Home Security - the Home Invasion

While a burglary is a home invasion, the usual meaning of the phrase and the meaning I intend here, is when one or more intruders forcefully enter your home in the presence of you or your family in an open and notorious way.

Their intention may be primarily burglary, but instead of a stealthy attempt to steal and leave, they use a confrontational approach. It takes little thought to realize that the risks in this case for the home owners are far greater and include a much greater likelihood of assault, rape, and murder. In some cases, those will be the primary intention of the invaders. In either case, invaders who make it into the home typically use extreme violence to immediately establish control over their victims.

How do you prevent a home invasion? Many of the same steps outlined in my previous articles on home security apply, but there a few extra considerations. The assumption in those articles was that you will be away or in bed asleep when the attempt at burglary occurs. Now we must assume that you and your family are home and are being targeted. We will also assume that you have followed the advice in my previous articles and hardened security on your doors and windows.

You must plan and prepare with your whole family in advance what to do in case of a home invasion. The plan and preparation should cover the following:

Use your alarm system even when you are home. If you want windows open, then have a secondary alarm point set up so that they may be opened and alarmed and will trigger an alert if they are moved.

Always have the garage door closed. The door from the house to the garage should have a peephole. The garage door itself should be alarmed as well as any other door from the outside into the garage.

Do not open your door to a knock until you know who is on the other side. When you do open the door, your dog should be at your side. Be aware that home invaders may pretend to be deliverymen or may pretend to be lost and needing directions or may ask to use the phone. Family members should be told to say that they are not allowed to open the door.

If a door or window is broken and the alarm sounds, then family members should know that they should go directly to the Safe Room and call the police. They should not delay. Ideally, a camera mounted outside the Safe Room will let them know if other family members come to the door of the Safe Room and can be let in. Again, they should not delay calling police. Once that call is made, it is no longer a bargaining chip and the invaders can not threaten to harm other family members to keep the call from being made.

Family members who make it to the safe room should not come out for any reason and should avoid communicating or bargaining with the invaders.

Whether it is best to fight back or to simply obey home invaders is impossible to say. It depends on their intentions and their personalities. Some will flee if too much of a fight is evident. Others may become even more violent.