In a 2007 Montel Williams interview, personal security consultant Robert Siciliano warns that burglary occurs in the United States every 11 seconds and violent crime every 16 seconds, asserting that 80% of Americans will be robbed at some point. He stresses personal responsibility and outlines a suite of low‑cost, practical measures to harden a home against intrusion. Siciliano demonstrates how to secure doors (dual‑keyed locks, peepholes with 160° view, door jammers, wedges, alarms, wooden dowels for sliding doors), reinforce windows (drilled pins, window pins), keep shades closed, use timers for lights, and keep a cell phone by the bed for emergency 911 calls. He also shows how easily a stranger posing as a utility worker can gain entry, using a staged encounter with two women, Paulette and Patty, to illustrate the danger of social engineering. The segment concludes with a discussion of the need for verification of IDs and the importance of being prepared both physically and emotionally if an intruder does get inside.
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We talked to some victims of home invasion. Now please welcome Mr. Robert Siciliano to the show. He's a personal security consultant and author of the book The Safety Minute. Robert, I know people are going to say, Montel, you're making a big deal out of nothing, this doesn't happen as often as you say it does, but is this not a rising trend in America?
There is a burglary every 11 seconds in America. There's a violent crime every 16 seconds. And because crime is so bad nowadays, because we live in such a violent society, it is important that people take responsibility and learn how to protect themselves.
And when you say every 11 seconds, that means if we have not been robbed yet, we've just really kind of pushing our luck. Is that correct?
If you haven't been robbed, you're due, basically.
And that should be your attitude.
80% of all Americans will be robbed at one point in their lifetime. Absolutely.
And everybody's sitting around, how many don't buy this? You don't believe it because I hear you laughing, but I'm telling you that this is— if you have not been robbed yet, you should stand by.
Absolutely.
But there are ways to safeguard yourself, correct?
If you know your options, if you know how to avoid and remove yourself from a dangerous situation, you increase your chances of surviving an attack situation. And it's not what happens to you, it's what you do about it. And once people take responsibility, they learn how to protect themselves, It's just like riding a bike. You'll know how to do it for the rest of your life.
Okay, well now, Robert, yesterday we sent you out to a house in New Jersey to show us how you can protect. Let's take a look at this tape.
It takes less than 40 seconds for a burglar or home invader to get into your house. Today I'm going to teach you what your options are and show you how to make your home safer. Come on inside and take a look. More than half of all home invaders and burglars enter through the front door. What's most important is, is that you have a very secure, solid door. As you can see in this door right here, it has window eyelets, and someone can easily break this window, and they can reach through, and they can open the lock. Now, this lock is keyed on the outside, but unfortunately, it's not keyed on the inside, so reaching through and unlocking it would be very simple. What's most important is, is that you get a lock that is keyed on both the outside and the inside. In addition to having a solid car door, you What's also fundamental is having a peephole that views at least 160 degrees to the right, to the left, up and down. An added measure to your security is to add a simple door jammer. All you have to do is close the door, you slide this right underneath, give it a quick kick, and that way it prohibits somebody from pushing the door open. In addition to that, you can put on a very simple door alarm. You just simply hang on the door. In the event that somebody jiggles the doorknob, this thing sends a screaming, piercing alarm. Now, a very inexpensive measure is to simply take something like this, which is a door wedge, which is very inexpensive. You can do it for less than a dollar, and you simply slide it underneath the door, and that way it makes it very difficult for someone to kick the door open. In addition to securing your doors, it's also fundamental to secure your windows. It takes less than 30 seconds to lock your windows. All you have to do is drill a simple hole through both windows and and then add this pin keeping invaders from opening your window. Burglars and home invaders enter your home for two reasons. Number one, they want your material items, or number two, they want you. What you have to do to keep them from seeing what you have is to keep your shades closed.
Now this is like basic stuff. This is House Safety 101. I think, you know, I talked to some friends a little while ago about, you know, who has sliding glass doors in their house? Sliding glass doors in your house. Do you know that you can walk up with a— with just a suction cup and lift your entire door right out of the frame? I don't know how many of you know that. I don't— if I go to your house right now, I can take suction cups, stick them on your door, lift your door up, and take it out, even if it is latched on the inside. Do you know that? Okay, so now what do we— you can do the same little pin number with that, right? Drill a hole through both doors in the center where both the frames come together, drill a hole through it so it doesn't go all the way through to the outside, and stick a nail in it. So now if somebody tries to lift it out, it won't go anywhere, right?
You can also put a wooden dowel on the top of the door, slide it right in. Wooden dowel about that long. As long as it's above the door, they can't pick the door up.
