Winter holidays are an exciting and busy time when families and friends come together to celebrate the season. Unfortunately for us, home burglars view the holiday season a little differently. For them, it is a time of opportunity to burglarize your home for cash, credit cards, and all the new gifts of small electronics, computers, jewelry, and easily sold valuables.
Santa comes down the chimney, not through the door or windows. Keep those locked and your blinds drawn when you aren’t home or are sleeping/otherwise occupied. Most home burglaries happen this time of year, and it would be awful to have the presents stolen along
with your other treasured possessions.
- Don’t ever leave your baby unattended with a Christmas tree. Keep
all your cords and breakable ornaments out of reach of baby. If your
baby is crawling, make sure to place the breakable ornaments higher
than they can reach, and the same goes for walking. If your baby is
walking, you may just want to keep your breakable Holidays
ornaments in the box this year. Make sure that the Christmas tee is
anchored so that your baby can’t flip it over. Don’t place wrapped
presents under the tree where your baby can reach them. The
wrapping paper and bows will go straight into your baby’s mouth
and they can choke on it.
Santa comes down the chimney, not through the door or windows. Keep those locked and your blinds drawn when you aren’t home or are sleeping/otherwise occupied. Most home burglaries happen this time of year, and it would be awful to have the presents stolen along
with your other treasured possessions.
Here are a few tips of what they look for when shopping for a house to burglarize. These tips will help you enjoy the holidays without incident.
- Burglars look for an easy entry with good escape routes. Don’t openly display your Christmas tree and gifts in the front window so it’s easily visible from the street. It’s too tempting for them to smash the window and grab the wrapped packages.
- Burglars look for occupancy cues like outdoor lights burning 24 hours a day, piled up newspapers, or advertising flyers hanging on the door knob. Use an inexpensive light timer when you are away and ask a neighbor to keep the front of your home clean of papers and debris.
- Burglars know to look for the hidden door key near the front entrance. Don’t hide spare keys under rocks, in flowerpots, or above door ledges. Instead give the spare key to a trusted neighbor.
- Burglars prefer to enter through unlocked doors or windows. Sliding windows that are not secure can be seen from distance. One holiday problem can occur when exterior Holidays light extension cords are run inside through a window and prevent it from being secured. Hire an electrician or handyman to install an inexpensive exterior outlet for your holiday lights.
- Don’t post your family name on your mailbox or on you house. A burglar can call directory assistance to get your telephone number and call your home while in front of your house to confirm that you are away.
- Don’t leave descriptive telephone answering machine messages like, “You’ve reached the Wilson’s…we’re away skiing for the Christmas holidays…please leave a message.” Burglars love to hear that they have plenty of time to break in and completely ransack your home.
- After Holiday, don’t pile up empty gift boxes from your new computer, DVD player, or stereo receiver on the street for the garbage man. Burglars appreciate knowing that you have expensive gifts inside for them to steal. Break them down or cut them up to conceal the items better. After a lucrative burglary, the chances of being burglarized again are increased to steal the new replacement products.
- Last, but not least, fortify your home by installing solid core doors, heavy duty locks, longer screws in the lock strike plates and door hinges, and install secondary security devices on all accessible sliding windows. See my webpage on burglary prevention at home security.
Holiday Safety Tips For Children & When You Have A Baby In The House.
- Keep the Holidays candles to a minimum or just don’t light them.
Candles can be really pretty at Holidays time, but they can also be
really dangerous. If you love Holidays candles, think about using
electric candles or light bulbs instead for the glow. If you still want
to decorate your home with Holidays candles, just don’t light them.
A baby can grab a candle and get burned badly. If you do burn a
candle for a Holiday, make sure it is completely out of reach of your
baby and there is no way that it can fall over by pulling on a table
cloth or doiley.
Candles can be really pretty at Holidays time, but they can also be
really dangerous. If you love Holidays candles, think about using
electric candles or light bulbs instead for the glow. If you still want
to decorate your home with Holidays candles, just don’t light them.
A baby can grab a candle and get burned badly. If you do burn a
candle for a Holiday, make sure it is completely out of reach of your
baby and there is no way that it can fall over by pulling on a table
cloth or doiley.
- Don’t ever leave your baby unattended with a Christmas tree. Keep
all your cords and breakable ornaments out of reach of baby. If your
baby is crawling, make sure to place the breakable ornaments higher
than they can reach, and the same goes for walking. If your baby is
walking, you may just want to keep your breakable Holidays
ornaments in the box this year. Make sure that the Christmas tee is
anchored so that your baby can’t flip it over. Don’t place wrapped
presents under the tree where your baby can reach them. The
wrapping paper and bows will go straight into your baby’s mouth
and they can choke on it.
Materials were collected, selected, examined, organized, and posted
by Yefim Toybin
December 22, 2011 @ 22:40
Phoenix, AZ
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