What To Do After A Break-in At Your Bellingham Home?
It’s every family’s nightmare. You return home and find your front door is wide open or a window shattered. You can’t think clearly, fretting about what’s missing and the harm done to your property. What should you do? Stay calm, take a breath, and follow our recommendations after a break-in at your Bellingham home.
Once you have control of the situation, see how to better prevent intrusions with the latest home security system.
First Steps After A Break-In
Discovering your house has been burglarized is traumatic. You may be angry, shaken, or just in shock. Whatever the case, it’s essential to respond rationally by doing the following:
- Do not enter. It might be tempting to rush inside to assess the situation. Don’t. There’s a risk someone is still there.
- Contact law enforcement right away. Keep yourself and others at a safe distance and wait for emergency services. Work with the police to file a report.
- Avoid touching anything. Let the police secure the area and do their job.
What Should You Do Next?
You’ve conversed with law enforcement, and your home is safe to re-enter. What should you do next?
- Cancel credit cards and notify your bank . If an intruder stole sensitive documents, purses, or wallets, you must notify your credit card companies and banks immediately. It’s a good idea to freeze accounts and your credit. You may also add a fraud alert with the three main credit bureaus.
- Call your insurer. Initiate a claim with your insurance company. You should do so within a day of the burglary.
- Record damage on camera. Document broken windows, kicked-in doors, and any other damage you see.
- Document what is missing. Make a list of what’s been stolen and provide it to the authorities and your insurance company.
- Secure your house. Get your home secured by installing new locks, fixing doors and windows, and addressing remaining damage. If you utilize a keypad lock system, now is the time to reset your access codes.
Tidying up will bring you some peace and get life back to normal. Once you do, it’s time to consider improving your home security.
Strengthen Your Bellingham Home’s Security
How can you prevent this from happening again? Your starting point should be to evaluate your home’s security. An advanced system with the following equipment will work wonders in keeping your home safe:
- Surveillance cameras: Just about all prowlers will hesitate when they observe surveillance cameras. Newer exterior and doorbell cameras provide advanced features like smart detection. Any time there’s unusual activity, you’ll receive a notification.
- Access-point sensors: All doors and windows (specifically those on the ground level) should be shielded by glass-break or contact sensors.
- Smart locks and lights: These automated tools can be operated from anywhere. Worried you neglected to lock your door? You can confirm and activate the lock right from your mobile device. You can even have inside lights turn on if a camera discovers someone lurking.
If you are looking for a connected system that alerts you and monitoring agents whenever a device is set off, get a package from ADT, your home security professionals. You’ll appreciate the smartphone access, round-the-clock monitoring, and advanced automation.
Stop Break-Ins With The Top Home Security Systems In Bellingham
Stop intrusions from happening with an ADT home security package in Bellingham from Secure24 Alarm Systems. As an authorized ADT dealer, we install modern equipment from the most respected name in the business. Learn more about your options by dialing (360) 205-2750 or completing our form today.