Illinois Woman Robbed: How do we Prevent Home Invasion?

There aren't many things that would be a living nightmare like that of a home invasion. There have been many  movies based on that plot because, for lack of a better phrase, it's simply traumatizing. A 44-year-old woman in North Aurora, Ill., experienced this nightmare firsthand this past Friday morning.

Reports say an armed man entered her home through an unlocked door and, once inside, attacked her and tied her up. His accomplice helped rob her before the two men fled. Shortly after, she freed herself and escaped to call the police. The suspects are still at large.

Taking the limited information available from the article, I think we can still learn from this incident. The most obvious lesson is that the armed invader entered through an "unlocked door."

This is a no-brainer. Lock your doors.

I doubt this is the first time she left her doors unlocked, there is even a chance these individuals may have known that. This incident seems to be a small-time, quick-grab style robbery, but home invasions can have more forethought and planning. There may have been some pre-incident indicators that this woman missed out on.

The individuals may have cased her house out days or weeks prior to the incident. Always be on the lookout for suspicious activity by individuals in your area.  They could be pretending to buy houses in your area, door-to-door sales or maybe taking survey -- who knows. I am not saying automatically assume that people doing these things are plotting criminals, just do not assume they are not.

Another instruction note revolves around the time this incident occurred, morning. Sometimes, we assume bad guys only operate when it is dark.  This situation shows that sometimes bad guys wake up early to go to work as well. The idea is to always be prepared for a critical incident and to never assume just because it is daylight outside that you will not be attacked.

What other lessons can be learned? Do you think you have ever been cased for a crime?  What steps did you take to counter?