How to protect your home from burglars and home invaders

From Universal Studios in Hollywood, California, it's Home and Family.

So listen to this: 80% of Americans will be robbed at one point. And here to talk to us about what we can do to keep our homes and families safe is security expert Robert Siciliano. Robert!

Hi, Robert.

Hey, Mark and Christina. So I am here today casing the house, acting as a burglar, looking for vulnerabilities, and I'm gonna show you and the audience exactly what they need to do to protect themselves.

Wow, that's an alarming statistic. I know, I couldn't believe it. I kept thinking it was a typo and I said, "You need to change that." They said, "No, he said 80%." Yeah. We're gonna get into that.

Robert has some really good tips. I was chatting with him. Right. And to find out when, and he's gonna share this with us, when people are, the time of day that they're most burglarized. Wait till you find that out. You think it's like when you're sleeping?

Yeah.

No.

Or when you're away?

No.

No and no. You're wrong twice.

Wow.

Okay, so today, well, it's not what you think.

All right, next we are talking security, uh, and we're going to sit down with Robert Siciliano and talk about invasion in— and what we can do to keep our homes and our families safe.

Uh, you know, 1 in every 5 homes will fall victim to home invasion or robbery, and security expert Robert Siciliano is here to talk about home invasion prevention. You were here all morning. It's pretty scary, some of the things that you found and you told us that goes on.

How—

yeah, how are most home susceptible for invasion?

Well, first and foremost, people are unaware. They don't think it can happen to them, and as a result, they don't put systems in place. They might leave their doors unlocked, or they have flimsy doors that are easy to kick in or break into. In addition to that, they don't have signage, you know, that says that this home is alarmed, or beware of dog sign. And ultimately, they don't have a home security system. You have to have a home security system.

Okay, let me, let me back up a little bit, because you say, you know, with, with, uh, If, you know, we may have flimsy doors and whatnot. If an intruder wants to get in, is it almost impossible to keep them out? I mean, a sign can divert them, but they can throw a brick through, I mean, a window and go in that way.

So there always has been, is, and always will be this criminal element out there, and our job is to become a tougher target. So the more layers of protection you put in place, the more secure you're gonna be.

But to be aware of dog signs, do they really work?

So if you go down a house, you go down a street, and there's 10 houses that have no security, right? And then there's an 11th house that has all kinds of security. That house is gonna be fine. So it's the ones that have the most security that generally are not targeted.

All right, I want to, I want to turn to our family members who are sitting in on this and see if they can answer this question, and you'll give us the reveal, the answer. But what do you think is the, the, let's call it the best time, or the, the time that most break-ins occur in your home?

I'd say 2 to 3 PM.

Yeah, when you're at work. Yeah, when you're at work.

We've been broken into 3 times. It's always been at night. So I would say—

Like when you were sleeping or asleep?

Oh my God.

Listen to this.

Yeah. So, well, dinnertime is a big time for home invasions.

Dinnertime?

Dinnertime.

Why? Home invasions happen when you are home, you know, during dinner and bad guy knocks on the door and basically kicks the door in and holds you and your family hostage.

Right.

Now, burglaries happen when you're gone during the day, like 2 to 3 PM.

Yeah. So they're stop— now you'd mentioned about leaving doors open and whatnot when you go. Do you typically see if someone's going to invade a home or burglarize that they're watching and they're seeing your patterns and they know when you leave and when you come home?

Often burglars will case the joint. You've heard that before.

Yeah.

And they're looking for people that are gone during the day or if, you know, they have a particular safe in mind in your house that they want you to open. Your home during the night. So they're stalking you basically. They're paying attention to your every move. They're checking you out online. They're calling your phone. They're checking you out at work. They're paying a lot of unwanted attention to you to find out the best time to break into your house.

Do they like sit outside your house in a car? I mean, can you tell if there's a strange car there? Because I always look at my neighborhood and if there's a strange car in there, I take a picture of their license plate. Do they do that?

They drive by. They sit outside in their own cars. They'll walk by. You know, they'll do anything. They'll walk up to your door. Door. They'll knock on your door to see if you're home. If you're not home, they'll jiggle your doorknob, and if your door is unlocked, they'll walk right in and burglarize your house.

All right, so how do we stay prepared? Yeah, what's the best way we can stay on top of this ahead of it and avoid it?

