What to do after a burglary of your home?

What to do after a burglary of your home in Brussels?

A burglary in Brussels? It’s the kind of experience no one wants to have. However, sometimes you notice that you have returned from vacation, an excursion or at the end of a working day, that your home has been burglarized. Every year, Belgium records more than 50,000 burglaries. While the surprise and sorrow are usually very intense in these types of situations, it is important to know what to do immediately. So, if you live in Brussels or the surrounding cities and your home has just been burglarized, the first thing to do afterwards is not enough. You will also need to take measures to secure your home. What is it and how do you go about it? All the answers in this article.

Being robbed is always a traumatic experience. Imagine losing your valuable jewelry, expensive clothes and accessories, losing your expensive equipment in a single day. It is to avoid this that it is important and urgent, when you live in certain municipalities in Belgium, to take certain measures to secure your home. However, when you are already the victim of a burglary, you should quickly call a locksmith to secure your front door.

Have your doors shielded

Shielding your front door should be the first thing you need to think about if you can afford it. Indeed, in most municipalities in Belgium, such as Uccle for example, break-ins are most often made through the front doors.

The shielding of your front door reinforces the strength and sturdiness of your door and will thus provide additional security to your home. A burglar will never be able to get a security door to give way in 5 minutes. Shielding is therefore a practical solution to delay or even make further break-in attempts impossible.

To shield a door, you don’t need to change it. The principle is to cut a steel plate or sheet metal and cover your current door with it. The thicker the steel used (about 2 mm for example), the more effective the armor. However, you will need to call on a professional locksmith in Brussels or Uccle.

The locksmith technician will be able to shield you by inserting your door into a metal sheath. It is therefore the sides of the door that are concerned. Flat shielding can also be used, which is the most suitable method for traditional doors. The locksmith technician Brussels will attach a steel plate vertically to the door to consolidate the hinges and reinforce the leaves.

Most of the time, as in the case of condominiums where it is not possible to change your front door, door shielding is the only option. If you shield a door in a condominium, the aesthetics of the building will be affected, because the door will no longer look the same as other front doors. Shielding can therefore be imposed on you in these kinds of conditions.

If you make this choice, you will need to reinforce all the other elements of the door in order to optimize the quality of the armor. That being said, it should also be noted that the door shield also makes it possible to reinforce its sound and thermal insulation. So you’ll kill two birds with one stone.

Install an armored door

If door shielding helps to increase the security of entrance doors, you may also decide to install an armored door. This is because the strength of a door is equivalent to the strength of its weakest element. So, when shielding a door, it’s possible that its security will still be compromised in some way by elements that you’ve neglected to reinforce.

Imagine, for example, that your door is already a certain age and that use has already somewhat weakened the material itself. The armor of such a door would always leave weaknesses in your security system. To put all risks aside, we recommend that you install an armoured door.

The installation of an armored door will provide your apartment or house with the highest level of security, in addition to exceptional thermal and sound insulation and increased fire resistance. Whether the door is made of steel or wood, you will need to ensure the quality and model of the type of lock and ensure that the door complies with all current security standards.

To limit the risks, the ideal is to contact a locksmith professional in Brussels who is experienced in burglary protection.

Request your free quote for an armoured door

Repair and Strengthen Your Closures

Are you the victim of a burglary? Quickly, call a locksmith urgently. Call a locksmith technician in Brussels to repair your broken door or fractured door and also strengthen your closures. Indeed, a door that has been forced open always has several weak points. So, if your home has been burglarized, you should think about the following solutions.

Installation of a high-security cylinder or burglar-proof cylinder

When a mansion, apartment or house has been burgled, changing the cylinder of the door is mandatory.

Choose a cylinder with high safety performance. The size of the cylinder will tell you more about its safety. Note that if the cylinder protrudes more than 5 mm outside the door, burglars will have an easier time breaking or tearing it off.

With a high-security cylinder, all the vulnerabilities that thieves take advantage of on other types of locks are removed. These kinds of cylinders always come with an owner’s card. So you can make a duplicate key, which is not possible with traditional cylinders. Bring a Doors Center technician with you if you wish.

Installing a high-security lock

High-security locks are virtually tamper-proof. They are so complex that burglars prefer not to rub shoulders with them and risk being caught trying to open them. Look for multi-point locks, including 3-point, 5-point, or 7-point locks, for added protection against intrusions. Get advice from a locksmith repair specialist.

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Installation of anti-pinch angles

Instead of replacing a front door, you can simply install anti-pinch angles to increase its security. An angle iron is a steel rail that is installed so that it frames the door from the outside, which prevents thieves from inserting any tools through the leaf and frame. Note that anti-pinch angles are usually equipped with screws that are resistant to unscrewing. Thus, the structure becomes undismantled with crowbars.

