Home burglars are opportunists. Just ask the Duru family—they found out firsthand on a recent Sunday morning. The Durus were getting ready for a family outing, and in the process of packing up, they totally forgot to lock the garage door and they did not set the alarm to their security system.
      That small lapse in security proved to be all the window of opportunity some burglars needed. Not even the yapping Duru family dog was enough to scare the criminals away.
      “We had our dog in the garage and they still kicked in the garage window,” Godwin Duru says.
      When the Duru family returned home from their outing, they found a broken garage window and a broken kitchen window—telltale signs of a burglary. Despite those red flags, Duru hoped that it was a false alarm. After investigating the remainder of his house, however, Duru discovered that the burglars had indeed done more than just break a couple of windows.
      “They took my designer watch from my bedroom, and took my bottle of Hennessy cognac,” Duru says.
      Duru wasted no time in calling the police to report the break in. The police took fingerprints from the scene, and officers showed Duru a few ways he could improve his personal home security plan.
      “The policeman told me that I should get a bigger fence,” Duru says. “ He said I should go from a six-footer to a nine-footer, but I can’t afford that right now.”
      Dallas Police Lt. Michael Woodbury says home burglaries are always unfortunate, but they can typically be prevented with some simple precautions.
      “Locking the doors and setting the alarm is number one priority,” Woodbury says. “In this case, it sounds like they entered and didn’t know that the door was unlocked. They had all the things in place and didn’t have them set. The officer who took Duru aside told him the right things, but I don’t know if the bigger fence is the answer. Privacy fences give the criminals privacy too. It gives people something to think about.”
      Woodbury also says that security systems with loud alarms are always a good idea for any homeowner.
      “An audible alarm will go off and the burglar will have to go to another locations that doesn’t have an alarm.”