Christmas may be when you take time off of work to be with your family — but for burglars, it’s the busiest time of year.
Empty homes, shorter daytime hours and a surge in package deliveries make Christmastime ideal for thieves to burglarize homes.
Anthony Neary, the manager of security retailer Safe.co.uk spoke to former criminals to find out the five signs they look for when considering potential five-finger discounts, the Daily Mail reported.
Social media makes people’s private lives public, and thieves can research when people will and won’t be at home based on what they post.
“I used Facebook to see when people would be away, you won’t believe how many post on social media about visiting family for a few days,” one former burglar told Neary.
Neary explained that you can post about your travels on social media but it might be worth waiting until you get home from your trip.
“When on holiday or visiting family at Christmas, don’t advertise that your house is unoccupied. Wait until you have returned home to post pictures with your loved ones, or a burglar will have ample time to plan their theft,” Neary said.
“This includes geotagging stories, as a thief can work out how far away you are from home,” he added.
If you’re frequently leaving your home and leaving your door unlocked, you might want to take an extra few seconds to lock up instead.
“Lock your doors. Seems simple, but lots of people don’t, especially when busy or stressed around Christmas,” he said. “Ensure that all windows and exterior doors are shut and locked at night or when you are away.”
Neary said hiding your keys in the mailbox while you’re out is also a bad idea, as burglars generally check for spare keys outside a home.
“Fitting mortice locks to doors and gates can also improve security as they are more difficult to tamper with. If your door has a letterbox, be mindful of where you keep your keys, as cunning thieves have methods to take keys from the inside of the door, granting them full access to your home,” Neary explained.
Leaving a ladder somewhere outside your home? This can be an open invitation for a burglar to help themselves to your household tools and find their way inside.
“Don’t leave anything around for a burglar to climb on or move that helps them enter your house,” Neary explained.
Try to put yourself in their shoes — if you’d think of using your trash bin as a stepping stool to get inside your window if you were locked out, they might too.
“Burglars can use wheelie bins to scale fences or walls, allowing them access to your back garden, which can not only lead them to gain access to your back door, but allow them to steal property from sheds and garden boxes which people may not think to secure,” Neary said.
“Thieves can also use your tools to help them break into your house. We suggest keeping your bins behind a locked gate and using weatherproof padlocks to secure outdoor storage,” he added.
Empty packages outside your home signal to burglars that you’re a valuable target and probably have lots of new items in your home.
“Leaving empty boxes from high-end electronics outside your house allows any burglar casing your estate to see that you have a lot of valuable items ready to be taken,” Neary said.
Neary called the boxes an “advertisement” for all the items you may have up for grabs.
“Even boxes from less expensive items left outside or in your bin can be used to their advantage and a burglar will likely take their chance to lift tens of gifts and be gone in seconds,” he said.
“We recommend keeping gifts out of sight and either breaking down empty boxes or taking them straight to the recycling center,” he added
If you don’t have lights outside your home — you’re robbing yourself of easy-to-install burglar repellent.
More lights mean thieves have fewer places to hide.
“A house in the dark could appeal to a burglar as it looks vacant, especially with Christmas lights up right now,” Neary said.
“This makes it obvious that the owner is asleep or not at home. To deter or startle burglars, security lights are an essential purchase for long nights and will alert you to any activity,” he added.
Getting caught burglarizing a home isn’t ideal and criminals will do what they can to avoid it.
A visible security camera might be enough to deter a would-be home intruder and it’s a worthwhile investment.
“It is also always a good idea to have added security in place such as CCTV and burglar alarms especially if staying away from home over the festive period,” Neary said.
Neary isn’t the only one speaking out about how to keep your home safe. Reformed cat burglar Jen Gomez posted her tips for staying safe on TikTok.
Her recommendations include keeping a lockable safe in the house, not storing important belongings together, installing glass-break sensors that trigger an alarm when a window is smashed — something she called her “kryptonite”– and closing the blinds.