Beefing up security

We have had a number of burglaries on the estate in the last few weeks. So last night an ex-policeman, who lives here, gave us a talk about how we can help protect ourselves. He offered us some excellent advice about each of the different styles of house along with some general advice for all of us.

• Make sure all your doors and gates are locked when you go out. It is surprising how many people leave their gates unlocked which makes it easy for an intruder to get in.
• If you have an alarm set it when you are out and at night when you go to bed. Again there are people with alarms who have never used them.
• Hide your valuables in places that only you know about.
• Close and lock the shutters on the windows when you go away.
• Fit additional locks to patio style windows.
• Buy a personal attack alarm and keep it with you - pointing one at intruders and setting it off will scare the living daylights out of them.
• Leave a radio and lights on when you go out.
  
  

There were a couple of products that he mentioned which are particularly good. The first was the barking dog alarm which has a remote sensor placed outside the door of the house. When motion is detected the alarm triggers off a realistic digital recording of a barking dog. The device can be coupled with a light switch so that the intruder hears the dog then the lights go on giving the impression that the owner has been alerted.

Barking Dog Alarm from England

Barking Dog Alarm from Spain

He also mentioned secure padlocks and locks which prevent sliding windows from being opened. Lastly he talked about a bar which can be locked across the inside of a door to prevent it from being opened.

All excellent advice which should help us to give the message that Villas Andrea is not a place to bother with if you want to break in easily.