Home Security Tips
Great tips from “MJ” Johnston, our Chief Security Advisor and former Police Captain of the Henderson Police Department.
Speaker 1:
So now let's just talk about your personal property, your other valuables. We are in a gun-favorable state, obviously. And so a lot of folks own firearms, whether you carry them open or concealed. It's important to make sure that you're securing your weapons, not only for child safety, but to make sure that those guns don't get into the hands of bad guys.
Speaker 2:
In a safe.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Locked up.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, keep them in a safe. And that safe needs to be bolted.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
It can't be a safe that is easily carried away. So a lot of people like to buy the very small gun safes that have just a key and they shove it under the bed. Well, that's great if it's going to keep your child safe, but it doesn't keep that gun from leaving the home. And the ultimate goal is to make sure that those guns stay here and locked up. So I would recommend a full-size gun safe, fire rated, something you can bolt to the floor that can't be defeated easily. You can get those at just about any gun and locksmith store. Those are a recommendation. Also, for your personal valuables, your small valuables, rings, jewelry, things like that. If you have some super high end things, I would recommend even getting a safety deposit box.
Speaker 2:
That's the safest place on earth.
Speaker 1:
That's the safest place, yeah. That's the safest place to put your stuff. Then the next thing you want to do or the next best would be to have that bolted safe that's heavy duty and is rated to be anti-theft. So you want to do that, but what about documentation? I can't tell you how many times throughout my career that I went to take a burglary report and I said, "Can you describe the object?" And-
Speaker 2:
It's [inaudible 00:01:39].
Speaker 1:
... they're like, "Well, it's small-"
Speaker 2:
It's about this size.
Speaker 1:
... "It's a ring. It has a red stone in it." But we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. You want to take a picture of all of your valuables. And your valuables can be your furniture, right? When you look in this model home, we have furniture behind us. If a burglar knew you were going to be gone for a week, it'd be easy for them to back up a truck and just load everything-
Speaker 2:
Clear it all out.
Speaker 1:
... and take it. Model homes, they fall victim to that-
Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:02:07].
Speaker 1:
... all the time, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
So they get the appliances stolen, they get furniture stolen.
Speaker 2:
Show up like a vendor.
Speaker 1:
Show up like a vendor.
Speaker 2:
Just open it up [inaudible 00:02:14].
Speaker 1:
Open it up and load it all up and there they go.
Speaker 2:
You mentioned something interesting about making a video, a walkthrough video of your belongings.
Speaker 1:
Now, that's another easy way to do it. If you are video savvy, you can go ahead and film each room, slowly panning around the room, making sure that you get all of the valuables and all of the items that are in your home. Then you go back and you create a serial number list, because obviously not everything has a serial number.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
But if you can get a serial number off of appliances or off of your cell phones, tablets, things like that, have that list available. Keep that list in the safe and or keep it in a safety deposit box.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
You can also upload it to the cloud-
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
... where that list will be safe and accessible.
Speaker 2:
Like Google Drive or something, keep it over there.
Speaker 1:
Yep.
Speaker 2:
It'll never disappear.
Speaker 1:
OneDrive, Google Drive.
Speaker 2:
[inaudible 00:03:01].
Speaker 1:
All of those are web-based. And the video could be web-based as well.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
You can upload that into the same system. Then it's accessible, you can download it, send it to the police officers, and then you have a better start at hopefully recovering your lost valuables.
Speaker 2:
And then we just keep that updated, we keep it like a living document. As we acquire more things, we're just going to make sure we add that to the inventory list.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely. And then for those that are really into the tech side of things, there is a website-
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
... that does this also for you. It's called www.knowyourstuff.org. And what that does is it allows you to do an online video inventory, and it's kept safe right there.
Speaker 2:
It's a great idea.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. And it's one of many.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
But it's just one that we know of has been very popular. So the most important thing that you can do is fortify your home-
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
... but don't make it a fortress where-
Speaker 2:
Right. Still has to be comfortable.
Speaker 1:
... you can't enjoy life. You don't want to be a prisoner in your home.
Speaker 2:
Right.
Speaker 1:
But you definitely want to know what you have in your home and how to protect it.
Speaker 2:
Right. Thank you so much for all these very sensible tips about being prudent about security.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak about these things.
Speaker 2:
Thanks.