Recently Readers Digest featured an article with an insight in the criminal mind of a burglar. Here are 21 tips from assorted sources listed below:

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator. 
2. Hey, thanks for letting me use your bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.
3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste ... and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.
4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flier in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it.
5. If it snows while you're out of town, get a trusted neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway that no body's home. 
6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don't let your alarm company install the control pad where I can look through the glass to see if the alarm is set. That makes it too easy.
7. A good security company 'alarms' the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom and your jewelry. It's not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there, too.
8. It's raining, you're fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door  - understandable! But also understand this: I don't take a day off because of bad weather.
9. I always knock first. If you answer, I'll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don't take me up on it.)
10. Do you really think I won't look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.
11. Helpful hint: I almost never go into kids' rooms.
12. You're right: I won't have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it's not bolted down, or not too heavy, I'll take it with me. 
13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you're reluctant to leave your TV on while you're out of town, you can buy an inexpensive device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television.
14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook. 
15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.
16. I'll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he'll stop what he's doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn't hear it again, he'll just go back to what he was doing. It's human nature.
17. I'm not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?
18. I love looking in your windows. I'm looking for signs that you're home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I'd like. I'll drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.
19. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It's easier than you think to look up your address. 
20. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it's an invitation.
21. If you don't answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.

Sources: Convicted burglars in North Carolina , Oregon , California , and Kentucky; security consultant Chris McGoey, who runs crimedoctor.com; and Richard T. Wright, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who interviewed 105 burglars for his book Burglars on the Job. 

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Beginning March 1, the Frisco Police Department will begin enforcement of the city's new residential and business burglar alarm ordinance. The city council passed the ordinance late last year, but officials held off on enforcing it to give residents and business owners time to comply.

Full Story Here

The city council passed an ordinance late last year that requires residents and businesses to pay a $35 annual fee for their alarms and imposes fines up to $100 for excessive false alarms in a calendar year.

Frisco Alarm Permits Here:

Frisco Alarm Permit.pdf (152.32 kb)

At NTX Security we offer free security related information and suggestions to our community and our potential clients through our website, security blog, news articles and our free on-site security evaluations. Please feel free to send this article to someone you care about or whom you feel could benefit from this information. Click here for Business Security or here for Home Security.

"It came in the mail less than a month after Darline Fairchild watched her family's home go up in flames -- a bill for the nearly $28,000 it cost the fire department to extinguish the blaze. "

Full Story here

Intresting article. What are your thoughts: Should a tax supported Fire Department charge you to repsond to a fire on your property?

At NTX Security we offer free security related information and suggestions to our community and our potential clients through our website, security blog, news articles and our free on-site security evaluations. Please feel free to send this article to someone you care about or whom you feel could benefit from this information. Click here for Business Security or here for Home Security.

Fact: Fire does not care who you are, how much money you make, what kind of car you drive or how much "stuff" you have in your man cave. Fire does not care if you are white or black, rich or poor, single or married.

Here are some more facts:

• An estimated 54,500 heating fires occur each year in the United States.
• Heating is the second leading cause of all residential building fires following cooking. 
• Residential building heating fires peak in January and February; this peak accounts for 34 percent of fires.
• Confined heating fires, those fires confined to chimneys, fuels, fuel boxes, or boilers, account for 87 percent of residential building heating fires.
• Thirty-one percent of the nonconfined residential building heating fires occur because the heat source is too close to combustibles.
• Residential building heating fires peak in the early evening hours between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. with the highest peak between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. This 4-hour period accounts for 30 percent of all residential building heating fires.
• The percent of residential building heating fires declines to the lowest point during the summer months from June to August. Heating fires during these months tend to be confined fuel burner/boiler malfunction fires (64 percent) or involve water heaters (10 percent).

View the entire report on Heating Fires in Residential Buildings here:

Heating Fires in Residential Buildings.pdf (758.39 kb)

Story here:

Ultimately stats are just numbers and do not protect a family or business, prevent an intrusion or heal a victim.

Take steps to better prepare yourself in the event of an emergency:

1. Read about steps you can take to protect yourself from crime and violence www.MyNTX.com/blog
2. Make a commitment to be an active participant in your own crime prevention program - in other words, put action to what you learn.
3. Request a Free Security Review from the security professionals at NTX Security.

At NTX Security we offer free security related information and suggestions to our community and our potential clients through our website, security blog, news articles and our free on-site security evaluations. Please feel free to send this article to someone you care about or whom you feel could benefit from this information. Click here for Business Security or here for Home Security.