Personal and family security can sometimes be as simple as common sense. Webster defines common sense as “Sound, ordinary sense; good judgment.”

I continually read about burglaries, robberies, assaults, rapes, murders and home invasions where the perpetrator entered through an unlocked door or window. This, of course, is a fact of life to some extent, as long as perpetrators are so extremely bold, but I believe the number of instances can be minimized just by simply locking your doors and windows. A locked door and window will not prevent a perpetrator from entering if he really wants in but it will do two things: (1) It will delay the entry, possibly long enough to call 911 and /or obtain a means of defense and (2) it will create noise to possibly warn of an unwanted visitor.