Approximately two million homes are burglarized every year. That’s one home every fifteen seconds or so. Police only catch one out of ten burglars, which means the bad guys do it over and over again. Burglaries result in over $4.5 billion in losses annually, or over $2000 for the average victim.

A safe can be had for under a hundred dollars, or up to several hundred, and can last forever.

You don’t need to be a convenience store, a jewelry store, or a bank to need a safe. If you keep money or credit cards in your house, you need a safe. If you have uninsured or uninsurable jewelry, you need a safe. If you have essential paper documents, like birth certificates, Social Security cards, insurance papers, stocks, bonds, or vehicle titles, you need a safe. Investing in a fireproof safe will also protect cash and valuables and save you the hassle of replacing important documents in case of a fire.

I’ve had four different safes over the past twenty years, because my needs have changed. While living at school and then in a small apartment, I had a portable, fireproof safe for documents and jewelry. (Yes, I wear gold jewelry, but that’s another story.) Then, when I owned a multifamily building, I upgraded to a medium-sized safe. And now that I have a family, I protect our belongings with a larger safe. There’s also a safe specifically for firearms, but we’ll get into that some other time.

I’ve always owned SentrySafe products. There are certain brands whose products always seem to work perfectly, right out of the box. Products that work so well, once you buy one, you’ll never have to replace it. That’s SentrySafe’s line of products.

SentrySafe is a family-owned business that has been making fire-resistant safes for over eighty years. I’m proud to be working with them on a campaign to introduce their new Big Bolt Safe . This little beast is sitting right here, bolted to my floor, as a handy thief repellent.

SentrySafe’s values — “Quality, Loyalty, Growth, and Innovation” — are evident in their products. These are terms I identify and agree with, as I’m German Shepherd-loyal, and innovation is what keeps my kids fed.

As a homeowner or apartment dweller, you know stuff happens. Your first concerns should be theft and fire prevention. You probably have home insurance, but instead of relying on a reactive solution to these issues, wouldn’t it be better to add a layer of protection, actively reducing your risk ahead of time, for a fraction of the cost of insurance? What do you think?

Robert Siciliano is a Personal and Home Security Expert for SentrySafe. See him Discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.