Top 10 ways to keep your home secure
Christmas is the perfect time to take a holiday, but your absence can also make your home a soft target for thieves. Here are a few tips to make sure Safety Santa is the only stranger who can shuffle down the chimney while you’re away.
- Get someone to collect your mail or, if you’ll be away for a longer period, ask Australia Post to hold it for you until you’re back. Put a ‘no junk mail’ sticker on your letterbox to prevent catalogue bulge.
- Invest in sensor lights with timers for inside and outside the house. These can be programmed to create the illusion that someone’s at home.
- Put a hold on other regular deliveries, like newspapers.
- Get someone to mow your lawn. Nothing says ‘no-one’s home’ like a new jungle in the street.
- A monitored alarm is the best way to ensure someone’s keeping an eye on your home 24/7 and will ensure a quick response to any attempted break-in. Call your monitoring company to let them know the dates you’ll be away.
Make sure Safety Santa is the only one who can get into the house.
- Ask a trusted neighbour to occasionally park a car in your driveway and to roll the bin out to the kerb with a little garbage on board.
- Alternatively, get a relative or friend to house sit. Having people coming and going from the property – even if it’s just for a few days at a time – can be enough to throw off the plans of a would-be intruder.
