What To Do After A Break-in At Your Philadelphia Home?
It’s every family’s nightmare. You pull in the driveway and find your front door has been forced open or a window smashed. You can barely process what’s happened, stressing about what’s missing and the harm done to your property. What can you do? Take a breath, stay calm, and follow these steps after a break-in at your Philadelphia home.
Once you have control of the situation, see how to better prevent burglaries with an advanced security system.
Initial Steps After A Burglary
Finding your house has been broken into is unsettling. You could be furious, shaken, or just in disbelief. Regardless, it’s important to act rationally by doing the following:
- Stay outside. It’s not surprising that you want to rush inside to look around. Don’t. There’s a possibility a burglar is still there.
- Call law enforcement right away. Keep yourself and family members at a safe spot nearby and hold tight until help get there. Work with the police to file a report.
- Leave everything as is. Allow officers take over and collect evidence.
What Do You Do Next?
You’ve made an official report with the authorities, and your home is clear to re-enter. What are the next steps?
- Contact your bank and credit card companies . If a burglar grabbed wallets, purses, or personal records, you’ll want to contact your credit card issuers and banks at once. It’s wise to freeze accounts and your credit. You might also place a fraud alert with the three main credit bureaus.
- Contact your insurance provider. Start the claims process with your insurance provider. This needs to be done within a day of the incident.
- Take pictures of damage. Document smashed windows, forced doors, and all other visible damage.
- Inventory stolen goods. Write down what’s missing and provide it to the police and your insurance company.
- Secure your property. Make your home safe again by switching out locks, fixing doors and windows, and addressing remaining damage. If you have a keypad lock system, now is the time to reset your access codes.
Cleaning up will bring you some peace and restore a sense of normalcy. After you do so, it’s time to think about enhancing your home security.
Evaluate And Upgrade Your Philadelphia Home’s Security
What should you do to prevent another intrusion from taking place? Your starting point should be to take stock of your home security. An advanced system with these tools will go a long way to strengthening your home’s protection:
- Surveillance cameras: Just about all trespassers will think twice about breaking in when they observe security cameras. Today’s outdoor and doorbell cameras provide advanced features like AI-powered smart detection. Whenever there’s unusual activity, you’ll receive a notification.
- Entry-point sensors: All doors and windows (especially those on the ground floor) should be safeguarded by contact or glass-break sensors.
- Smart lights and locks: These automated components can be managed remotely. Worried you neglected to lock up? You can confirm and activate the lock directly from your mobile device. You can even have interior lights turn on if a camera spots suspicious activity.
If you are searching for an integrated system that alerts you and monitoring agents whenever a device is set off, consider a package from ADT, your home security experts. You’ll appreciate the smartphone access, 24-hour monitoring, and advanced automation.
Stop Break-Ins With The Top Home Security Systems In Philadelphia
Stop break-ins at your property with an ADT home security system in Philadelphia from Secure24 Alarm Systems. As an authorized ADT dealer, we install advanced equipment from the industry leader. Discover your options by dialing (215) 798-2927 or filling out our form today.