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Crime prevention officer supplies simple tips to avert serious rip-offs, robberies
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If a thief or burglar really wants to get into your home or condo, he’ll do so, but placing deterrents in his path will likely steer him along the path of least resistance.
Translation: He’ll go rip off some other place.
That’s the message from Sgt. Dan McDonald of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office crime prevention unit.
McDonald addressed a recent meeting of Marco Association of Condominiums members, and said something as simple as placing a thorny plant in front of a vulnerable window could indeed act as a deterrent.
“And,” McDonald added, “not only do they serve as a crime prevention measure, but they also look nice.”
Talking about safety inside homes and condos, McDonald said knocks should always be treated with some degree of caution, particularly if one has a door peep hole and cannot see the person concerned.
Outside condos and homes and in parking lots, McDonald said, it’s worth perusing the entire area in general for any possible suspicious people.
In the case of keyless car entries, McDonald said it’s wiser to activate the devices just before reaching vehicles rather than from afar.
“When you hit the thing twice, all your doors open, and you might not see someone opening the passenger door,” he said.
He said a couple of good habits to develop include having keys ready in supermarket parking lots instead of downing packages and then scrabbling for keys.
That, he said, is a distraction that seasoned thieves can pounce on.
Other points he made included trusting one’s instincts if something “doesn’t feel right,” and making sure of having a good cell phone charged all the time.
When further afield, maybe in a strange town, perusing a map can often be a dead giveaway.
“The bad guys in that case have home field advantage,” he said. “They know their territory, and could easily give you wrong directions and follow you.”
ATM use should always involve caution as well, he said, and doing something as simple as blocking potential thieves from viewing PIN’s for example, could save later frustration.
And, McDonald said, people shouldn’t baulk at calling police should they feel threatened or uncomfortable about any situations.
“Don’t feel you’re bothering us with frivolous reports,” he said. “Let us do what we do.”
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