7 Ways to Protect Your Personal Property

Criminal activity is a growing threat for everyone regardless of socioeconomic status, and that's especially true where theft is concerned. Your personal belongings could be taken without your permission from anywhere. In addition to home burglaries and auto theft, you must take steps to protect your belongings from being stolen from gym lockers, work desks, and school duffel bags. These steps can help you keep your things safer.

Protect Your Smartphone

There are a couple of different ways you can protect your phone and ensure you can get it back if it is stolen. First, be sure to keep your phone locked to keep others from accessing your data. Additionally, you should write down the IMEI number for your phone, which you can find by typing *#06# with the keypad. Finally, install a GPS tracking system to help you locate a lost or stolen phone.

Don't Display Valuables

While you may like to display your favorite collectibles, artwork, or jewelry, doing so can make you a target for burglars. You should never display items in your vehicle, on your desk, or in the windows of your home. This will tempt burglars with the idea that you have even more valuables that would be worth stealing.

Mark Your Valuables

You can actually have a little fun with this tip by creating your own logo or sequence of characters. Try to come up with a unique series of letters, numbers, or characters that will help you identify your belongings. Your personal identifier should be engraved or printed with a permanent marker on everything you own. This will make it easier to identify them if they are stolen and later retrieved.

Always Use Your Locks

Leaving doors, desk drawers, and lockers unlocked is an easy habit to fall into, but doing so can leave you exposed to theft in any situation. Even if you're only going to turn your back for a few minutes, that's all a clever thief needs to grab something and run. Often, a thief will grab anything they can get their hands on quickly, hoping it will prove to be valuable. While it may seem like overkill, you should always use locks to secure any type of container or cabinet to ensure no one will have access to your belongings. While that may seem like a bother, it's better than risking the loss of your valuables.

Insure Everything

Even if you only rent an apartment, getting insurance will pay off sooner or later. The amount you'll have to pay for renter’s insurance will depend on the total value of your belongings, but it shouldn't be more than a few dollars each month. If you're willing to pay a little more each month, you can insure your items for the replacement cost rather than the current value of the items. This will help you in replacing anything you lose through theft or damage.

Don't Forget Digital Protection

In rare cases, you'll have some warning that your desktop or laptop computer is about to die, but, in most cases, computers crash without any warning. You can protect personal property that's stored digitally by saving it to external hard drives that can be plugged into any device via a USB port. You can save photos, videos, music, and text documents of any type to your hard drives. It's also a good idea to save a list of your website usernames and passwords to a Word or Excel document, which you can also save to a hard drive. Since external hard drives can also be password protected, anything you save on these devices will be secure.

Invest in Home Security Devices

Even if you rent a small unit in an apartment complex, you can install smart security devices in your apartment. A couple of security cameras, motion sensors, and security lighting is all you need to deter crime and capture intruders in the act. On the rare occasion that someone does burglarize your home, you'll have the footage to turn over to the police. For added protection, consider subscribing to a security monitoring service.

Using smart technology can help you protect your belongings, but you shouldn't let technology lull you into a careless state. If that technology lags at the wrong moment, you could end up losing belongings that you cherish. For that reason, you should always be diligent and watchful for suspicious behavior.