Living in a dorm is not only necessity but also a great privilege. There is indeed no better way to meet genuine student life face to face than by living in a dorm. Dorm parties, dorm crushes and countless hours hanging out with your roommate are what makes this into a truly amazing experience. Moreover, this way you also get a chance to interact with a great multitude of people coming from different places and different background. Unfortunately this aspect is not completely positive.
A simple fact that now you live with a bunch of unfamiliar people can be worrisome on its own. This can sometimes lead to things like privacy breaches or even theft. Here are some things you need to know in order to protect your most precious belongings from dorm room thefts.
Being Cautious
A simple truth is that just a bit of caution goes a long way. What this means is quite simple: if no one knows that you have something valuable, they won’t ever think of stealing from you. Prevention is often the most efficient defense tool. This means that you should never brag about the things you have in your room in front of people you don’t know or don’t trust. Furthermore, often securing is not even necessary, simple concealing can sometimes suffice. Just hide your valuables somewhere in your room and in this way avoid attracting unwanted attention.
Finding a Good Lock
The most obvious solution is often the most effective one as well. Never leave your room without properly securing it first. If you are the last person to leave your dorm room, make sure that you have locked the door. Sometimes, even returning few seconds later to check if it is locked once more is not a bad idea. Additionally, you could also get a solid footlocker for your most precious belongings. In a recent conversation with a reputed Sydney-based locksmith service, I learned that you can easily transform this common footlocker into a proper safe.
Maintaining the Aura of Security
If you plan on leaving for an extended period of time, make sure that not everyone is aware of this. There are many ways to deceive potential burglars into thinking that you are still in the room. For example, even if you are the last person leaving, there is no harm in yelling “see you later” to your absent roommate. This way, you create an illusion of someone still being in a room. Next, you shouldn’t announce your absence over the social networks. You never know who might be reading.
Not Everything can Fit in a Safe
The greatest problem with college thefts is that not every item can be stored in a secure chest. Amongst the most commonly stolen items in dorms there are such things like phones, wallets or even keys. This means two things. First, pickpocketing is as great of a problem as burglary is and the second one is: what good is locking things away if your keys get stolen? The only way of preventing pickpocketing is having full awareness of people around you and being very, very careful at all times. Carrying essential items in front pockets also may help.
Eventually, when we talk about keeping dorm room thefts ay bay, it all comes down to your own caution. As we already stated at the beginning, preventing an incident is most often the best step in avoiding it altogether.