Your home should be a place where you feel safe and protected. With heightened concerns about bio terrorism and other security threats, more and more Americans feel vulnerable.
A Safe Room is an affordable, innovative multipurpose structure designed to protect you and your family during a security threat, a bio-chemical emergency or natural disasters such as fire, hurricane or tornado.
What to do if a Burglar Breaks into Your Home:
One of the most frightening things that can happen is discovering that an intruder has broken into your home -- especially when it is the middle of the night, and you know they are still there. About 16% of American households are burglarized each year. Stated differently, a burglary occurs every 13 seconds in the United States.
Unfortunately, thousands of these crimes are committed each year while someone is at home. It certainly makes sense to know what you should do if this ever happens to you!
Marvin Badler is an internationally known Florida-based security expert and consultant. He is considered an expert on residential & commercial security matters. Badler says,
the best thing you can do is to make a plan -- before it ever happens. It is very important to think about this now -- when you are calm and there is no danger. There is no single best strategy for dealing with this situation.
What is the first thing you should do in this situation?
Be very quiet so you can listen. Try to figure out how many intruders there are. Are they coming toward you? Are they ransacking your house? What are they doing?
If you can, stay in the room you are in, lock, and barricade the door. Immediately call 911 to get help on the way. Shout to the intruder that the police have been called and are en route.
Should you stay in the house, confront the intruder, or leave?
Stay in your home unless the intruder tries to get into your room. Never confront the intruder unless in self-defense. Another option is that if you can safely escape, do it. For example, if you can safely climb out a window and get getaway, that is great. However, if you sleep upstairs and cannot leave easily, then you will need to take a different approach.
First, be prepared.
Second, be quiet do not argue with your spouse about what to do -- this just alerts the intruders about where you are before you have taken any action. That is another reason to plan ahead.
Third, it is not a good idea to leave your bedroom carrying a weapon like a baseball bat or a flashlight. If you surprise the intruder, they are more likely to act violently.
Fourth, it is always good to have a safe room. Every family can use a place in the home to retreat to in an emergency like a home invasion or burglary for example. A safe and secure place like a hidden safe room! It can be an interior closet with a sturdy door and a deadbolt lock on the inside. Call 911. Make sure you have a cell phone accessible from your safe room -- and make sure it is charged. You may have to use a cell phone if the intruders have disabled the house phone or have taken the telephone extension off the hook. You should be safe until the police arrive.
When you call, 911/police is to be very concise and specific with the police dispatcher.
Say that someone has broken into your home, and that you do not know whether they have a weapon. Give your address and any instructions to get there if necessary.
Tell the dispatcher where you are (for example, upstairs in the north bedroom), and where the intruder is (downstairs in the living room).
What happens if you encounter the intruder?
Do not stay there, fight, or argue...Try to run away or barricade yourself in a room and call 911.
If that does not work, try to remain calm and speak in a normal voice. Avoid direct eye contact if possible. This can be interpreted as aggressive behavior.
Should you try to protect yourself with a gun or a knife?
No. Only confront the intruder with a weapon as a last resort to save your life or a family member. Your property is not worth risking your life.
Carrying a weapon of any kind increases the chances that you or your family members will be hurt.
Most burglars will run away if they have wakened you -- unless they have been surprised or confronted.
One of the most important thing to do is have a family planning meeting to decide what everyone will do during an emergency or violent intrusion. Someone should always try to escape and get help.
Also, if you have a burglar alarm system, use it, learn to set it properly at night you may have to hit the 'panic' button. Learn what to do NOW -- that is much safer than when you are truly panicked.
<>Here are a few uses for a safe room:
Panic Room
(a lower external slide lock can allow quick entry by children and/or adults as a safe place to hide until the danger passes)
Secure Gun Closet
(a top lock for adults only can prevent children from opening the gun closet and provide a safe and secure place for gun collections!)
Jewelry Storage closet
Storm Shelter (protection from severe weather)
Hidden entrance into basement or attic
Hidden Stair Passage (First floor to second floor-hidden staircase)
Secret Passage - Two bookcase hidden-doors can be installed on either side of the safe room to allow you to slip from room to room through this secret passage.
Here is an idea! - Partition walls can be used to create the safe room. For example: A false wall can be built across a room and a series of bookcases can be installed with only one bookcase serving as a hidden entrance into the hidden room or passageway. For example: A bookcase-hidden door that holds the weight of real books, could weigh several hundred pounds! That means that it has to be built like a door that weighs several hundred pounds! Moreover, it must be built like a several hundred pound door that will not sag with the constant pull of gravity! If however, one does not need a full bookcase but merely a small case with light knick-knacks, many hidden doors on the market will do. Putting more weight on the door than it is built to hold will likely result in problems with the door.
Note: One can also use a mirror rather than a bookcase with knick-knacks to create a lightweight hidden door! There are companies on the internet who sell both bookcase-hidden doors and the plans to build them yourself correctly.
marvinbadler@comcast.net
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