Have you ever watched a flock of seagulls on the beach? I live in close proximity to the ocean, and I see them all day: fishing, eating, and ultimately stealing from each other. Usually a more aggressive seagull chases and screams at a gull that’s just cracked open a clam. Sometimes the aggressor will snatch a fish right out of another’s beak, midflight. While this behavior may be cruel and unfair, it is natural. In the animal world, the strong thrive and the weak perish. It’s survival of the fittest.

Humankind has the conscious ability to discern that stealing is wrong, and the civilization to enforce laws against stealing. Nevertheless, there have always been thieves, many motives that go beyond hunger.

Theft is generally motivated either by greed, drug addiction, or survival instinct. Some thieves are born predators, wired that way from the start. Predators, by nature, fail to see any reason to refrain from harming or robbing others. To them, victimizing you is an entitlement. They can conjure a hundred reasons to explain why you deserve to be violated.

On the other hand, some predators are nurtured. These are people who may have been born into a destructive or abusive home, and over time, under the influence of others, developed drug or mental health issues. Their circumstances and confusion force them into survival mode. To hunt, harm, and rob their fellow man.

The chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime are real. It is essential that you be able to recognize predators all around you, in their different forms. They may look and act like us, but they think very differently. They have no respect for any boundaries between themselves and you, your home, or your small business. It is therefore essential that you protect what is yours.

That includes protecting yourself, through self-defense skills, and your stuff, with home security alarms, layers of protection, and a fire--resistant Big Bolt Safe from the best in the business, SentrySafe.

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