How To Protect Your Home From Burglaries This Christmas

Published November 22, 2019 Tags:

For most of us, Christmas is the best time of the year. We get to catch up with friends and family, exchange gifts and be as merry as we like. This can easily be spoiled though as some people see this as a ripe opportunity to make a quick profit, at your expense.

The holiday period is, unfortunately, one of the busiest times of the year when it comes to burglaries. Statistics show, with over 12 million cars on the road during this time, houses are often left unguarded. Valuable items may be hidden underneath shiny wrapping paper, but this is no deterrent when it comes to a thief.

Here are some quick tips and strategies you can take in order to improve the security of your home at this time of year. Some of these methods may seem obvious at first, but others may surprise you. It’s always worth taking a quick moment to evaluate your home security for potential weak points.

 

Don’t broadcast your holiday

One of the best ways to protect your home is to make sure people know you’re still in it. Broadcasting that you’re going to be away for Christmas may be nice, but unless you have somebody housesitting, it’s almost an open invitation for a thief.

Having a trusted neighbour come in to open and close curtains and check on the house while you are gone is another good option to go for. With the aid of a timed plug, you can also have your television, radio or a set of lights come on at various times during the day and night. This is a great way to make it appear that your home is occupied 24/7 and not worth looking at.

If you are going away, make sure all your doors and windows are locked and avoid posting on social media about your absence are good measures to protect your home. Postponing newspaper or milk deliveries is also another idea to consider, if you have milk bottles piling up by your front door, its obvious nobody is inside.

 

Protect your identity

Make sure you don’t just bin receipts or warranties of items you have just purchased as these act as advertisements for thieves who root through bins. Having a paper shredder to dispose of important documents is a great practice that should be followed.

The same practice goes for cardboard boxes, if you have a lot of large items such as TVs, games consoles or stereos, having the box just laying outside waiting to be recycled can highlight what you have on offer to steal.

 

Lock up valuables

It can be quite hard to lock up valuable items during the holidays as you’ll likely have presents sitting under the tree or lying around the house. You should be sure to lock up anything that can be stored away though, items such as jewellery, watches and car keys are all easily grabbed if a burglar doesn’t have a lot of time.

It is also good practice to keep any keys away from the front door or windows and keep these more hidden, it stops potential thieves ‘fishing’ them out through your letterbox or window in order to get easy access. Hiding anything that may aid a burglar such as tools or ladders will also stop them from being used to gain entry.

Installing a hidden safe is a great option for many households as some thieves will likely just pick up a safe and take it with them during a break-in, hoping to be able to open it later. For any high-value items such as your car, consider leaving this in a secure car park or at a friend or family member’s residence if possible.

 

Consider extra lock and surveillance

It’s always worth looking to see if your home has any weak spots when it comes to somebody potentially breaking in. Do you regularly leave a window open to air out a room? Are you lax when locking your front door when just nipping out? These are all things potential burglars look at when casing a house.

Make sure that you have a decent set of locks on each point of entry. However, don’t go too overboard. Having 6 different locks you have to do on the front door before you go to bed can get tiring fast, you may be tempted to start skipping some. In this case, it would be best to invest in fewer, but stronger locks.

Installing common deterrents such as surveillance cameras can be beneficial as well. If you choose to install outdoor electrical equipment you should make sure the power cord isn’t running through a slightly ajar window. Partially open windows are a common point of entry for people breaking into homes.

Having security outdoor lighting that comes on automatically when it senses movement can also improve the security of your home. Paired with a burglar alarm, these security measures will either put thieves off or sound an alert when they enter the property.

 

Extra measures

The sad fact is, it doesn’t matter how many security precautions you put in your home, the best they can do is delay an intrusion. The good thing though, is that the longer it takes someone to enter, the more chance of them either getting caught or giving up.

By following the above measures you should have a household that is both undesirable to burgle and secure if an attempt is made. Other measures you could take can include, making sure the physical boundaries of your property are secure e.g. fences and gates, joining a Neighbourhood Watch scheme or even leaving valuable items with family members.

We hope this article has proved to be beneficial as well as pointing out some potential weak points in your security. It’s always important to learn new ways of how to protect your home from burglaries this Christmas, but this advice can be used at any time of the year.