“Burglars Love to Break In During Halloween, Here’s How to Keep Them Away”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Miki J.

From MPD:

“To help prevent crimes in the community on Halloween night, please ensure that you turn on your porch lights in the front and rear of your home to help illuminate the area at night.

Burglars Love to Break In During Halloween, Here’s How to Keep Them Away

If you saw a hooded man with a spooky mask and giant bag knocking on your neighbor’s door in the middle of the night, you’d be suspicious.

That is, unless it was Halloween.

Halloween gives burglars the perfect cover to inspect houses anonymously without bringing suspicion.

Think about it: If a burglars knocks on a homeowner’s door and the homeowner answers, the burglar just pretends that they were there for the candy all along.

But if no one answers? They’ll assume the homeowner is away for their own Halloween fun, letting the burglar know they they can rob the home without confrontation.

So, if your home will be vacant during Halloween, keep your home safe with these tips.

Keep your home well lit

During Halloween, some homeowners turn off their lights to subtly let trick or treaters know that no one is home or that they’re not participating in giving candy.

Unfortunately, that same subtle cue can tell burglars that your home is ripe for the picking. So whether you’re home or not, keep your home well-lit.

A smarter alternative? Install motion sensor flood lights that turn on automatically when someone approaches your home.

Or you could automate your lights on a random schedule. That way, it’s harder for burglars to tell when someone is home and when they’re not. One way to do this: integrate your lighting into a home automation system.

This allows you to:

• Set lighting schedules

• Control lights remotely using your smartphone or tablet

• Program your lights to automatically turn on and off when someone enters or leaves a room

• Integrate your lights into your security system, allowing lights to turn on when someone breaks in”