【Please do, women!】: About Anti Crime Measures

We will deliver the following information regarding anti-crime measures when living alone, which particularly important for women.

【Is it normal to feel anxiety when you live alone for the first time?】

Recent years the media shows no sign of significant decline of sneak thieves, lock-picking crimes, and stalkers.

In order to prevent crime proactively, we have to be prepared with a mind that “it could happen to us tomorrow”. So let’s start to think about various anti-crime measures.

【About the awareness of anti-crime measures when looking for your room】

What aspects of anti-crime measures do you pay attention when looking for rooms?
In the rental apartment, the following facilities should be considered.

·Auto-lock
·A room on the 2nd floor or above
·Interphone with monitor

How about you? I think that most people agree with these.

■ How about the apartment on the second floor or above?

It seems that the rent of rooms on the lower floors tend to be lower than that of the upper floors. For this, you might consider renting the room on the 1st floor or the 2nd floor for the affordable rent.

However, did you know that the floors that are likely to be a target of sneak thieves and invaded from the windows are the 1st floor, the 2nd floor, and the top floor?

The followings are the characteristics of apartments that are likely to be targeted by sneak thieves.

· There are drainpipes at the side of the balcony or nearby
· The balcony has a poor visibility from neighbors.
· It is possible to enter from adjacent buildings

It may be better to avoid the lower floors of apartments with these characteristics.

However, if it is easy to enter from corridors and staircases on the first floor, even rooms on the 3rd floor or higher can be dangerous.

So a room on the 2nd floor or above can be one of anti-crime measures however, it does not guarantee the absolute safety.

■ How about a rental apartment with auto-lock?

Many people think that apartments with auto-lock have the high level of security, however, it seems this is not true.

What is auto-lock?

Residents can check the visitors in advance through the intercom and open the door. Of course, there is an advantage that only authorized people can enter from the entrance. In addition, nowadays there is a wide range of interphones from call only to intercom with color monitors, so that you can check people more clearly.

Moreover, there seems to be an increasing number of apartments adopting Double Auto Lock, which increases the security by installing auto-locks in the elevator lobby as well as the entrance.

Nevertheless the security can never be 100%. Anyone could pretend as a resident and get in the entrance of the apartment. When residents place too much trust in the security of their apartment, they can become careless. For instance, it is often reported that people living in auto-lock apartments do not lock their own entrance door or windows when they leave home for a short time. This careless action can invite sneak thieves into your room one day.

Always keep this in mind and it is necessary for individuals to raise awareness of anti-crime measures.

【New anti-crime measures : For the entrance door】

In houses and apartments with less than three stories, the window is used as the entrance for break-in in the majority of cases.

However, in apartments with more than 4 stories, sneak thieves commonly enter from the entrance door. Thus, it is crucial to increase the security of the entrance door. Recently, it became more common to employ the high level of security, such as dimple keys or the card reader: intangible IC cards, which strongly resist picking measures.

Also, if the entrance door has double lock, the level of security is enhanced. When viewing rental apartment, it is a good idea to check what is around the apartment, how the apartment looks like from the outside, and the type of locks used in the balcony and the entrance door.

【Comment from the writer】

There are many anti-crime measures, and each has advantages and disadvantages. There is no such measure that can be 100% safe. We need to understand it first, choose a proper rental apartment, and take measures after moving in. Don’t place too much trust in security of your apartment, but work by yourself for your own security.