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It’s every family’s nightmare. You arrive home and find your door has been forced open or a window smashed. You can hardly process what’s happened, worrying about what’s missing and the damage to your home. What can you do? Remain calm, take a deep breath, and follow these tips after a break-in at your Atlanta home.  

Once you have control of the situation, learn how to better prevent intrusions with an advanced security system.

Initial Steps After A Break-In

Discovering your house has been broken into is traumatizing. You could be frightened, upset, or just in disbelief. Whatever you’re feeling, it’s important to respond rationally by doing the following: 

• Don’t go inside. It’s only natural that you want to rush inside to look around. Don’t. There’s a risk a burglar is still present.
• Call law enforcement right away.  Keep yourself and family members at a safe spot nearby and wait for emergency services. Work with the police to file a report. 
• Don’t touch a thing. Let officers take charge and do their job.  

What Are The Next Steps?

You’ve filed a report with law enforcement, and your home is clear to re-enter. What are the next steps? 

• Cancel credit cards and call banks . If an intruder grabbed wallets, purses, or private documents, you must alert your credit card issuers and banks right away. It’s a good idea to put a hold on accounts and your credit. You might also add a fraud alert with the major credit bureaus.
• Call your insurance company. Initiate a claim with your insurance provider. This needs to be done within a day of the burglary. 
• Take pictures of damage. Document broken windows, kicked-in doors, and anything else that’s been damaged.
• Inventory stolen goods. Write down what’s gone and provide it to the authorities and your insurance provider.
• Secure your house. Make your home safe again by replacing locks, fixing doors and windows, and addressing remaining damage. If you utilize a keypad lock system, now is the time to update your access codes.

Cleaning up will bring you some peace and get life back to normal. Once you do, it’s time to consider improving your home security.

Strengthen The Security At Your Atlanta Home

How can you prevent this from occuring again? Your initial step should be to take stock of your home security. An advanced system with these tools will go a long way to better protecting your home: 

• Security cameras: Almost every trespasser will think twice about breaking in when they observe surveillance cameras. Newer exterior and doorbell cameras give you advanced features like smart detection. When there’s suspicious activity, you’ll be sent an alert. 
• Entry-point sensors: All doors and windows (particularly those on the ground floor) should be safeguarded by glass-break or contact sensors.
• Smart locks and lighting: These automated components can be operated from anywhere. Worried you neglected to secure your door? You can confirm and operate the lock from your phone. You can even have interior lighting switch on if a camera spots someone lurking.

If you are searching for an integrated system that warns you and monitoring agents whenever a device is set off, look into a package from the home security experts at ADT. You’ll benefit from smartphone access, 24/7 monitoring, and advanced automation.

Avoid Break-Ins With The Leading Home Security Systems In Atlanta

Stop break-ins before they happen with an ADT home security system in Atlanta from Secure24 Alarm Systems. As your authorized ADT dealer, we install advanced equipment from the industry leader. Explore your options by calling (404) 551-3078 or completing our form today.