
09-21-2010
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 3
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1. Plant under your windows plants with lots of thorns, like Japanese barberry and holly with those thorns on the leaves. They are standard shrubs at most garden centers and cost around $4 for a 1 gallon shrub. They grow slowly, but get to be waist-high after about 5 years. Let me tell you, nobody wants to get too close to a Japanese Barberry, let alone try to get past one to break through a window. Plant roses for really cheap around your house under windows, and no one will fight the thorns.
2. Get a dog. Dogs are still the best theft deterrents in my crazy gang-banger neighborhood where I live. I walk my dogs every day, the gang-bangers see me walking those dogs, they literally cross the street to avoid the dogs when they see me coming. A big dog can do a lot of damage to gardens, but if you contain both dog and garden with good fencing, both can get along. And oh yeah, dogs don't like to fight Japanese Barberry, rose bushes, or Holly shrubs either.
3. Get a homeowner's insurance policy. We pay about $12 a month for ours in case the gang-bangers do get stupid and break in and steal our stuff. Make sure you list each and every item of value you own, including serial numbers of all electronics, take pictures of your valuable jewelry, antiques, and house wares, and upload all information to an online storage place so if your papers get stolen you can still access your inventory online. Be sure and catalog all your CD's, DVD's, and books as well. Most items will be replaced if you have an accurate list of each item, most insurance companies will honor your listed inventory. If you have a lot of stuff, list it anyway, or better yet, give most of it away and reduce your worry of it getting stolen.
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