Hide and call 911 (or whatever emergency number for your country) is usually the advice police give. If you're not living alone, it's a bit more complicated. I

Hide and call 911 (or whatever emergency number for your country) is usually the advice police give. If you're not living alone, it's a bit more complicated. Instruct your family to know how to hide in situations of home invasion and to call 911. Engaging with burglars is not really worth the risk. Valuables can be replaced, life cannot. As for preventative measures, you could get a dog or two (and train them properly), multiple loud alarms all over the house, and put night-vision enabled cameras in very visible places pointed at entry points (the cameras should be obvious to the burglar that it's a camera, it might scare them off). If you want to go further, burglars tend to not burglarize homes that they know are occupied or with people awake. If you leave lights on or audible TV/radio/music on, it might be enough for them to back out. That could be distracting to sleep/power-bill-costly though.