Home invasions and robberies are taking place more and more in the suburbs. At the current rate, it’s a safe bet that crimes like home invasions are only going to increase; many will end in violence.

Here are Several Tips for Surviving a Home Invasion Robbery

1) Establish a “safe room” in your home, where your family will flee to at the first sign of forced entry, or that a home invasion is about to take place. Outfit the door with a dead bolt lock, that can be easily locked as you enter.2) Security experts recommend having a code word that when said (or shouted) tells one another to run for the safe room. It can be a simple word such as “ESCAPE” or a simple phrase, “GET TO SAFETY”.

3) Days in advance, place a heavy piece of furniture in your safe room, that can be slid in front of the door. Have one or two 4×4 lengths of lumber inside your safe room as well, that can be used to provide leverage against the heavy piece of furniture in front of the door, and also the far wall. That way, if the door is kicked, it doesn’t budge easily. Be aware that a good kick could force these 4x4s through the drywall, on the far wall. With that in mind, have a piece of 3/4 inch plywood also in your safe room. Leverage the ends of the 4x4s against the plywood, so that the force from any kicks to the door is diffused over a wide area, and doesn’t result in the drywall caving, that the plywood rests against.

Fortifying the door so it’s not easily kicked down will buy you time, should home invaders discover the room you’re hiding in with your family.

4) Have a telephone in the room that you can use to call the police.

Warning: Many home phones operate off television or dish services nowadays; wires to these can be easily cut outside your home, which means your home phone won’t work (should home invaders cut the line), and you won’t be able to call police. So, have a secondary cell phone plugged in and charged in your safe room, as your go-to phone in a home invasion. Make sure that young children have your home address memorized, as they will have to provide it when calling 9-1-1 from a cell phone.

5) Have a small hidden safe or lock-box inside your safe room, where you can keep a handgun, that you can get to quickly. Practice running to the room, and unlocking the safe, and retrieving the gun, and being ready to fire through the door, should the home invaders make their way into the room. Have a spare key hidden in the room to this lock box, or a combination lock that is easily entered.

Be sure not to fire at police, who may show up in the next 5 – 15 minutes, after 9-1-1 has been called.

6) Consider having a “pump” shot-gun as back up or even your go-to firearm. It’s said that the well-familiar sound of a pump shotgun being “pumped” (loaded), can put fear into intruders. Go to the back window, open it, and fire two shots into the air. This may be enough to scare off intruders.

7) Whether you have a shot gun or not, stay in your safe room until police arrive. Unless they’ve heard gun shots or know you’re inside the home, invaders may not realize that you’re in your safe room while they go through the rest of your home, collecting valuables.

Read more:How to Survive a Violent Home Invasion

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