Okay, so that's another little piece. Now, you also did a little bit more on tape to show us how to make your house safe. Let's take a look at this.
One simple thing you can do to safeguard your home is to add in a simple timer. All you have to do is plug in your light to the timer, set the timer for a particular time of day, preferably the evening, and then the light goes on, giving the home that lived-in look. The first thing a home invader does when he chooses your home is he cuts off your means of communication, which means that he either cuts your telephone line or downstairs he takes your phone off of the hook. So what you must do is get a cellular phone and put it by your bed. Go underneath the bed and make a call to 911.
Go underneath the bed, make the call 911. Now, in each one of the cases we had on the show earlier, people walked up to the door, knocked on the door, said, "Hi, how you doing?" Next thing you know, boom, they open the door and they're right in the house. What do you do to stop that from happening?
Well, learning how to prevent them from getting in is an education in itself, and that's what we've gone through so far. Once they get in the house, then you have to know how to physically defend yourself and know how to deal emotionally with the situation.
Okay, so tell you what, we're gonna take a little break, but yesterday we also sent you out undercover posing as a utility worker. And you'll be really surprised at how easy it was for Robert just to walk into the home of two women. And I will tell you, all of you that shook your head and said, "Nah, nah, I wouldn't let you in my house," I will guarantee you right now, if I showed up at your house like this, and you didn't recognize the bald head man, I show up at your house like that with a little badge on the front of it, didn't say anything, little badge and a whole load of junk on my side. I could have a gun hidden inside of that pouch, you wouldn't even know that. Knock on your door and say, guess what, your neighbor next door, they just lost power to their generator and there's gas pumping up into the street. We need to get you out of your house for a second just so we can check and see if you have a gas leak. You would let this man in your house, guaranteed you would let him, because the first thing you think of is, uh-oh, save my own rear end, let me get out. Either you let him in or you open door, he comes walking in, he can do whatever he wants to do to you. The Let's take a little break. We'll take a look at the tape and we'll meet the people that you tricked yesterday. We'll be back right after this. Undercover, acting as if he was a utility worker. Take a look at this tape.
Hi, good afternoon. I'm from the water company.
The water company?
Yes, and there's been a problem in the area. A couple of sewer lines broke and they mixed with the public water supply. I just needed to check the coloration of your water real quick.
They want to check the water?
Okay, just be a moment. Thank you. Hey, puppy.
It's okay.
Thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it.
Hello.
Good evening, ma'am. I'm with the water company. There's been a break in a sewer line in the area. I just want to come in and check the colorization of your water. I'll be in and out, be real quick.
Your water color is fine.
Okay, uh, what I want to do is just run my fingers through the water and just make sure there's no sediment in there.
Really?
It'll just take a quick minute.
Okay. Yeah, he got it on his thingamajiggy. Yeah.
Okay, thank you. Appreciate it. Would you mind, uh, just, uh, check it out for a moment? That van right there, that's actually, uh, a cameraman from the Montel Williams Show. Yes, I swear. And what we're trying to do is prove how easy it is to actually get into somebody's home.
Stand up, ladies, please. Welcome Paulette and Patty to the show. Now, I know you got a call the day before, but you didn't have any real verification that it was me.
I didn't have a call.
You didn't get the call, you got the call.
I had an inkling, yeah.
You had an inkling.
Okay, she had an idea. Now you asked all kinds of questions first.
Yes, I did. I asked him if he had an ID. I was a little suspect.
But you said you got a thingamajiggy.
Yeah, well, that thingamajiggy was his ID.
Yeah, but now I can tell you right now, in any city across America—
I saw Elizabethtown, you know, whatever—
Any city across America, I can go down to a photo place. If I have a photocopy machine myself, I can make any kind of ID. We're going to take a break. Robert, when we come back, maybe you can tell us how we stop that, because that's the biggest part. What do you have to do? Can you say, "Show me all your ID and let me call your supervisor before you let him in"?
Absolutely. Martel, it was a piece of cake. I got in no problem. 100% of the time when we tried, we got in. No problem at all.
No problem. So—
Once you left, we knew that you weren't from the water company. It's true, like, you got in and you did get in, but as soon as he left, just what you had on underneath, Jimmy said you smelled really good. You know, he's like, "You smelled really good." And you did look good.
I mean, you weren't—
You didn't look evil when you came to the door, and that was—
and I got in.
Okay, but now, Patty, I gotta tell you, this is not a slam to you or to you, but the bottom line is, you know, whoever said that all criminals are ugly? So he— all he needed to do was get through the door. He's through the door, your husband's laying on the couch, he walks over, plugs him once, you're his.
