How to prevent home burglaries?

It’s holiday season, so half my neighbors are out of town. I just watched two creeps scouting a ground-floor apartment with the shutters down—acting like they own the place, hanging around way too long. What can you actually do to stop this crap?
And before anyone asks why I'm getting involved, I had my place broken into two years ago. I'd give anything if someone had stepped up back then...
Anyone got a constructive idea? Otherwise, I’m going to feel like absolute garbage tomorrow morning if I wake up to find those shutters ripped off. :S 😕😕😕

You can pick up some outlets equipped with built-in timers. With just two or three of those, you could easily set your TV to kick on at, say, 5:00 PM and shut off around midnight.
You could also cycle a nightlight on and off every half hour or so.
Another option is to schedule your washing machine to run at specific times, which keeps the bathroom door open so the noise drifts through the apartment.
Or, you could just crack the blinds slightly so a little light spills out from the living room.
The core objective here is to simulate someone actually being home, whether through sound or light.
I believe there's also a way to redirect landline calls directly to a cell phone; burglars often call a house phone first just to check if anyone answers before they move in.
There’s plenty more where that came from—you really just need to use your imagination.

The AK-47 (short for the 1947 pattern Avtomat Kalashnikova, though most people just call it a Kalashnikov or an AK) is that classic assault rifle you see used all over the place by Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War. It was standardized back in 1947, designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, and the original production came out of the Russian IZH factory. It’s pretty much one of the first true assault rifles, and honestly, it’s still everywhere today. I think they've actually produced more different models of the AK than any other combat weapon out there.

You might as well just stand outside the window and wait for them to show up. ☕

Dana Reyes5 said:You can grab some outlets with built-in timers. With just two or three of those, you could set your TV to kick on at, say, 5 PM and shut off around midnight.
You could also cycle a nightlight on and off every half hour or so.
Or even schedule your washing machine to run at certain times so there's occasional noise echoing through the house.
You might even crack the blinds just a tiny bit to let some light spill out from inside.
The whole point is really just to make it look—and sound—like someone is actually home.
I think you can also set up call forwarding to your cell phone, since burglars often try calling a landline first to see if anyone answers.
There's plenty of other tricks too; it's really all about using your imagination.

🤣
Well, this isn't exactly a masterclass 😁 but it's definitely good to keep in mind. 😬

Dana Reyes5 said:you can get those outlets with built-in timers, so like, with two or three of those you could probably set it up so the TV kicks on at like 5 PM and shuts off around midnight
you could toggle a night light too, maybe every half hour or an hour
you could even schedule the washing machine to run just to keep the bathroom door open so there's some noise echoing through the house occasionally
or maybe crack the blinds just a tiny bit so people see some light coming from inside
the whole point is basically just making it look like someone’s actually home, whether it’s through sound or lights
I think you can also forward your landline to your cell, since burglars usually call the house first to see if anyone answers
and honestly, whatever else comes to mind, you just gotta use your head

technically impossible for a TV or a washer...
because when you plug a TV in, it just goes into standby mode, it doesn't just pop on immediately. unless it's one of those old-school units with actual physical buttons to turn it on and switch channels.
same goes for the washing machine, it's got a programmed cycle, so once it finishes, it just stops, and you'd have to manually turn that dial again. or if it's a digital one, you'd have to set the specific program, so yeah, none of that works...
a lamp might work, I guess, just like a radio, provided it has a physical on/off switch and you leave it in the ON position. so, if it's got a button like a remote control, then zero points, because plugging it in just puts it in standby mode. 😉