Tulsa - Tulsa police are using a frightening home invasion as a lesson for all homeowners. They want you to trust your instincts and be suspicious.

The warning follows a home invasion at a midtown Tulsa home Tuesday. Detectives say a nanny was answering a knock at the door when two men forced their way inside.

It was the city's 17th home invasion robbery since the beginning of October. Police say they see more home invasions in apartment complexes than neighborhoods like the one yesterday. But this time of the year, their advice is if someone knocks on your door, don't open it right way.

Police say the unsuspecting nanny answered a knock at the door that led to a home invasion and two flat-screen TVs being stolen.

"Somebody had to know there was something in there that they wanted and that's kinda where we are heading now," says Sergeant Dave Walker.

Police say they are expecting more home invasions and that it seems to come with the holiday season. In cases like this one, police want to know who might have cased out the home. And they say you should beware of workers doing yard chores or maintenance.

"That's not unheard of," says Walker. "People on those construction crews, roof crews or lawn crews will break in or commit crime while they are there. It's an opportunity for them to be in an area where they are normally not."

Police say it's also not uncommon for someone to show up and check out your house. In any case, the one thing they advise is to never just open the door when someone knocks.

"Look around you. If you have a peep hole, look through there, you can yell through the door, if you don't know who it is, yell what do you want. You can converse through the door and if they start kicking on it, I'd have a cell phone with me."

Another trick? Someone may knock and then hide. Police say don't be fooled into opening the door to see who's there.

Police say thieves are mostly after flat screen televisions and electronics.

It may not seem like it, but police say home invasions are actually down from a year ago.

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