35 Home-Defense Tricks Retired Cops Only Teach Their Own Parents — Seniors Living Alone Need

My mother is 84 and lives alone. When a retired sheriff's deputy walked through her house, he walked right past her alarm panel and went straight to the bedroom window latch. Then he wrote four letters on a napkin: W, I, D, E. In this video I count down 35 home-defense tricks a cop checks when it's his own mother living alone. Most cost less than a tank of gas, and several cost nothing at all. We build the WIDE combination one letter at a time: Window locks, Indoor lights on timers, Door deadlocks, External lights on a sensor. A major British crime survey of tens of thousands of homes found WIDE made homes 49 times better protected than homes with none of it, and that an alarm on its own offered no protection. You'll learn: Why two lamps on staggered timers beat one lamp on one timer The $5 screw swap that stops a door frame from splitting The 3-dollar stick that locks a sliding door The little door chain that turned up in the research for a reason that has nothing to do with strength #1: the free rule every senior living alone needs tonight, before the next knock at the door Sources mentioned in this video: Tseloni et al., "The effectiveness of burglary security devices," Security Journal (Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2008–2012) Kuhns, Blevins & Lee, "Understanding Decisions to Burglarize from the Offender's Perspective," UNC Charlotte (2012) Catalano, "Victimization During Household Burglary," Bureau of Justice Statistics (2010) UK Home Office research on distraction burglary against older adults National Sheriffs' Association: National Neighborhood Watch (1972) and Triad (1988) Chapters: 00:00 What the deputy did first 00:00 #35–27: Outside (E) 00:00 Where these tricks come from 00:00 #26–20: Windows (W) 00:00 The WIDE study 00:00 #19–12: Inside (I) 00:00 #11–4: The door (D) 00:00 The man with the clipboard 00:00 #3–2: The chain and your neighbors 00:00 #1: What to do tonight This video is for general information only and is not professional security or legal advice. If you ever feel unsafe or someone won't leave your door, call 911. #HomeSecurity #SeniorSafety #LivingAlone #BurglaryPrevention #HomeDefense