Easter is almost here and for many people, it’s the last chance to get away for a break before the colder months are upon us. Unfortunately, this means it is also prime time for home burglaries.

With a rise in burglary claims throughout Queensland last year and youth crime being a serious issue at the moment, preparing your home for potential intruders is now more important than ever.

So, are you unknowingly making your home a target for burglars?

Some of the things thieves may look for to show you’re not home:

• No cars in the driveway
• Lights are off in the evening
• No response to a knock on the door
• Rubbish bins are left out
• Mail is accumulating in and around the mailbox

Before you set off on that much-anticipated trip away, there a few things you can do to help keep your home safe.

Here are our Top 10 Tips for How To Be Crimsafe This Easter:

1. Secure Your Property

It may sound like a no-brainer but making sure your doors and windows are closed and locked is a must. Draw the blinds to prevent opportunist thieves from peeping in. Secure sheds too as they contain the tools a burglar needs to get into your house. Makeshift ladders like wheelie bins and trampolines can also be used for break-ins, so keep them chained up or secure!

2. Keep Your Valuables Out of Sight

Make sure the blinds are closed. Australian Bureau of Statistics has found that the most common type of property stolen from home break-ins is jewellery, closely followed by tools and money. Keeping these items out of view is a good way to avoid temptation for opportunist thieves. But all small items with a high resale value that can be offloaded quickly are also at risk.

3. Keep Your Spare Keys Safe

Aside from your valuables, another target for thieves is getting your spare keys to the house, cars as well as your shed or garage. If they get these keys, a return visit to your property is almost inevitable and usually very soon before you change the locks. Leaving a spare key under a mat or potplant is often the first place a burglar will look. The safest place to leave your spare keys is with a trusted neighbour or family member. 

4. Mark Your Property

Marking your property helps to deter theft and provides proof of ownership of your valuables. Qld Police recommends marking your property with an engraver, using Identification warning stickers or using microdots (a modern way of marking property using a home kit).

Suggested items include computers, cameras, multi-media devices, satellite navigation devices, mobile phones, power tools and bicycles. The Property identification fact sheet​ provides useful information and will help you when marking your property.

Marking your valuables will make it harder (if not, impossible) for thieves to sell your goods and will increase the likelihood of the items being safely returned to you.

5. Keep Your Neighbours In The Know

It’s a good idea to let a trusted neighbour, (not your entire neighbourhood!), know the dates that you will be away. That way any unusual activity can be reported to police. If you give them a cup of sugar, they might even water your plants, collect your mail or move your car a few metres forward or back along the driveway to indicate, ‘life within’.

Be careful not to post happy snaps of you and your family in dreamy destinations, at the expense of letting lurkers know that you’re not in your place of residence, therefore enticing them to enter with confidence.

6. Clear The Clutter

If you’re going away for an extended period, contact Australia Post and ask for your mail to be temporarily suspended. If it’s just a short trip, ask a trusted neighbour to collect mail, newspapers and flyers. Destroy empty present boxes of valuable items as if they are left in bins, they are an indication that your house has new and valuable assets.

7. Let There Be Light

An effective way to deter potential burglars is to make sure your home appears to be ‘lived in’. Try using motion-activated or timer lighting to help make a house look occupied. You could even use timers to turn on televisions, and stereos for maximum authenticity. Remember, a house that is dark is more appealing than a house that is well-lit and appears to be lived-in.

8. Maintain Your Gardens and Lawn

A sure sign that nobody is home is a poorly maintained garden and lawn. If you are going to be away for a few weeks, it may be worth organising to have a maintenance professional look after your lawn until you return home.

9. Install Security Cameras

Security cameras have been proven to prevent burglaries. And, even if thieves do break in to loot your home, their faces will be caught on camera, so they’ll be easy to identify later. Because of this risk, they are more likely to target houses with no visible cameras. 

Smart devices such as doorbells with cameras inside of them to wire-free smart home security systems that you can self-monitor through your mobile phones are all an affordable option these days.

10. Outsmart Criminals With Crimsafe Security Screens

The number one way to outsmart intruders is by installing Crimsafe screens on your windows and doors.