Public Servant Lifestyle

There are a few simple and easy steps you can take to help safeguard your belongings.

Keep Updated Lists

Keep an updated list of serial numbers for any audio-visual household items. These are the sorts of highly portable items that are taken from residences and, alongside easy to carry knick-knacks such as ornaments, are of obvious value. Serial numbers make mass-produced electrical goods traceable and will prove essential if any identification of recovered property is to take place, besides being required by your insurance company to make an insurance claim.

Mark Your Property

Property that is distinctively marked with indelible ultraviolet ink stands a much greater chance of ever being identified. This is something which can easily be done in the home. Gather all your valuables together and mark them en masse. Many DIY shops sell ready-made property-marking kits and the ultraviolet pens are freely available in the high street.

You can also permanently etch items with a special etching or engraving tool, to safeguard against ultra-violet markings fading or being removed. Police crime prevention officers can also supply stickers to be displayed in the home, indicating to potential burglars that the house contains only postcode marked property.

These rules by the way apply just as much to garden property - think of all those things left out (ie: garden furniture - even gnomes!) leaning against sheds and the garden wall.

Photographs

Smaller items, in particular jewellery and other valuables unsuitable for marking in the ordinary way, should be photographed wherever possible. This is paricularly straightforward these days - with the easy availablility of digital cameras making accurate close-ups cheap and easy to obtain and store. On that point it may be worth storing such information (on a CD or memory stick) 'off-site' - there's little use storing them on your lap-top, home PC or camera as these are exactly the sorts of items that might seem attractive to a sticky-fingered theif!

Photographs should include hallmarks on items such as candlesticks and plates. Any identifying marks should be recorded in this way. This should be all done using a reference point to give a sense of the proportions, particularly for smaller items. A small ruler is ideal for jewellery, ornaments and watches.

More information available in Ideas, Home Security