What To Do After A Break-in At Your Asheville Home?
It’s every resident’s nightmare. You return home to see your front door has been kicked in or a window shattered. You can barely process what’s happened, stressing about what’s been stolen and the damage to your property. What will you do? Stay calm, take a breath, and follow these steps after a break-in at your Asheville home.
When things get back to normal, learn how to better prevent intrusions with an advanced security system.
Immediate Steps After A Break-In
Discovering your house has been burglarized is unsettling. You may be furious, shaken, or simply in disbelief. Whatever the case, it’s critical to stay level-headed by doing the following:
- Stay outside. It’s not surprising that you want to go inside to see what happened. Don’t. There’s a possibility an intruder is still present.
- Contact law enforcement right away. Keep yourself and others at a safe spot nearby and wait for emergency professionals. Work with the authorities to file a report.
- Avoid touching anything. Allow officers take charge and do their job.
What Should You Do Next?
You’ve filed a report with the police, and your home is clear to re-enter. What should happen next?
- Cancel credit cards and alert your bank . If an intruder grabbed personal documents, purses, or wallets, you’ll want to contact your credit card issuers and banks immediately. It’s a good idea to lock accounts and your credit. You can also place a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus.
- Reach out to your insurance provider. Start the claims process with your insurance company. You should do so within 24 hours of the burglary.
- Record damage on camera. Document broken windows, forced doors, and all other detectable damage.
- Inventory stolen goods. Make a list of what’s missing and provide it to law enforcement and your Insurer.
- Secure your home. Get your home secured by installing new locks, fixing windows and doors, and addressing remaining damage. If you use a keypad lock system, now is the time to change your codes.
Cleaning up will bring you some peace and get life back to normal. After you do so, it’s time to think about enhancing your home security.
Assess And Improve Your Asheville Home’s Security
How can you keep this from occuring again? Your starting point should be to assess your home’s security. An advanced system with these tools will go a long way to keeping your home safe:
- Surveillance cameras: Nearly all prowlers will think twice about breaking in when they observe video cameras. Today’s exterior and doorbell cameras offer advanced capabilities like AI-powered smart detection. Whenever there’s suspicious activity, you’ll receive an alert.
- Access-point sensors: All doors and windows (particularly those on the ground level) should be protected by glass-break or contact sensors.
- Smart locks and lighting: These automated devices can be operated from anywhere. Are you worried you neglected to lock your door? You can confirm and operate the lock right from your phone. You can even have inside lighting turn on if a camera detects suspicious activity.
If you are looking for an integrated system that notifies you and monitoring staff any time a sensor or camera is set off, consider a package from the home security leaders at ADT. You’ll benefit from remote access, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced automation.
Avoid Break-Ins With The Top Home Security Systems In Asheville
Stop intrusions at your property with an ADT home security system in Asheville from Secure24 Alarm Systems. As your authorized ADT dealer, we install modern equipment from the top name in the business. Explore your options by reaching out to (828) 202-7229 or submitting our form today.