50 cent crime solutions to keep your home safe
10:05 p.m. Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Having your home invaded causes nothing but headaches and frustration.
Our 49 News Crime Tracker found home burglaries make up 13.3 percent of all crime in the city.
But with just a few coins, there are some small things you can do to avoid being hit by thieves.
Some of the ideas may seem odd, but police say they can go a long way in keeping your home safe. Just about everything you need can be found at your local hardware store.
Retired police Sgt. Richard Johnson showed us how most door plates are installed with short screws, leaving homeowners at risk. A criminal can just knock the door frame right off.
Crime Tracker Stats
There have been 971 home burglaries in Topeka through November 1 of this year. That’s compared to 1,229 in all of 2006 and 1,462 in 2005.
But if you replace them with long screws, around three inches in length, it makes it much harder for criminals to get in your home. Johnson recommends four to six screws per door.
You can also put screws in either side of your windows. That way if a crook tries to get in, the window won’t go up very far.
Screws: 17 cents each.
Johnson also showed us the importance of putting house numbers on the back of your house. If a neighbor living behind you sees something suspicious, they can call police right to your home.
House numbers: 59 cents each.
“It’s silly,” said Johnson. “But the truth is that once you’re a victim, you’re a victim for the rest of your life. Whenever your home’s been invaded, you’re afraid to leave it, you’re afraid to come back.”
Set up your own Internet group for safety
You can establish your own neighborhood Internet grapevine to alert each other of suspicious activity where you live. Log onto groups.yahoo.com/ and pass the word to your neighbors.
Sally Zellers, Safe Streets, showed us how she communicates with her neighbors about the goings-on in their neighborhood.
Through an Internet group, neighbors are able to share information. For example, if there’s a suspicious person or car in your neighborhood, you can alert neighbors about it instantly.
Internet group: Free.
“It’s replacing, in a lot of areas, phone trees,” Zellers said. “It used to be, I’ll call you, you call him … and then that way all the neighbors would know. This way it’s quick, fast and anybody that wants to sign up can.”
These ideas may seem too simple to really work, but a few cents could go a long way in making Topeka the safest Capital City in the country.
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