ave and the area on 36th Ave from Santiago St to Ulloa St. Leads are being investigated and are developing in to cases.
Be a good neighbor; if you see someone going door to door and ringing door bells for no apparent reason, please call the police!
Although home burglaries may seem random in occurrence, there is an active selection in process. Simply, homes are chosen based on several factors such as an unoccupied home with easy access (unlocked windows, doors, etc), the greatest amount of cover (to hide their actives from neighbors or pedestrians), and also homes with the fastest and easiest escape routes.
The following is a list of suggestions to minimize your risk by making your home look occupied and therefor unattractive to potential burglars:
- Make sure you do not put bicycles, leave bags, back packs or other items of value inside the front gate or an alley that leads to the front door.
- Use curtains on garage and basement windows.
- Never leave notes on your door such as “leave package with neighbors” as burglars will know that you absolutely are not at home.
- Lock all outside doors and windows before you leave the house or go to bed. Even if it is for a short time, lock your doors!
- Leave lights on when you go out. If you are going to be away for a length of time, connect some lamps to automatic timers to turn them on in the evening and off during the day.
- Keep your garage door closed and locked
- Don’t allow daily deliveries of mail, newspapers or flyers build up while you are away. Arrange with the Post Office to hold your mail, or arrange for a friend or neighbor to take them regularly.
- Take your garage door opener with you if you park your vehicle outside.
- If you hear the door bell ring or have an announced visitor, you do not have to answer it. But make some noise or have it seen that the house is occupied.
Make sure your home is secured and hard to break in to:
The most common way to force entry through a door with a wooden jamb is to simply kick it open. The weakest point is almost always the lock strike plate that holds the latch or lock bolt in place. The average door strike plate is secured only by the soft-wood doorjamb molding. These lightweight moldings are often nailed on to the door frame and can be torn away with a firm kick. Sliding-Glass Patio Doors can be defeated by the latch or just breaking the glass.
- No lock, regardless of its quality, can be truly effective. Key-in dead bolt locks provide minimum security. Ask a locksmith for advice on your situation.
- Consider upgrading the slide glass to a heavy duty unbreakable glass.
- Secure all accessible windows with secondary blocking devices.
- Block accessible windows so they can be open to no more than 6 inches for ventilation.
- Make sure someone cannot reach through an open window and unlock a door.
- Make sure someone cannot reach inside the window and remove the blocking device(s).
- Use anti-lift devices to prevent windows from being lifted out.
- Change locks immediately if your keys are lost or stolen.
- When moving into a new home, have all locks changed immediately.
- Pushbutton locks on doorknobs are easy for burglars to open. Install deadbolt locks on all your outside doors instead.
- Have adequate exterior lighting. A motion-sensitive light is recommended for backyards.
- Trim trees and shrubs so that they cannot be used as hiding places for intruders especially at the entrance way.
- Install Security Cameras
- Make sure you engrave all expensive items you have with your driver license number or other identifiable information.
- If you have a home alarm system, use it! Alarm systems are only useful when you remember to activate them. Many burglars know this and will not be deterred by a window sticker or sign indicating that the home has an alarm system. Contact your alarm company and ask to shorten the time it takes for the alarm to notify the alarm company. Remember that thieves will have several minutes before the alarm will notify the security company that there has been a break in. From there, it will take several more minutes for the company to notify the police and for the police to arrive on scene.
- Your neighborhood may also be interested in being active as a group! Start An Neighborhood Watch with SFSAFE