Tips to avoid holiday thieves

December 26, 2018 3:24 pm

The season of gift giving unfortunately also comes with Christmas grinches. Break-ins typically spike in this time of year, especially this week, as people throw out trash basically advertising all of the new gifts and gadgets they have in their homes.

Today’s the day kids play with their new toys and bigger kids test out the latest tech gadgets. But there are some looking to steal the Christmas spirit.

“After Thanksgiving up until shortly after Christmas there is a trend where there’s a lot more house breaks,” says Deputy Chief Arthur Martins with the North Providence Police Department.

The holidays come with a lot of trash and leaving a brand new TV box out on the curb shows thieves exactly what you have inside.

“Conceal the packaging in opaque trash bags if you can. If your city or town recycles, cut the cardboard boxes up into small pieces and put them in the container so they’re not easily visible,” says Martins.

Did you really get the gift if you didn’t post it on Instagram? Well police say you should try to stay away from a humble brag on social media.

“You are basically giving anybody who has access to your Facebook page, maybe your friends maybe someone who’s not your friend, a visual inspection into your home as well as your possessions,” says Martins.

Big ticket items could always be a target regardless of the time of year. You should always keep a record of the serial numbers or somehow personalize the item.

“You want to prevent people from breaking into your house but unfortunately if they do, you want to give law enforcement a tool on how to recover those items so if you have the serial number or want to engrave it, that will certainly help us recover those items,” he says.

Something to think about for next year, many of us love to display our trees in the front window but its best not to leave the gifts under it in the days leading up to the holiday.