Christmas is a special time when families and friends come together to celebrate the season. It is also the time of year where families and friends are most generous and practice the tradition of gift giving. It should be a joyous and happy time for all of us.

Unfortunately for us, home burglars view Christmas 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.

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. Use an inexpensive light timer when you are away and ask a neighbor/friend to look in on your home when away
• 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!
• Burglars prefer to enter through unlocked doors or windows. Sliding windows that are not secure can be seen from distance. One problem can occur when exterior Christmas 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.
• After Christmas day, don’t pile up empty gift boxes from your new computer, DVD player, or stereo receiver on the road for the bin men. 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. Contact us today today to get a quote on our home security sytems.