There are two basic ways we deal with home security. One of them is dealing with a break-in itself. We usually do that with a security system. Somebody breaks in the home. An alarm's going to go off. The police are called -hopefully they're going to be scared away. The other way to deal with home security is to be a deterrent: Make your home less appealing to a burglar. Send them somewhere else. I equate a lot of that to do with cars. Believe it or not, you've got two cars sitting here in a parking lot. One of them is locked up with an obvious alarm system on the dash. The other one is unlocked, windows down, and the keys are in it. Which one are you going to steal?

Just like making your car more secure, we can make our home more secure as well. Remember, a burglar is looking for a house that is unoccupied, dark, and unsecure. We can change that by changing our habits. When we leave the home, leave some lights on. Better yet, leave a TV on. People automatically assume that if they see a TV on, somebody's probably at home. Go ahead and install a security system and let them know you've got one. Put signs on the windows or maybe a sign in the yard. Between you and me, if you don't have a security system, put the signs up anyway. They don't know!

Follow these tips; hopefully you'll make your home less of a target. Coming up next week, I'm going to show you a do-it-yourself home security system. You can install this and make it work.

I'm Don Zeman with News from the Homefront. Trust me, you can do this stuff!