Tips on burglary prevention for students and other residents

Burglary is a crime of opportunity.

Burglars aim for the easiest targets.  Almost half of all completed residential burglaries resulted from thieves simply gaining entry through unlocked doors or unlocked windows.  Most burglars will give up and move on if they can't get in within a few minutes.  To keep burglars away from your house or apartment, make their work difficult, risky and low-profit.

  If you are going home for the weekend or the holidays:

• Take expensive, portable items with you.
• Advise a trusted neighbor of your travel plans and ask him or her to watch out for suspicious people and/or activity around your home or apartment.
• Refrain from publicizing your absence from Columbus until after your return.
• Don't allow deliveries of any kind, including mail and newspapers, to accumulate on your doorstep.  If you don't wish to cancel deliveries, arrange for a neighbor to pick them up.  You can arrange for your local post office to hold your mail until you return.
• Lock all doors and windows.  Leave all shades and blinds in their normal positions.
• Connect one or two lamps and, perhaps, a radio to an automatic timer.  They are inexpensive and help to make your home appear "occupied."

Keep track of your property, so if stolen, it can be returned:

• Make a list of the serial numbers of all your property.  Store the list in a safe place.
• The Community Crime Patrol and University Police have special marking pens which write in invisible ultraviolet ink.  You may use the pens to easily write an identifying number on your property, such as cell phones, computers and audio equipment.  Police will detect stolen property with an ultraviolet light.
• Photographing or videotaping your possessions is a convenient way to keep a record of what you own.
• Music CDs are easily stolen and often re-sold for quick cash.  Use a permanent felt tip pen to write your name and driver's license number on the front of each CD.

Check the locks:

• Make sure every external door has a sturdy, well-installed dead bolt lock.   Key-in-the-knob locks alone are not enough.
• Sliding glass doors can offer easy access if they are not properly secured.  You can secure them by installing commercially available locks or putting a broomstick or dowel in the inside track to jam the door.  To prevent the door being lifted off the track, drill a hole through the sliding door frame and the fixed frame.  Then insert a pin or screw in the hole.  The pin or screw should stick out just far enough to allow the door to slide, but not allow the door to be lifted out of its track.
• Lock double-hung windows with key locks or "pin" windows by drilling a small hole into a 45 degree angle between the inner and outer frames, then insert a nail that can be removed.
• Burglars know the best places to find keys hidden outside your home.  Instead, give an extra key to a trusted neighbor.

Check the doors:

• All outside doors should be metal or solid wood.
• If your doors don't fit tightly in their frames, install weather stripping around them.
• Install a peephole or wide-angle viewer in all entry doors so you can see who is outside without opening the door.

General precautions:

• If you don't own your home, consider buying renters' insurance.  Your landlord generally will not be responsible for your possessions.
• Thieves hate bright lights.  Install outside lights and keep them on at night.

Prevent auto theft and auto break-ins:

• Don't leave valuables in plain view in your car.  Buy radios, tape and CD players that can be removed and locked in the trunk.
• Remove valuable property from your car whenever possible.
• Install a mechanical locking device -- commonly called clubs, collars or j-bars -- that locks to the steering wheel, column or brake to prevent the wheel from being turned more than a few degrees.  The thief will look for an easier target.
• Park in busy, well-lighted areas.

Be alert to suspicious behavior in your neighborhood.

Police officers ask citizens to alert police to this behavior.  Officers urge citizens:  When in doubt, call the police.

For more information on crime prevention and safety services, you may reach the University Police web site at http://www.ps.ohio-state.edu and the Columbus Division of Police web site at http://www.columbuspolice.org.

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