Keep your home safe and secure these Christmas holidays

The festive season is an ideal time for going away, spending time with family & friends and just relaxing. But wouldn’t it be awful if we came home from holidays to find our houses had been broken into?

Thankfully, there are some things we can do to make our homes safer and more secure over the break:

• Make sure all of your doors and windows are firmly closed and locked before leaving. Double check each lock. Make sure to remove keys from internal doors and windows when you are not at home.
• Check that your external sensor lights are working properly and make sure to turn them on before leaving.
• Make sure garden tools, ladders and other equipment that could be used to break into your house are securely locked away in the house or shed. Be sure to lock your shed and anyside gates.
• Don’t leave packaging for electronic and other expensive items in the bin, as this can alert would-be thieves as to what’s inside your home.
• Hang security signage in clearly visible locations.
• Leave a pair of old shoes by the front door. This will immediately give the impression that someone is home.
• If you have trees or shrubs close to the house that may provide cover for an intruder, make sure to trim them back.
• Turn the volume on your home phone down so that anyone outside the home cannot hear it ringing out. If you have an answering machine, do not make any mention on the message that you are away on holidays.
• If you have keys hidden outside the home, take them with you.
• Install timers on internal lights to turn them on and off at regular intervals, which will make it appear as though there is someone home. You can also put random timers on radios turned down low, so that voices can be heard in the home.
• If you are going away for an extended period, make sure to ask a neighbor or friend to collect any mail so that your letterbox is not overflowing – a clear sign that someone is not home. If your bin day is due to fall while you are away, ask a neighbor to put your bin out and bring it back in as well.
• If possible, leave one car at home or ask a neighbor to park their car in your driveway.
• Make sure your home & contents insurance is up to date and covers any new items you might have recently acquired.