When you think about burglaries, most people will think of people in balaclavas picking their locks and sneaking in the dead of night. Trying hard not to be heard as the family slumbers upstairs. But while that image might be great for TV shows, it’s not really how it works in real life. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. But if you want good security for your home, then you need to understand when you’re most vulnerable, so today we’re going to share with you the most common times for burglars to strike – and why.

The Most Popular Times For Break-Ins

Forget everything you’ve ever learnt from horror films or bad soap operas, because most burglars will try to break into your home during the day. Specifically, in the afternoon, between noon and 4pm. And they won’t be wearing all black and covering their faces either – they will probably be wearing the most non-descript clothes you can find, with a baseball cap to cover their faces from anyone who might be watching. In daylight, they’ll just look like someone who’s lost and looking for an address – someone no one will recognise, or even remember seeing. The perfect cover for a break in.

Why?

Again, unlike the Hollywood depictions, burglaries aren’t random, and usually aren’t opportunistic attacks. Sure, some are, but the majority have been carefully targeted and planned out. According to the data, the majority of burglaries focus on lower-risk, higher-profit homes, and this is because burglars study their targets and pick their crimes based on a percentage of success. For the majority of people day-time shifts are the norm, and for most people work takes them away from home (under normal circumstances of course). So while there might be some people who work from home, most will leave their property empty for long stretches of time during the day. And even if there is a stay-at-home parent in the home, there will usually be a stretch of time around 2.30-4pm when they are out of the house on the school run.

Burglars do their best to identify houses like this. After all, they want to break into your home when there’s the highest chance of nobody being home, and when they can pass for an innocent passer by on the street. The last thing they want is to be creeping around at night with a whole family just upstairs, and with neighbours suspicious of anyone lurking near houses in the dark. So burglars will evaluate your property, and try to break in during the day.

How Do I Prevent Daylight Burglaries?

Understanding when the most popular times for burglaries are will probably mean revaluating your security measures a little bit. Most people focus on making sure their property is secure at night, and pay less attention to the protections during the day. So, here are a few ways you can deter those daylight break-ins.

Make friends with the neighbours: When it comes to protecting your home, your neighbours are your safety net. Being on friendly terms with the neighbours means they are more likely to notice something odd going on around your property, and alert you to it. It also means you can let them know if you’re heading out of town, and they can keep an eye on things for you.

Secure your property: Simple things are often the most effective. Never leave any windows open if you’re not in the house. Make sure your doors have good, reliable locks installed – not flimsy, out of sate ones that could be picked easily. When thinking of protection methods, include your shed, garage and any other outhouses too. Even if there’s nothing worth stealing in there, burglars will often search them for tools that will make breaking in easier.

Install motion sensor lighting: Leaving the lights on when you’re not home is old-fashioned advice, and honestly, it doesn’t work anymore. Burglars know this trick, and will look for other clues instead. So install a motion-sensor light instead. That way if a burglar is trying to scope your property without being spotted, the motion-activated light will draw a lot more attention to them that they expected.

Install a burglar alarm: One of the simplest and most effective ways of deterring burglars from your property is installing a burglar alarm. This will bring a huge amount of attention to burglars, and since they can see it from the outside, they are less likely to target your home. Most burglar alarms comes with an external box showcasing that there is an active security system indoors, which is enough to put off less determined thieves. You can improve this by adding a CCTV system as well so that even if something does happen, you can review it and improve.

At Securifix, we provide a wide range of anti-burglar systems, as well as general advice for keeping your home safe at all times of day. Even during lockdown, when most people are at home all the time, there are still a number of burglaries happening during daylight hours, that could have been preventable. If you would like to know more about how to protect your home and your family, just get in touch with the team today for your free consultation.