Susie Boyer consulted the McMinnville Police Department and was given a pamphlet with suggestions for steps residents might take to keep their properties and belongings safe from theft and vandalism. Please look at these items—many are easy to do and could make a difference in your and your neighbors’ safety. If you have comments or suggestions which could benefit Shadowood as a whole, please contact someone on the Board.
Crime Prevention Guide
Keep Your Property, Home & Neighborhood Safe
- Pay attention to situations that can attract crime or make it easier to commit crimes, such as broken street lights or vacant properties.
- Everyone can take responsibility for reducing crime—even you. This guide can help you take the steps necessary to protect your property and home, not to mention yourself and your family. Review it and use its guidelines to keep crime at bay and to make your community a nicer place to live.
Keep Your Home Safe from Crime
Home burglary is one of the most frequent crimes, but also one of the most preventable. Use these tips to protect your home and belongings.
Basic Crime Stoppers:
- Lock your door and keep valuables out of plain sight.
- Leave spare keys in well-hidden places around the exterior of our home. Thieves will look in mailboxes, under doormats, and above doorways.
- Install a monitored burglar alarm system, if it fits your budget.
- Keep your name off your mailbox and door. Burglars can use this information to find your home phone number or check social media to see if you’re home.
- Change your locks right away if you lose your house key.
- Invest in a safe-deposit box or a secure fireproof home safe, preferably one that is too heavy to be moved.
- Avoid leaving notes on your door for service people or others.
- Lock up your house when going out, even just for a few minutes.
- Keep the door locked if anyone comes to your door wanting to use your phone. Offer to make the call for them yourself.
- Ask to see credentials or any salespeople who come to your house. They can push their ID under the door, or you can call their office before letting them in.
- Avoid obvious places to hide expensive possessions, such as under mattresses or in drawers.
Crime Proof the Outside of Your Home
- Keep your garage door closed and locked at all times.
- Frost or cover garage windows so that burglars won’t be able to see when your car is not there.
- Light all potential entry points to your home and garage (including doors and first-floor windows).
- Have a small peephole in the door separating your house from the garage. If you hear noises from the garage, you can check to see what is happening without opening the door.
- Use low-voltage bulbs to light porches, carports, and walkways.
- Install outdoor lights high overhead where burglars can’t reach them.
- Consider installing photocell lights, which come on automatically at dusk and stay on until dawn, or use motion sensor lights, which come on when a person walks past them.
- Trim shrubbery and bushes so they are below your windows and not blocking doors or walkways.
- Consider planting thorny bushes under or around windows.
- Keep fencing from hiding doors, walkways, or windows, or from serving as an aid to reach windows or balconies.
- Lock up ladders and tools that may help a burglar break in.
- Install window bars or grills on any outbuildings, especially if they have expensive items in them such as lawnmowers, tools, and gardening equipment.
Secure Doors and Windows
- Put in a door with a wide-angle peephole that allows you to view who is outside without having to open it.
- Install heavy-duty 1-inch deadbolt locks on all exterior doors.
- Set a pipe or metal bar snugly in the middle bottom track of the door slide on sliding glass doors.
- Check that no door has too much space between it and the frame. A gap as small as 1/8 inch can be pried open with a crowbar. If necessary reinforce doors with plywood or sheet metal.
- Have door hinges fitted on the inside. Otherwise, a burglar could enter your home by knocking out the hinge pins.
- Install locks on all windows that can open. Be sure that family members know how to open the windows from the inside in case of an emergency.
- Check local laws and regulations if you are considering installing security bars. Most areas require quick-release bars so they can be opened quickly from the inside.
- Familiarize everyone in your family with how to operate window security features.
- Make sure windows have burglar-resistant glass.