Beating Burglar at His Own Game : Security: With a little stealth of their own, homeowners and apartment dwellers can keep creeps on the outside.

It was early morning and the young woman was lying in bed when she heard footsteps and then spotted an intruder in her room, rifling through her dresser. The burglar left her townhouse quietly, taking with him the contents of her wallet and a pair of pearl earrings.

But with the losses came a gain.

“What the incident did was to make us more vigilant,” said the woman. After discovering that the burglar had entered through an unlocked rear door, she and her husband vowed to change their behavior and to take a couple of inexpensive steps to safeguard their home.

A few simple precautions can make a world of difference, according to national crime prevention specialists.

“About half of those burglaries completed are through unlocked doors or windows. Somebody just walked in or climbed in,” said Jean O’Neil, director of research at the Washington-based National Crime Prevention Council.

If you’re convinced there’s little you can do to improve home security because you don’t have the $500 to $5,000 that an alarm system typically costs, you’re mistaken. You can realize a substantial return on your investment through simple security improvements such as adding quality door locks, pinning windows, improving outdoor lighting and pruning the shrubs that shroud your view outdoors.

“Sometimes the best protection ends up being the easiest and the most obvious and because it’s that way, people tend to overlook it,” said William Hartung, president-elect of the International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioners, based in Columbus, Ohio.

To be sure, the young couple with the townhouse were startled into the recognition that they’d better check doors to be sure they’re locked--probably the single most important step that homeowners can take to avert burglaries. In addition, the burglary prompted them to replace window locks, at a nominal charge, and to repair an alarm system that had been installed by the home’s previous owners.

Too often it takes a burglary to scare people into action, Hartung said. Many homeowners take a passive view of crime prevention, looking to police for protection rather than thinking of simple ways to protect themselves, he contends.

“What we’re trying to accomplish is a little behavior modification,” he said. “We’re trying to influence people’s attitudes to take some action on their own.”

At the top of the list of inexpensive improvements are quality door locks, the experts agree.

Every exterior door in your home should have a deadbolt lock with a one-inch throw, according to crime reduction specialists. A good deadbolt must have a slip ring or rotating collar so that the lock can’t be twisted out with a wrench or locking pliers. A regular, spring-loaded lock is easily defeated.

Crime prevention specialists say the door chains many people faithfully engage each night before bedtime are of virtually no value. By simply throwing his shoulder against a door, an intruder can pop the screws out of the plate designed to hold the chain in place.

“Door chains don’t serve any useful purpose and they give you a false sense of security,” O’Neil said.

On the other hand, installation of a wide-angle peephole can be of significant value, especially if you’re living in home which rarely affords you a window to view someone at your door. A wide-angle peephole can let you detect an intruder who may be crouched low on the other side of your door.