Well, the most important thing is to have systems in place. Like, you have to have a home security system. Not having a home security system, in my opinion, is just irresponsible, you know, one that is monitored by local law enforcement. You also have to have signage, signage that says, you know, beware of dog, signage that says you have a home security system. So having systems Having cameras in place makes you a tougher target.

You spent a little time walking around our— I saw you out walking around. What were you doing?

Yeah, this morning.

So I was checking out the vulnerabilities of the home. I was looking around like a burglar might and casing the joint, so to speak, looking to see vulnerabilities where I might be able to break into the home.

All right, well, take us through what you're— what we're seeing here. What are you doing?

What are you doing here? Right here, the mailbox.

So checking out the mailbox, looking for names and addresses and calling a phone number to see if the person's home, checking out the doors to see what kind of door locks you have and if there's a window that I could break to come right in. Mm-hmm. Right?

OK. That one was easy.

That was easy. Yeah, yeah. And then these French doors are great. I love French doors. I have the same thing. But all those windows make it easy for a bad guy just to break one of those windows and just reach in and open up the door. We've seen that in every single movie we've watched.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

And so right here, this actually is a wireless IP camera, right? So these things you can get for as little as $50. This just happens to be the Drop Cam one. And these cameras work really great, and they send you a text message every time they sense motion.

So they're motion sensitive.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

This is a layer of protection that we want to put in place.

Yes.

I know you had mentioned a home security system. Yes. Do you know off the top of your head statistically so many people have those things installed and they don't activate them?

Yeah.

Is that common?

You know, well, that is definitely common. And I've also heard that as many as, you know, more than 90% of alarms are installed after a house is broken into. So after bad things happen, people wake up and they go, oh, I have to install a home security system.

And you guys—

you just said that's you. You don't turn it on.

We leave, we turn it on.

But like at night I never turn, because like I forget in the morning and I go out and I leave the house or I go to— and it goes off. So we don't turn it on when we're in the house at home, only when we're away for the weekend or on vacation. And the 3 times it's been at night with us upstairs.

Did they wake you up and gunpoint you?

No, they come down like in the morning and like the front door is kind of ajar and they're like, oh, you're checking the computer.

3 times?

3 times.

Oh Lord.

We've been broken into so many times. Once they broke in, they opened our Christmas presents. And took the ones they wanted but left everything under the tree that they didn't want. But they opened them all. But just yesterday I got a security system installed.

Good for you.

And I'm a little obsessed because I put in a kitty cam for to watch my cats, but it does the same thing. Every time they move or make a noise, it pops up on my phone. Yeah. So I find myself a voyeur of my cats.

Well, we installed— Robert installed one here in the house. I don't know if we caught that camera. I believe it was this one. I don't know if we caught anybody. Do we have that footage? I heard there was something. We just had it sitting there and nobody—

Yes, we actually caught somebody robbing the cookie jar, as a matter of fact.

That's not true! I was not me. I don't know where you got this footage. This is not— this is so—

Are you doing your Oreo cookie invasion again, Mark?

Wow, there you go.

That's a close-up.

Cookie Monster. You know, but they are— the technology is there. It's so clear. These will record because if you can see it but you're not recording it—

What is that? That was amazing.

Yeah, that's the camera that Robert Siciliano—

Yeah, it's in our kitchen. She's been there all morning.

Yeah, and you know, they're inexpensive. Anybody can set these things up. You can plug this thing right into your laptop or desktop or even your mobile phone to activate it, and then from that point on, you can check it out on your laptop, on your iPad, on your Android or your iPhone from anywhere you are. It gives you a certain amount of peace of mind, and it also lets you know what's going on inside and around your house. I have 8 cameras inside and 8 cameras outside of my house that record 24 hours a day, and it keeps me fully in tune with the activity in and around on my property. If something goes wrong, I'll know all about it.

What's this called and where do you get it?

So this is a wireless IP camera. You get these online— Amazon, Best Buy, and so forth. This just happens to be the DropCam brand.

Ken, can you furl your brow anymore?

Well, this one I thought just sent a text when there was motion.

Yes.

But it actually also can send an image. You can actually watch on it.

Oh, you can watch live video 24/7, 365.

Is it a deterrent? When they're seen by potential intruders?

