The holiday season is just around the corner, and it will soon be time to relax and celebrate down time with family and friends. The Trellidor South Africa team has some useful home protection tips, because as we all know, the holidays often coincide with an increase in break-ins and theft. To ensure you have a stress-free rest, we share the top five holiday security mistakes that we make, and the ways to avoid them.
1. Leaving Windows and Doors Unsecured
Surprisingly, this is one of the most common mistakes we make. It’s easy to forget to keep doors locked when you’re holidaying at home or preparing to go away. It is just as easy to ignore open windows with no burglar proofing on them. These are an invitation to opportunistic thieves passing by to climb in and take what they want.
For these reasons, it’s important to do a full check of all doors and windows before you leave home. Or do this as part of your holiday home protection when you’re packing up at the end of your stay. Even if you’re staying home these holidays, you should do a door and window check. Just a single unlocked door or window puts your property at risk.
How to Avoid this Problem:
- Secure all doors and windows: Make sure all openings are protected with burglar proofing. If you’re holidaying at home, you can safely leave doors and windows open as long as your security barriers are closed and locked.
- Add more layers of security: If burglars manage to get into your home, make sure they can’t move around easily by adding additional security inside. A safe zone Trellidor security gate in the passage helps to stop them moving between bedrooms and living area, for example.
- Combine physical and electronic security: Add an alarm system that you can monitor on your phone while away. This way you will know if there is an attempt to breach your home’s defences.
- Vigilance is key: Do a thorough check of all doors and windows before you leave for your holiday destination. If you’re staying home, check that your security barriers are locked, especially if you’re going out.
2. Not Checking Around the Property for Weak Points
There are other weak points around a home that could be exploited by thieves during the holiday season, especially if you’re away and they have plenty of time to do it. If you’re staying at home, it is even more important to make sure you don’t make it easy for criminals to attack you at home.
Dark corners with poor outside lighting are one example of a weak point. Waste bins left in the yard for them to use to get over walls or into high up windows are another example. And any tools left lying around outside can become convenient break-in weapons for house breakers.
How to Avoid this Problem:
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- Install motion sensor lights: Good external lighting is an excellent deterrent to would-be thieves because they prefer to operate in the dark. Motion activated lights at front and back doors, pathways, and hidden areas in the garden make your home less of a target.
- Tidy up your outdoor space: If you’re going away, store your empty waste bins in the garage or an inaccessible area. Put all tools and toys away (every day, if you’re holidaying at home). Trim hedges and overgrown parts of the garden that could hide anyone observing your home.
- Check external security measures: Is your driveway gate locking into place as it should? Who has access to the remote controls for this gate? Are any door or window security barrier keys missing? If you have Trellidor security gates you can get the locks replaced with new sets of keys.
- Check all your security barriers: Replace any barrier that has rusted or weakened because it will be targeted as an easy access point by house robbers. Test all battery back-ups on your security systems as you don’t need them to let you down in an emergency or during a power failure.
3. Leaving Valuables in Plain Sight
Don’t make the mistake of leaving valuable items in full view of any criminals peaking in through windows to see if you have anything worth stealing. In the excitement of packing up to go away, we may not remember to store jewellery, laptops, spare keys and remote controls out of sight.
This applies to those of us staying at home too. Potential robbers may sneak into your property while you’re out to check what’s inside that would be worth the risk of a break-in at a later date.
How to Avoid this Problem:
- Hide valuables: Keep expensive items like electronics, cash, and jewellery hidden inside cupboards, preferably lockable ones.
- Tidy up small items: Don’t leave wallets, keys, or other small personal items on countertops or tables or near open windows. Place them in drawers or cupboards.
- Store spare keys and controls in the safe zone. Use a key rack in a lockable cupboard in your safe zone to store spare door and security barrier keys. The same applies to remote controls for driveway gates and custom fitted security like motorised roller shutters.
- Fix problems before the holidays. If important items have been left around and are now missing, sort these out before the seasonal break. Replace locks if security door or window barrier keys are lost. Change panic button or driveway gate control codes if these controls are lost (or perhaps stolen).
4. Announcing Holiday Plans on Social Media or in Public
Sharing your holiday plans online is never a good idea. Criminal gangs are skilled in finding out this type of useful information and will use your absence to their advantage. Sadly, the same applies to sharing your plans in public. You just never know who is listening.
Another mistake along these lines is leaving empty boxes from recent purchases outside for collection. These are effectively an advert for thieves scouting your neighbourhood for worthwhile properties to break into.
How to Avoid this Problem:
- Tighten up social media privacy settings. Set your social media profiles to ‘private’ and ensure only close friends and family can see your posts. Don’t post holiday pictures and captions until you get home.
- Avoid talking about your plans in public. Anyone in the area could be listening and could potentially pass this very useful information on to robbers.
- Ask a neighbour to put your bins out. No waste bins on the verge on collection day is a give-away that your home is unoccupied. Ask a neighbour to put yours out for you if they need emptying.
- Dispose of empty boxes yourself. Break down boxes of new purchases and take them to a recycling centre. This way, you won’t be alerting anyone that you have a new TV, laptop, or expensive seasonal gift.
5. Not Informing Neighbours or Friends
If you’re going away for the holiday season and don’t tell your neighbours or a friend in the area, it could cause several problems. First, they won’t know to monitor any suspicious activity at your home. Secondly, if something goes wrong, like a faulty burglar alarm or a burst water pipe, they can’t do anything about it for you.
How to Avoid this Problem:
- Keep a trusted neighbour informed. If you don’t already know your neighbours, make a point of meeting them. Find one that you trust and let them know when you’re going away.
- Share contact information. Exchange names and phone numbers so that they can contact you about any problems. You can return the favour when they go away. Give them contact details for your emergency response company in case there is an incident.
- Arrange home check-ins: Ask a trusted friend (or your neighbour if they fall into this category) to visit your home, take mail and other deliveries inside, change which lights are left on, and generally make it look like the home is occupied.
Where to get Help with your Holiday Security Plan
The end of each year can be a busy, stressful time, and our intentions to improve home security may become overwhelming. This is where your local Trellidor Security team can help you with a holiday home protection plan. They can assist with doing a security check for you and make suggestions on how to improve your home safety using traditional security gates or any of a number of other barrier styles.
Search ‘trellidor near me’ and make an appointment to get the help you need.
Or find your nearest Trellidor outlet
A little planning and preparation now can help ensure that your holiday season is filled with joy, rather than stress. Stay safe and secure this holiday season!
