“Strange things happen in the dark….”
I’ve been walking my neighborhood in the dark.
I see how dark my neighborhood is, and I know it’s not the only one.
People have no lights illuminating the exterior of their house. Street lights don’t cover every inch of ground. It’s amazing how dark it is out there.
And how that darkness can conceal and hide things.
As I walked around I could point out all sorts of great places to hide. Places where I could work a door or window open to break into someone’s house and no one would see me. Of course, I wouldn’t partake in such activities, but you have to think like a criminal so you can understand your enemy and work to defeat them.
To me, it’s a simple premise: cockroaches don’t like light.
Stuff From Hsoi 
One of the features I like about my house is the number of outside lights. It would be difficult, but not impossible-yet, for a criminal to walk around my house undetected.
One of the biggest changes that I’ve made to the outside lights is to change them out to motion activated lights.
I have found a type of lights that come on at 50% power at dusk and then brighten to 100% if there is motion. I’m slowly changing out all the lights to these.
It is a simple system and just requires us to stay aware of the ambient light. Most of the time if one flicks on to bright, it is the wind or critters but I’ve met people at the door before they’ve knocked.
We have those sorts of lights, where they are photo-sensitive and come on at 50%, but then motion kicks them to 100%. I like them as well since it’s always lit but not washing out your neighbors, then motion is evident. Of course, the trick is to find an angle for the motion sensor that’s still useful but doesn’t trigger whenever a neighborhood cat trots by. 🙂