General Tips

• Ensure you have functioning locks, install quality deadbolts and a peep-hole
• Install screws or a blocking device above sliding windows and doors to prevent them from being lifted off the tracks
• Place a piece of wood in the track of sliding doors and windows to prevent them from being opened
• Record serial numbers of valuable items within your home, and consider taking a video recording of the interior of your home to document all contents
• Engrave valuables with a unique number or symbol to assist police in returning property if it is recovered
• Purchase a safe to store important documents, expensive jewelry and other valuable items or money
• Make sure your home is equipped with functioning smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
• Don’t open the door to strangers – ask to see identification from repair personnel or salespeople and make a call to confirm their attendance with the company if you’re skeptical
• Do not leave notes on your door advertising that you’re not home, or that you’re home alone
• Avoid putting your name on your home, door or mailbox
• Maintain a clear view to entry points, such as doors and windows, by keeping shrubs and bushes neatly trimmed as they provide a hiding place for criminals
• Ensure your garage and shed are locked to prevent criminals from accessing tools or ladders that could be used to break into your home
• Leave a spare key with a trusted neighbour rather than hiding one outside of your home

Lighting Tips

• Install motion activated lights outside of your home near doors and windows
• Utilize timers for interior lights and alternate the rooms they are turned on in to give the impression that someone is home
• If you do not have timers, leave various lights on when leaving your home

Apartment Security Tips

• Get to know your neighbours and look out for one another, communicating when you will be away and become familiar with each other’s daily routine
• Ensure external doors lock and are never left propped open
• Don’t allow anyone to enter the building if you don’t know them
• List only your first initial on the building directory
• Report suspicious persons and activity to your landlord or police

Vacation Tips

• DO NOT advertise on social media sites that you are going on vacation or are going to be away from home
• Wait until you return home before posting photos of your vacation online
• Notify a trusted neighbour of your vacation plans and leave them with emergency contact numbers
• Suspend newspaper delivery while you are away, or have someone attend regularly to collect the newspapers and mail
• Hire someone to keep the grass cut or driveway shovelled while you are away, and ask a neighbour to park in your driveway and put some of their garbage at your curb

If you arrive home to find that your house has been broken into, do not enter as there may still be someone inside. Call police immediately from a neighbour’s home, or your cell phone. If you have entered, do not touch or clean up anything and wait for police to arrive.