The holiday season is the perfect time for long awaited vacation plans. This is also an ideal time for vandalism and theft. While away, many people tend to leave expensive holiday decorations unsecured and susceptible to these acts. In addition, vacationers are often in such a rush to get out the door that they leave their house in harm’s way.

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Take away the opportunity for vandals to target your home by implementing additional precautionary measures. The more effort you put into protecting your property, the less likely you will become a target.

Lock Decorations Down

For decorations that plug into electrical outlets, try using locking cords that fasten your property into place. Also, try weaving your cords through fences or trees to make them more difficult to pull out. Zip ties also work for fastening cords and cables together. You can even fasten large decorations together. 

Keep Valuables Close

Keep your most valuable decorations close to your home or on the roof. If you set up your decorations in areas that are far from street access, it is less likely for them to be damaged or stolen. You can even install motion sensing lights and cameras on your home to illuminate and record any potential damage or theft on your property.

If your decorations aren’t fastened into place, consider taking them inside if you’ll be away for an extended period of time. Or, lock them in place with a security cable. Turn off your displays when you go on vacation so they won’t draw any unwanted attention to your home.

Remove any spare keys from their normal hiding places and anything of value from cars remaining at the house. If you’re not taking your car on vacation, you’ll want to either park it in your garage or get a steering wheel lock to keep it safe outside the garage.

Set up Security

For those who don’t have a security alarm, the holidays are the best time to think about installing one. That way, you can have peace of mind while you are out of town.

If you already have one, let your alarm company know you’ll be away from home and supply them with the phone number at which you can be reached. You might also want to provide the company phone numbers for anyone you might have checking on your home.

Don’t forget to contact the post office to stop your mail before you leave. To throw potential burglars off, you want to create the appearance that someone is still there. Piled up newspapers and mail are a dead giveaway that no one is home.

Use timers to turn your inside lights on and off. It will give lookers the impression someone is home during all hours of the night.

Be Vigilant

Meet with your neighbors to discuss watching out for each other’s property. The more eyes watching, the less likely suspicious activity will occur in your neighborhood. You can even organize a nightly neighborhood watch patrol.

You may also want to photograph your property to keep a record of all of your holiday displays and decorations. Be sure to keep track of serial numbers or identifying features so you can supply this information to the police should anything happen.

If you are the victim of crime or vandalism this holiday season, call the attorneys at the Law Offices of Michael B. Brehne, P.A.

 

Image courtesy of Action Lights Inc.