Practical, affordable upgrades — from a €10 door bar to the one deterrent you cannot buy: your neighbours.
Most of what follows is cheap, and most of it works for the same reason: an opportunist is looking for the easy house on the road, and every one of these makes yours visibly not it.
Light the way in
A motion-activated light over the driveway or side passage costs little and changes what your house looks like at 2am. Solar PIR units need no wiring and no electrician.
Bar the sliding door
Patio and sliding doors are a well-known weak point: the lock can be defeated while the door itself stays perfectly liftable. A cheap security bar or a cut broom handle in the track stops it opening anyway.
Don’t advertise an empty house
Post building up in the letterbox, a bin left out days after collection, no lights on for a week. A €10 timer plug on one lamp undoes most of it.
Fit the lock your insurer names
Read your home insurance schedule — most Irish policies specify a lock standard for external doors, and fitting something weaker can be grounds for reducing a claim. It is the one security spec you are already contractually bound to.
Keep your own record of valuables
Photograph laptops, bikes, tools and jewellery, and write down the serial numbers. Gardaí will ask for serials on a stolen bike or laptop, and so will your insurer. Keep the list somewhere that is not in the house — email it to yourself.
Ask about property marking
Marked property is harder to sell on and easier to return. Schemes vary by district, so ask your local Garda Crime Prevention Officer what runs in your area rather than assuming.
Lock the side gate
An open side gate gives quick, unobserved access to the back of the house, which is where the doors are. A decent padlock is the cheapest single upgrade on this page.
Know your neighbours by name
A stranger in the back garden is only obviously a stranger to somebody who knows who lives there. Nothing else on this list depends on knowing the people either side of you; this does, and it is why Patrol exists.
Never hide a key outside
Under the mat, in the fake rock, on the ledge above the door. These are the first three places checked, and they are checked in under a minute. Leave the spare with a neighbour instead.
Consider a video doorbell
Opportunists knock first to see whether anyone is home. A doorbell camera means you can answer from anywhere, which removes the empty-house signal, and you have footage if it turns out to matter.
Stop your post while away
An Post offer a mail-hold service — check current terms on anpost.com before you travel. A stuffed letterbox is a reliable "nobody home" sign visible from the footpath.
Put the ladder away
A ladder left along the side of the house is a route to the first-floor windows, which are usually the ones left open. Same for power tools: lock the shed, and lock what is in it.
Read your policy before you claim
Many Irish policies carry conditions — lock standards, alarm activation, unoccupancy limits — that are only ever read after a break-in. Read yours this week instead.
Vary the timers
A lamp that comes on at exactly 7pm every evening reads as automation. Smart plugs let you shift the times, and let you turn something on from wherever you are.
Join or start a neighbourhood watch
The last layer, and the only one you cannot install on your own. A road where people notice and tell each other covers the hours no light or lock does.
Most of the list above you can do on your own this weekend. The last one you cannot: a street where neighbours notice and tell each other is the deterrent no lock replicates, and it needs more than one household.
Join free →An alert reaches the people signed up nearby, so one person on a road reaches nobody. It starts being useful at around 10 households — which is one message to a group you're already in, not a campaign.