With the country ordered to be home between 21:00 and 06:00, one would think that crime should be dropping during those hours. Right? 

Wrong… The Atlas Security Control Room reports that there is an increase in criminal activity during the curfew hours, as the majority of the incidents are taking place in the early hours of the morning. These incidents include burglaries, attempted burglaries, trespassing and theft. 

The number of attempted burglaries indicates that the suspects are not professionals who are able to set their sites on a target and map our their plan effectively. What they are doing is trying to take advantage of weak spots as they go. 

There are various ways to combat these criminals, including: 

• Arming your alarms at night when you go to bed.
• Do not leave valuables like laptops and wallets in your vehicles. 
• Ensure that your property is well lit.
• Ensure that there are no vulnerable spots on your premises by installing outdoor protection (beams or CCTV) or installing protection in flatlets and sheds. 
• If dogs are barking, check what they are barking at instead of assuming that it’s the neighbours cat that is bothering them.

It is clear that these criminals are deterred by early detection, so your alarm triggering when they attempt to gain access will give you a greater chance at zero loss, and will also allow our operations team to activate units to your premises and potentially catch these criminals. 

It’s time to be more aware of the security within our own property, as if we all do our little bit, the criminals will realise that there will be little success and move on to the next area.