subject: 'tis The Season To Be Jolly! - Be Jolly Careful To Protect Your Presents From Thieves [print this page] The festive season is upon us and despite the credit crunch people up and down the country will be buying presents for friends and family in typical festive style. However, this makes a real treasure trove for thieves.
Not everyone has the season of goodwill on their minds in December, sadly thieves find lucrative pickings and presents are piled under Christmas trees throughout the UK. This means lucrative times for opportunist thieves and organised crime gangs who will revel in the booty they can find and walk away with.
Protecting your home from potential burglary is essential at all times and yet these crimes always seem to appear far worse during the festive season. Be on your guard and don't let thieves simply walk in and help themselves to the stash of presents in your home.
* Ensure that you lock both your front and back door properly at night.
* Check that you have closed the windows, don't be fooled into thinking thieves can't get into transom styled windows, they can squeeze through or reach through and release the main window catch. Use window locks on all windows, but always leave the keys within each room in a convenient place in case of fire. Sash style windows also need to have additional locks as the standard slide across fixing can easily be open by professional thieves.
* Don't hide present such as children's bikes in the shed, it is one of the first places the thieves will look, particularly if they know there are children in the household.
* It may look beautiful having your tree placed in a window for people to admire, but it also gives thieves the opportunity to look through and see what rich pickings you have placed under it.
* Never leave your key under a door mat or up-turned flower pot, you make think that you have been ingenious with your hiding place, in reality the thieves know every place to look. What is even more heart breaking is that not only will thieves be able to use your keys to let themselves into your house your insurance may be invalidated by insurers if there is no sign of forced entry.
* If you are going away for the festive holidays ask a neighbour to keep an eye on your house and push letters and post through the letter box properly, however even this isn't a deterrent to an ardent thief as they will simply look through the letter box and see a pile of untouched mail on the mat. If you can ask a trusted neighbour to go in each day to pick up the mail, open and close curtains to make it look as if someone's home.
* If your dustbin is right up against your back garden gate it makes a great stepping stone for thieves to get round the back of your house and once out of sight they will have all the time in the world to break into your home.
If you have bought some very expensive presents you should also check that your contents insurance is sufficient enough so that in the unfortunate event that your home is burgled at least you will be able to make an insurance claim to recoup some or all of the money you have spent on presents and any other of your personal contents thieves may help themselves to.
by: Tom Jones
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