5 Reasons Why Every Home Should Have a Safe

Safes are often seen as the exclusive domain of the rich and famous … only for those who are quaint enough to keep cash is a sack rather than a bank account, or those with James-Bond style technological valuables. In fact, if every home in Houston kept their valuables in a safe, Houston home security companies would be much quieter! Today we look at the top five reasons why every house should have a safe.

1. Valuables aren’t always replaceable
   Your grandmother's pearl earrings … your wedding photos … the locket your husband bought for you on your first date … these things have a monetary value, and that is all the insurance company can give you if they are stolen.
2. Non-replaceables aren’t always valuable
   Now that does not make sense! But in a way, it does. Your personal papers, identity documents, passports and so on can all be used by thieves for activities that can have a huge impact on your future life. If your identity is stolen in a home break-in, you may end up taking years to fight credit card companies and other providers to get your clean records back. It is preferable to not have to deal with that bureaucratic nightmare in the first place!
3. Safes are fireproof
   They are not only burglar-proof, but they act as a fireproof box in the event of a house fire. Perfect for storing insurance records, and any non-replaceable valuables.
4. You won’t want to etch some items
   The standard advice to homeowners is to etch their details into valuables - for example, a serial number, their driver's license number or phone number. However, you really don't want to have to etch some thing! Jewelry and furs, in general, can't be etched, and neither can coin collections. A safe adds to your home security by keeping these difficult to identify things … safe!
5. Safes can be bolted to the floor
   A simple locking box can be picked up and moved, taken with the burglar until they figure out how to get to the contents. Safes, on the other hand, can be bolted to the floor. If they really want to get into the safe, they'll have to stay in the house … and then they'll have the alarm monitoring service to deal with!

Home Security Reality Check - January Property Crime Rundown in Texas

It can be easy to get complacent about home security -- especially when you don't regularly hear sirens in your neighborhood, you haven’t been broken into while living in this house, and you don't tend to read the newspaper. Unfortunately, that complacency is the reason why so many break-ins occur! Today we are looking at home security in Houston -- the crimes and criminals that provide plenty of incentive to start thinking about your security systems.

Man scares off burglar

In Corpus Christi, a man scared off a burglar as he was preparing to go to work on January 28. He walked into his living room and found a man standing there. The suspect ran away, but this does not happen in every case -- sometimes would-be burglars use violence to try to subdue or scare their victims into not reporting the crime.

$1,000,000 of stolen property recovered

Arlington police have successfully used a database of pawn shop information -- serial numbers and so on -- to return almost a million dollars' worth of stolen property. While this is the happy ending to many sad stories, it doesn’t always happen for people. All that property had to come from somewhere -- and installing a home security system is the best way to ensure that your property isn’t among the statistics.

Teen would-be burglar shot

In a sad case of failed burglary, a 17-year-old boy was shot by a homeowner after he found him on his property late in January. Home security systems perhaps would have simply scared the boy off, and prevented such a tragic outcome.

Burglary at Holiday Food Store

Businesses are also targets of burglars, due to the high likelihood of cash being available -- selling stolen property is always risky. On January 14, the Holiday Food Store was broken into. Cash and cigarettes were taken.