Nottinghamshire Police share advice on how to make your student house safer

After a recent spate of burglaries, here’s four quick tips to protect your student home against theft


On Friday night my student house was burgled. It’s not ideal but burglaries seem to be synonymous with student areas and amazingly the police caught the burglar. It was all thanks to a neighbour who reported the man as soon as he was entering my house, so that as soon as he came out the back door with all our stolen items, the police were just around the corner, waiting to pounce. 

The encounter with Nottinghamshire Police presented a chance to learn about how to be safer at home. There’s been a spate of burglaries recently, and to avoid the upset caused by preventable burglaries, here’s some practical advice shared by the police on how to reduce the chances of being robbed. 

1. Keep all doors and windows locked

It’s an obvious one but it’s the reason that student homes are targeted. Rarely will a burglar force entry into a student home. Really what they’re after is an unlocked door or window so that they can waltz in and take the goods. Keeping windows shut and locked whilst you’re out is really important. Keeping the front and back door locked is vital too. Never leave either off the latch, even when you’re at home.

2. Keep your valuables out of sight

Student homes have ground floor bedrooms and so it’s important that any laptops, computers or electronic devices are hidden from view when at all possible. Keeping the blinds angled or curtains pulled-to means that valuable items are hidden from passers-by. If a burglar can’t see in, then it’s less likely that they would break in. 

3. Lock bedroom doors

If your bedroom door has a lock on it, lock your door. It’s as simple as that. It’s a preventative measure against someone accessing your room and rummaging through it to find valuable items.

4. Check that doors are locked after house viewings

There’s a load of house viewings going on at the moment in the adrenaline fuelled rush to secure a house for the following year. This means that a lot of external and internal doors are being opened and closed and locked and unlocked. It’s worth checking that the external doors of your house are locked after a viewing, just in case the agent doing the viewing forgot to lock them.

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