Installing a door lock

Apart from the main lock that already equips your door, you can also think about adding other independent locking points to your door.

This will only increase your security, since burglars will have to deal with multiple locking systems, which will slow down their operation and deter them.

Obviously, this solution may not be suitable for everyone, especially since you will need to lock and unlock multiple locks to open or close your door. However, if you manage to adopt this solution, it will be a robust protection for your home.

Installation of hinge guards

The installation of hinge guards is not an exclusive measure. It reinforces this, because you have to know that burglars don’t just attack your locks. So even if you call a locksmith in an emergency to install a multipoint lock for example, you will also have to think about your hinges.

The purpose of installing hinge guards is to prevent thieves from opening the door by lifting it with a crowbar to pull it off its hinges. This method of door opening is very common and also very effective. So ask your locksmith repair specialist to install hinge guards for you.

Installing a cylinder guard

With a cylinder guard, you no longer have to worry about your lock. Indeed, if you feel a certain vulnerability in your cylinder, don’t waste time. Contact a locksmith and have your cylinder protected from breakage, drilling, or pulling. To do this, the cylinder guard is required.

Installation of an electronic lock cylinder

If the electronic solution was only adopted by businesses, homes are starting to adopt the solution. The electronic lock cylinder allows you to lock your home without using a key. Your front door will be secured by an electromagnetic system (personal badge, digicode, etc.).

Installing a peephole or door ajar

Don’t let anyone into your home without verifying their identity. Install a peephole on your door to verify the identity of your visitors before allowing them into your home.

However, if you live in a condominium and the by-law prohibits the installation of a peephole, you can always find an alternative. This is the door opener. It is a solid metal accessory that attaches behind the door to prevent it from opening completely. The door ajar plays the same role as the peephole, only that the door will have to be partially opened in order to verify the visitor’s identity.

Installation of alarm, detection or monitoring systems

Alarm and surveillance systems are primarily intended to deter thieves. In fact, experience has shown that these solutions are the most effective in protecting a home against burglary and break-ins.

This is because burglars are always motivated by the need to act as quickly as possible. A burglary usually lasts 3 minutes on average and this is enough time to turn your apartment upside down and empty your most valuable belongings.

So, as soon as they can’t open a door as quickly as possible every three minutes, burglars have to act very quickly. As soon as something needs to prevent them from operating quickly, they tend to abandon the mission so as not to be apprehended.

That’s why you need to install alarm systems. Contact your locksmith so that he or she can study the possibility of installing a presence detector with you. This way, you’ll be notified every time your door opens while you’re away.

Installation of a wireless intercom.

It’s a known fact that burglars often take several days to study your movements before attacking your home. As soon as they decide to take action, they usually take the time to ring the intercom to check if you’re actually away.

If no one answers the intercom for a while, they spring into action. To get around this procedure, we advise you to install a connected videophone or intercom so that you can answer remotely.

Thanks to this type of system, you will always be able to answer the intercom, whether you are at home or outside the house. This way, thieves will have a hard time telling when you’re not home.

Other security measures after a burglary

Have you just been the victim of a burglary in Brussels or other cities in Belgium? There are also other steps you can take to avoid suffering the same fate a second time:

• Put away all your tools or ladders so as not to facilitate intrusion;
• Don’t leave your home address on your keys;
• Maintain good relations with the neighbours so that you can be alerted in case of suspicion;
• Upgrade the lighting in your home, because the darker your home, the easier it is to break into.

When are the highest number of burglaries?

Basically, thieves can operate in your home at any time. Obviously, summer is the time when there are usually more burglaries. It is indeed during the summer that people go on vacation. This makes it easier for burglars to prepare their plan. They have more time to empty the houses without worrying that the owners will come back in the next few minutes.

The end of the year also represents periods when the number of burglaries increases in a particular way. However, the statistics collected for most Walloon municipalities, for example, indicate that even in winter, an incredible number of burglaries are recorded.

Statistics say that more than 30% of break-ins in Belgium are orchestrated in winter, partly because it is darker than in summer, for example. In Auderghem, for example, there is at least one burglary per day in winter.

Then you get the idea. Whether you live in Auderghem, Greater Brussels, etc., there will be more burglaries in the summer, during the end-of-year periods and in the winter. So don’t wait to be surprised. Take steps to avoid being burglarized. Contact the Doors Center team to help you secure your home.

Contact Doors Center technicians for advice, or if you have any questions