Last Saturday somebody broke into my neighbor’s house. The thief tried to get inside through the back door, the lock was old and seedy. When my neighbor saw him, he called the police and they arrested him. The culprit was only fourteen.

The number of burglaries and thefts in private flats ore houses has increased greatly in the recent years. What is more, those crimes are often committed by teenagers. They are very attentive, clever, fast and work in groups.

Human indifference helps the young criminals in most cases. For instance, many residents leave tools or ladders near the house when they leave home. In half of the cases the house is not protected by good quality locks or systems because it is very expensive. The cheep ones are no problem for a clever thief. Another asinine thing to do is to let the neighbors know that we are going for a longer trip and asking them to observe our house.

A good solution the problem can be, for example, closing all the ways in before we leave. Use shades to keep household items out of view. Furthermore, children should not open the door to strangers. When we go out in the evening the lights should be left turned on, so a potential thief will think that somebody is home. Finally, there are electric alarms and devices that randomly switch on and off various lights.

In conclusion, there is much that we can do ourselves to prevent crime before it happens. I think that it is better to insure our houses against burglars than trust the neighbor. Finally, alarms are efficient but the best form of protection is to simply lock all your doors and windows with a really good, and sadly, expensive lock.