It’s difficult to protect your home from professional thieves, but most home burglaries are done by amateurs – who are more easily thwarted by simple security precautions:

• Change all locks after moving into a new house.
• If you lose house keys, immediately change the locks.
• If possible, leave a spare key with a neighbor rather than hiding one outside. 
• Close all windows and lock back doors before leaving.
• Replace weak or damaged glass window panels on doors with sturdier, laminate-glass versions.
• Utilize hinge bolts as an inexpensive solution to strengthen vulnerable doors.  Burglar-proof your home by installing 1-inch throw deadbolt locks on exterior doors.
• Fit appropriate locks to the top & bottom of patio doors that don't already have a multi-locking system.  Burglar-proof glass patio doors by setting a pipe or metal bar in the middle, bottom track of the door slide.  The pipe should be the same length as the track.
• Secure side passageways by inserting a high, lockable gate to prevent thieves from entering the house through the back garden.
• Gravel is a cheap security measure.  The crunching noise makes it difficult for thieves to sneak around outside.
• Exterior security lights activated by motion sensors deter intruders.
• Solid wooden fences around a garden are easy to scale.  Try attaching trellising to fence top or replacing wooden fences with wrought iron gates.
• Thick, spiky hedges or a climbing rose around a wrought iron gate are attractive and effective barriers to entry. 
• Never allow strangers to enter your home!  Beware of anyone asking to use a phone or bathroom.  Use peepholes, door viewfinders, and door chains to see callers without having to completely open the door.
• Always keep front & back doors locked, even when home.
• Make sure the back door is locked when answering the front door to a strange caller – an accomplice may try to sneak in while you're being distracted.
• If your plans to be away from home have been publicized through a funeral, wedding or similar newspaper notice, hire a house sitter.  Burglars read newspapers to find easy targets.
• Your house should appear occupied at all times.  When leaving for lengthy periods, cancel mail & newspaper deliveries.  Set timers on lights & radios so it appears that you are home.
• When away from home for several days (or just one day), adjust the telephone ringer to its lowest volume.  An unanswered phone is a quick tip that a home is empty.

For more information, check out Keeping Your Home Safe.