Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here, when you picture a burglar,
Speaker 1: who do you see? The black clad clip art guy
Speaker 1: with the tiny mask and a bulging bag of loot,
Speaker 1: or maybe the pair from the Home Alone movies casing
Speaker 1: a wealthy suburban neighborhood to know exactly when families are
Speaker 1: gone for Christmas vacation. The reality of burglary and burglars
Speaker 1: is very different than most of us think for starters.
Speaker 1: According to FBI statistics, the majority of residential burglaries happened
Speaker 1: during the day, not at night under the cover of darkness,
Speaker 1: and according to interviews with convicted burglars, only a third
Speaker 1: of all break ins are planned ahead of time, rather
Speaker 1: than being professional thieves. The typical profile of a burglar
Speaker 1: is a seventeen year old kid who's looking to quickly
Speaker 1: grab something valuable and scram But we spoke with Marcus Filson,
Speaker 1: a professor of criminal justice at Texas State University and
Speaker 1: a pioneering expert in the nature of criminal activities. He
Speaker 1: said burglaries are fast, typically over within five minutes and
Speaker 1: often within one minute. A lot of the time, the
Speaker 1: door isn't even locked. If they come in and rummage,
Speaker 1: they rummage quickly and get out of there. By better
Speaker 1: understanding when, why and how residential burglaries happen, homeowners can
Speaker 1: come up with the most effective strategies for deterring them,
Speaker 1: which brings us to the question of the day. Do
Speaker 1: house or porch lights do anything to stop burglars? Pilson
Speaker 1: says that lights have their place in a home security strategy,
Speaker 1: but that lights alone won't prevent someone from breaking into
Speaker 1: your house. For example, motion activated exterior lights in the
Speaker 1: front and rear of your house are an effective way
Speaker 1: to spook a burglar, but only if the light is
Speaker 1: positioned correctly to illuminate the intruder's face so that a
Speaker 1: neighbor or camera might be able to see them clearly.
Speaker 1: If it's pointed towards the neighbor's house, the burglar might
Speaker 1: realize that all the neighbor would be able to see
Speaker 1: as a blinding light and not the burglar. What about
Speaker 1: timed interior lights. Home automation systems have made it easier
Speaker 1: than ever to schedule and control your interior lights while
Speaker 1: you're away. They let you use your smartphone to program
Speaker 1: your living room, kitchen and bedroom lights to mimic what
Speaker 1: it would look like if you were home again. While
Speaker 1: automated lighting might give the impression that someone is home,
Speaker 1: especially in the evening when lights can be seen from
Speaker 1: the street, thieves know to look out for other much
Speaker 1: clearer signs that you're gone during the day. According to
Speaker 1: interviews with convicted burglars in Australia and the United Kingdom,
Speaker 1: opportunistic thieves look for uncollected mail, newspapers and packages left
Speaker 1: on the porch, and empty driveways and garages. An Oregon
Speaker 1: TV news team that surveyed convicted burglars found that all
Speaker 1: of their respondents would knock on the front door before
Speaker 1: breaking in, so those tricky interior lights might not help.
Speaker 1: And if you think you're being smart by leaving a
Speaker 1: TV or radio on in the house while you're away
Speaker 1: on vacation, think again. Burglars in the Australian survey said
Speaker 1: that a TV blasting away in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night is a shore side mine that no one's home,
Speaker 1: which gets to Felson's biggest piece of advice for securing
Speaker 1: your home, get to know your neighbors. In that Australian study,
Speaker 1: just two eight percent of burglars were deterred by censor
Speaker 1: lights and nineteen point three percent by lights inside the house.
Speaker 1: But a burglar can be stopped if a neighbor picks
Speaker 1: up the phone and calls the police. Of course, this
Speaker 1: means your neighbors need to know you and your family
Speaker 1: well enough to identify a true stranger trying to enter
Speaker 1: your house. Felson recommends introducing yourself to the neighbors on
Speaker 1: all sides of your house, particularly the ones that live
Speaker 1: behind you, since burglars will most likely enter from a
Speaker 1: back door or window, and to make it easier for
Speaker 1: your neighbors to see your house, you might trim back
Speaker 1: your hedges from doors and windows. They can't report what
Speaker 1: they can't see. Recognizing that most burglaries happen between ten
Speaker 1: am and two pm, when a lot of people are
Speaker 1: away at work, your best neighborhood allies against a burglary
Speaker 1: are folks who are home most of the day, people
Speaker 1: who are retired, work from home, or work lay their shifts.
Speaker 1: Those same neighbors can pick up your mail and packages
Speaker 1: while you're gone on vacation, or even parked their car
Speaker 1: in your driveway as a decoy. Again, exterior and interior
Speaker 1: lights can work as a part of an integrated home
Speaker 1: security strategy that should also include strong locks on all
Speaker 1: doors and windows and not leaving valuables in plain view.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit our home planet, how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com, and for more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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