The holidays are a wonderful time spent with friends and family. The holidays are also a time when your home and car are more likely to be burglarized. Gifts are everywhere and people are out shopping and visiting friends across town or across the country – a perfect invitation for those who would steal your belongings. Don’t become a victim of these senseless crimes. You can protect your home and your car with a few common-sense tips this season.

Keeping Your Home and Vehicle Secure During the Holidays

Lights – Keep your home well lit when you are away. If you are gone for the evening keep the front porch or entry way lit up. Leave the TV on as well as some lamps throughout the house. If you are gone for a longer period of time consider timers on your lights or use an app on your phone to turn the lights on and off at random times.

Lock It Up – Believe it or not, many homes are burglarized because the homeowner left the front door unlocked. Lock your doors when you aren’t home. In fact, it’s a good practice to lock your doors when you are home too.

Lock the Car – Packages are also frequently stolen out of vehicles this time of year. Lock your vehicle when you park it and if possible load any packages in the trunk so they aren’t visible to those who might be tempted to take them.

Deliveries – Another way thieves can rob you is by taking the packages that are left on your door by Fedex or your mail carrier. If you aren’t home when the package arrives you can ask to have it delivered to a neighbor or held until you can pick it up. You can also have your packaged delivered to your back door or another area that isn’t so visible from the street.

After the Holidays – When all the gifts have been opened you probably have many boxes telling would be burglars what’s inside the house. Cut up boxes that announce you have a new plasma TV or high end computer and put into a paper bag and then put in the recycling bin.

The holidays are a wonderful time, but they also leave many of use vulnerable, don’t be a victim of crime this season.