Have A "Plan B" In Case Your Property Is Stolen Or You Experience Other Disasters!

Did you know that there are approximately 5 Million burglaries each and every year throughout the United States resulting in over 4 Billion dollars in losses? As of 2009, 87% of these burglaries remain unsolved.

While there are numerous steps you can take to reduce your chances of being a burglary victim, you should “Have A Plan B” just in case criminals do make off with your property.

First, make sure you mark your valuables so that you can easily identify them if they are recovered by law enforcement. You’d be totally amazed at the amount of property that police do eventually recover but, often the property never gets returned to the rightful owner because there is no way to determine who owns the property.

There are special engraving tools that can be used to mark your property and many times these tools are available for loan from your local police agency. I recommend discreetly marking your personal property using what is known as an Invisible Ink I.D. Pen with UV Light like the ones available from my private firm, Security Intelligence Bureau at: http://bit.ly/PropertyIDPen.

It’s also very important to make a complete inventory of the property within your residence and even your business or workplace. This inventory should include photographs, receipts and even video so that you have a full record of your items not only in case of a burglary or other crime but also other incidents such as fire, severe weather and flood damage where you’ll need to provide certain details about your property to your insurance carrier for any claims. Of course, you’ll want to store your inventory record in a safe place somewhere outside of your home or business location.

Also consider checking with your insurance agent to see if they have any checklists or software that can help you with your property inventory. There are also FREE Inventory Software solutions available on the internet such as: http://www.whatyouown.org.


Til Next Time…

Be Vigilant, Be Prepared, Be Safe!

Alfred McComber, The Personal Safety Guy

Can Police & Fire Rescue Personnel Get To Your EXACT Location In Case Of An Emergency?

In case of any emergency at home or work, it's a good idea to make sure that your residential and workplace telephone numbers as well as your physical addresses for these locations actually shows up in the dispatch records system of your local Emergency Communications Center (EOC).

Unfortunately many times home and even business telephone numbers and physical addresses may not be up-to-date in the emergency communications dispatch center computer system and when seconds really count, knowing exactly where you are calling from can help police and fire first responders get to you as quickly as possible.

Another reason for making sure your exact physical address actually shows up in the communications center computer system is so that in the event you are dealing with say, an intruder, a fire or medical emergency in your home or workplace, merely dialing "9-1-1" and not providing any verbal communication will most likely result in the authorities being dispatched to your location anyway to investigate what is commonly referred to as an “Investigate The Unknown Trouble” call where police officers will actually show-up just to make sure everything is okay.

As a police officer, I get dispatched to these types of calls on a regular basis and it is better to have the police respond and make sure everything is okay than not taking any action at all. Also keep in mind if you live or work in a building with lots of tenants, this could pose an additional problem for first responders because even when they arrive at your building's address, they still need to ascertain exactly which residential unit or business suite is involved and then determine how they will approach that location based on the nature of the call.

In order to make sure that your home and/or business telephone number along with your exact physical address actually shows up in your local Emergency Communications Center system, simply call the non-emergency phone number for your EOC and let them know that you want to test your residential or workplace telephone number to make sure it shows up in their emergency communications system in case of any emergency. They'll be able to instruct you regarding their exact procedures for conducting the test. Keep in mind, that this strategy only applies to actual landline telephones, NOT cellular phones.
 
Til Next Time,
 
Be Vigilant, Be Prepared, Be Safe!
 
Alfred McComber, The Personal Safety Guy