I once knew an insurance adjuster who worked in the burglary
division of his agency and I'll never forget the day he said to me, "You'd be
surprised at who's been in your fridge eating that cold fried chicken."
I have never been able to shake that image in my head of
someone in my home when I wasn't there, eating out of my fridge, sitting in my
favorite chair, rifling through my drawers, and invading my private space. It made me realize it was naïve to think that my home was
safe and secure behind my flimsy lock and easily kicked-in deadbolt.
People's homes get broken into every single
day, and though we believe it could never happen to us, I'd imagine all those
who have suffered through a home invasion once thought the same thing.
Though we may want to believe we are immune to such
misfortune, the odds are not in our favor.
In the U.S., a burglar breaks into a home every 15 seconds. According to the FBI, 62% of those burglaries
occur during the day, between 9am-3pm, when most people are at work and their
homes are left unoccupied and are more vulnerable to an invasion.
Here locally we have cause for even more concern. Of all the burglaries that occur in the
United States, almost half of them - 45% - occur in the South.
Louisiana itself, especially in and around
the Baton Rouge area, has a notoriously high crime rate. Statistics state that you have a 1 in 27
chance of becoming a victim of property crime in this state; in fact, of the
12,666 property crimes committed in Louisiana in 2011, 4,220 of them were
burglary of a residence or business.
And yet, there is something you can do to prevent you and
your family becoming a victim. In
contrast to the frightening stats above, it is proven that homes which have a
fully-monitored alarm system are 3 times less likely to be burglarized. If that isn't incentive in these times we
live in, I don't know what is!
[Call Alarm Center Security today for a FREE quote on a security system for your home or business - 1-800-97-ALARM - or visit our website to see if you qualify for a $0 down installation - alarm.net]
