When it comes to securing your property having good security measures installed on your front door is vital. This is why people often call their local locksmith to come and upgrade the locks to much stronger and more reliable ones. With this said, what is shocking, is how many people overlook the security risk that their letter box poses.
What is letterbox burglary?
Letterbox burglary is a method that burglars use to either gain entry to your home by reaching up and removing the latch or turning a key on the other side of the door or steal high value items such as car keys and wallets via the letterbox. Unfortunately, these methods are incredibly effective and have a high success rate for burglars, and it is very easy to do and requires little if any skills.
How to Prevent Letterbox Burglary?
- Always keep car keys out of sight from the door and never leave keys in the lock. This is even more vital if your door has glass panels. it is worth having a look through your letterbox to see what you can see from there as this is what a burglar would be able to see, this way you can move items, so you know they are stored well out of view.
- Install an anti-burglary letterbox, these letterboxes have been put through thorough testing to ensure they are vandal proof, snap proof and ensure that they comply with the current security guidelines.
- Replace current letterbox with one that has a draught excluder built into it, the nylon bristles of the draught excluder make it incredibly difficult to see anything through your letterbox and would make letterbox burglary much more difficult for a burglar to be successful in their attempts.
- You could add a letterbox restrictor. This will prevent your letterbox from being lifted past a certain point which will stop burglars being able to put their hands or tools through your letterbox.
- You could opt to have your letterbox removed completely and use an external mailbox instead. This option can be quite expensive so it may be something to consider if you are looking to replace your front door completely, you can choose a door without a letterbox and install an external mailbox for your post.
Unfortunately, burglars are always coming up with new ways to gain entry to homes and businesses and in turn the security industry is continuously coming up with new and innovative security measures to help combat this, so it is important that you keep up to date with your security measures and ensure they comply with the current security standards to give your home or business the best possible protection against potential burglars.
If you need help improving the security measures at your home or business then contact Elvidge Gribble locksmiths today – 01566 773285
