We are in the midst of the dark days and every year we see an increase in burglaries, with a spike soon during the holidays. Still more than 4 out of 5 burglaries are committed "because the opportunity presents itself. We apparently give that opportunity plenty. Coen Staal, president of National Burglary Prevention Weeks (NIPW), says: "Many people just open the front door, as it were, to the burglar."

NIPW has been conducting two comprehensive surveys on burglaries, home security and victims every year since 2014. Staal says he sees three reasons why that front door is "open to burglars," so to speak. First, he cites the fact that one-third of front doors are not adequately secured. Furthermore, people leave the door unlocked up to a quarter of the time when they leave the house (briefly) and no one is in the house. And the last reason is, that more than two thirds do not leave an occupied impression when one is not at home in the evening.

One-third front doors are inadequately secured

Steel: "We found from photographs taken with respondents to the September 2019*) survey that two-thirds have their front door properly secured. Of these, 85 percent have secured their front door against cylinder pull by fitting hardware with cylinder pull protection. For the remaining 15 percent of well-secured front doors, although this has not been done, additional secondary locks have made it much more difficult for the burglar. And if a burglar finds a lock that takes him too long to pick, he will often take his chances a little further away. So good hardware really does make a lot of sense to prevent burglaries." However, how do you know your lock is properly secured? Staal continues: "We hear that question all too often. For that reason, on our website we have www.inbraakmislukt.nl a lot of information about it. It also tells you how to download the Burglary Prevention Check app on your mobile, so you can quickly click, using pictures, what your situation is and what you can do to improve it."

Door not locked

The second reason why burglars get in easily is, it doesn't matter what kind of lock you have, if you don't lock the door. Because then a burglar is inside within 20 seconds. He then does that with pinball. The burglar wedges a plastic card between your frame and your front door and pushes the latch open. Recent research shows that between 12 and 24% of family members sometimes or more often forget to lock the door. Steel says, "People are either lazy or forgetful, but just when they are away for a moment to walk the dog or run an errand, the front door is often just pulled shut without locking it. Then it becomes a piece of cake for the burglar to get in without causing burglary damage. So keep paying attention, or install a self-closing lock."

Occupied impression

By the third reason, Staal means that this does make it very easy for the burglar. "After all, if you let the burglar know very clearly that you are not at home, they have all the time they need to go about their business. And if they have a lot of time, they always come in. In very many houses, when it is dark and nobody is home, no light at all or only one light is on. Then a burglar knows he can go ahead. Walk past the houses in your neighborhood after dark. Even if you are not a burglar, you can see immediately who is or is not at home. So our advice is: when you're out at night, leave as many lights on as you do when you're home. Nowadays with timers and apps, you can easily turn your lights on and off on time. Even remotely," Staal said.

National Burglary Prevention Weeks

The National Burglary Prevention Weeks Foundation is a public-private partnership aimed at increasing residents' awareness of good burglary prevention and encouraging them to take action themselves. And thus contribute to the goal of the Ministry of Justice and Security to continue to substantially reduce the number of burglaries and burglary attempts. The foundation campaigns twice a year, in May/June and in November/December, already for the eleventh time this year. Partners in the foundation are the companies Assa Abloy, Ring, SecuritasHome and Yale Smart Living in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Association of Insurers. For more information, visit www.inbraakmislukt.nl .