If you have cameras, especially on the exterior of your home, at the front door, back door, around each corner of the house, bad guy sees that along with signage, right? They're less likely to target your home. Again, it's all about becoming a tougher target. The more layers of protection you have in place, the more secure you're going to be.

Okay, one more question.

Okay, so if you're going to get one of these, we have it here and it's seeing Mark, but the real— to deter the actual criminal you should mount this like by your front door on the outside of your house so they see that it's there?

It's all about everything being conspicuous. You want to show that you have systems in place, you know what you're doing, that you are there to protect your home and your family. A beware of dog sign in and of itself is really good. Having the dog inside the house like I do, if you come in my house unannounced, my dog will attack you. And that's her job, she's trained to do that.

What if you—

Ow!

You're scared of her.

I'm not gonna visit you. What if, yeah, I'll bring over a nice Chianti. What do you do if you suspect— and I've actually had this— where I thought there was somebody casing maybe not only my house but others in the neighborhood, but you don't— you can't really prove it. You don't want to start following them. What would you— what would you advise someone to do at that point?

Well, that's what a neighborhood watch program is for, and many municipalities, you know, have that in place, and they'll help you to arrange it. You have them in your neighborhoods and so forth, and then just let me call the police. You know, you should not be out there yourself investigating things like this because you could get yourself into some in trouble.

How do you feel about social media, people checking in?

Yeah.

Off getting coffee, din.

I gotta tell everybody.

House is available.

Yeah. I mean, essentially, is that what you're doing?

When you see, when I see people's posts that say they have their toes buried in the sand, they're having a margarita in Mexico somewhere, I just wanna break into their house.

Yeah, right.

And bad guys do that. Like, that's how Paris Hilton got broken into. She posted everything that she bought and then where she was at the time. And they just— kid just went into her house and had a field day in her closet.

Wow.

Wow.

Great information. You know, I'm gonna go home and board up the house. Yeah, I know. That's, uh, that's the signs.

Okay, um, I think you actually have to sign up for the service.

You have to sign up.

Yes, these are a buck at Home Depot.

Yeah, you can get those anywhere. All right, uh, wonderful information available for you on our website. You can see there on the bottom of the screen, or you can go to Robert Siciliano's website, which is besthomesecuritycompanies.com. Com. Good, good stuff. All right, you ready?

So when we come back, I'm going to put the finishing touches on our Halloween-themed dining room.

I love that. When we come back. Okay, so we got a couple more tips for you. We're gonna go down to Robert. We're gonna keep our house safe.

Sure, so you tell your kids not to talk to strangers, right? So as an adult, you should not open doors to total strangers. Like, if someone comes for delivery, get confirmation that a delivery in fact is being made. Call a supervisor, right? Don't let kids open up doors to total strangers. My kids never ever open up the door unless it's mama or dada. Ladders on the outside, lock up ladders or remove them, 'cause the bad guy will just take one and lean it up against the side of your house and break into the second floor window.

Oh wow.

And then the second floor windows and doors, like on porches, lock those too, because you know, those ladders and bad guys can climb up poles as well.

Wow. Sheesh.

I don't think of those things.

I know, I have a ladder on the side of my house that's going in my garage tonight.

Yeah, you have to.

But you have lots of dogs.

But I have lots of dogs.

Beware of dogs.

All the way down.

Yeah, I'm always wary too because I've been getting, you get people who seem like they're realtors and they're asking questions about your home and if you're interested in selling, and I never want to like open the door and stand there because they can see in if I go to the door and see who it is. So probably not advisable to.

Or they're trying to sell you a home security system, but they're not really selling a home security system, trying to find out if you have one or not.

Oh.

So they can break in later. So you really have to be conscious of who comes to your door, what what their motivation might be. Keep the door closed and locked. See licensing. Look for vehicles like UPS, FedEx, and so forth. Again, or call a supervisor.

I saw that you had on the table a sticker that said NRA on it. Should we stick that in our windows?

Does that help?

Does that help?

So a National Rifle Association sticker in the window gives the impression that Granny's sitting there in a rocking chair with a shotgun ready to go.

Yeah, somebody said Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you for joining us, everybody. We'll see you tomorrow.

Thank you all for being here. See ya, fella.

Pleasure.

Thank you. Find yourself a good home, huh?