Seven Home Security Tips for the Holiday Season

Seven Home Security Tips for the Holiday Season

With the holidays approaching, it’s a perfect time to consider home security and burglary prevention. Whether you will be away for the holidays, or in residence filled with new expensive gifts making your home a prime target, these tips can help you make your home more secure.

1. Install a monitored security alarm system. In one survey, 83% of house thieves admitted that they specifically look to see if there’s an alarm; and 60% of burglars would change their mind if there was one installed. However, only around 17% of homes have an active security system installed. Adding a system could provide you with a lowered risk of burglary and could possibly even lower your home insurance premium.
2. Vary your routine. If you are able to return home at any point during the workday, do so on random days and at random times so anyone watching your neighborhood will mark your home off the potential target list as high risk.
3. Add motion sensor lighting. Attempted burglaries at night are thwarted more often with light than an alarm. You can also mount cameras under such lights that can be triggered to record while the light is on, showing you who is there.
4. Reinforce door locks. Standard strike plate screws can be replaced with longer ones that go through the door frame into the jamb and make a door much harder to break through. Consider adding security bars, and reinforce sliding glass doors with a short pipe to jam them from the inside.
5. Secure your garage. Many home burglaries start with thieves accessing a home through the garage. C-clamps can be used to seal the garage door from the inside if you go on vacation, and automatic garage door openers can be unplugged.
6. Create signs of occupancy. Set lawn sprinklers and lights on timers, and prepay your yard maintenance service so your home appears occupied if you spend holidays elsewhere. You can also ask a neighbor to park in your driveway and set your trash cans out by the curb once a week.
7. Consider a smart home hub. These can alert you if a door is opened, water is turned on, or any other activity takes place in or around your house when you are absent. Most hubs can be linked to a smartphone allowing you to receive real time alerts and remotely view camera feeds.

If you’ve received any luxury gifts for the holidays, ask your agent if Scheduled Personal Property coverage can provide you with more protection for individual high value items. This can give you extra peace of mind through the holiday season and beyond.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not form a part of, replace, change or amend any terms, conditions, provisions or language within your Olympus Insurance policy. We encourage you to read your entire policy.