Keep your home safe

Shop Talk

If you have a detached garage or workshop, you should apply these security tips to your home away from home.

Start by making a detailed inventory-including serial numbers-of all your tools, bikes and other valuables that could go missing. (This list can also be used to help track which neighbour borrowed the lawn mower…)

Next, replace flimsy doors and locks with the same calibre you’d use on your home’s exterior doors. If there’s a window, consider security bars or, at the very least, curtains to prevent snooping.

Finally, a motion-sensor light inside the building may frighten away burglars. It will also prevent you from having to grope around in the dark whenever you get a midnight urge to build something.

Case Closed

Davidson was one of the lucky ones. He’d happened to write his name on some of the CDs that were stolen. When police later apprehended the burglar-a heroin addict eventually charged with more than 50 B and Es-he still had some of Davidson’s possessions on him. This, unfortunately, is the exception to the rule. But if you make a few DIY modifications and alter some bad habits, you just might be able to keep all your belongings and avoid becoming one of next year’s robbery statistics.