It's the gift buying and giving time of year and also a fantastic time for our local thieves to help themselves gleaning those same gifts. One particular rule that I personally have is that ANYTHING we buy, especially those things that come in large packages, (such as: TV's, Stereo Equip, Tech Equip, and Shop Equipment) care is taken to dispose of the empty cartons so as to NOT bring any attention to our home and it's contents. Most people in our neighborhood will just simply take a large empty box and place it next to their garbage can for disposal instead of taking the time to cut it up and put it in the can or haul it down the street for a county pick up. By not doing what it takes to protect their home they are advertising that they just purchased a new item and here is a picture of it if you want to steal it. My next door neighbor just bought her flat screen 2 weeks ago and proudly put the empty container on the curb in front of her house. Sure enough, while she was at work yesterday someone broke in and relieved her of her newly bought piece of home improvement. Normally, I keep my eyes open for any weird activity around our property but we were gone for several hours yesterday. (although I do have an idea of who so I will be talking to the kid's uncle at some time today) Please, enjoy the upcoming holidays or any celebration day for that matter, but be smart and don't advertise that new item you just bought. People WILL notice!!
Smart advise, Bobby! Im even paranoid about throwing out an empty xanax bottle, just in case some druggie goes thru my garbage and sees I have something they might want and break in to get it. I remove the printed info on the pill bottle before I throw it out.
Around here we put out paper and cardboard for recycling so it's quite common to see such boxes standing around on collection day. We tend to keep the boxes from new equipment we buy for a time in case something goes wrong and we have to take things back to the place we bought them. However I've been known to put out the box from a piece of obsolete equipment. While those items may not seem so desirable, it's probably not a good idea. I'll have to find another way to dispose of those boxes in future.
Maybe that's one difference in living here as against being there - big cartons are bought by junk collectors. There is one here that passes by everyday in our street in a tricycle - a motorcycle with a side car. He buys old newspapers, cartons, plastic bottles and containers and any other junk like rusty irons and steel. I agree with @Bobby Cole that putting up the empty package of appliance is like advertising that you have a new treasure in your house. It may lure the thief. Maybe it is okay to advertise if what you bought is a new gun. May I just add that another bad advertising is letting people know that no one is in the house. We experienced when we moved in here in 2001. We had no housemaid and my husband and I both worked so the only one left in the house was our dog. We were fortunate that our dog was vigilant and always barking when she sees someone in the street. No one had suspected that only the dog was in our house.
We will toss Christmas paper, but really don't buy any big electronic stuff at Christmas. Any boxes we empty Christmas gifts out of, we put in the apt. complex dumpster. Have never had a problem here, but then again, when we leave our apt., we lock BOTH regular lock and deadbolt lock on both front and back doors. If we are gone for a few hours, there is a built-in Security Alarm that we set. We live right across the small parking lot from the complex rental office and, during the day, pretty constantly have traffic driving by our apartment.
This reminds me of the nightly newscast that regularly show CCTV footages in the streets of Manila. One footage showed a bicycle being stolen in broad daylight. Another is a roadside store losing merchandise to the petty thief. I don't think a security alarm is not that effective since almost all new cars here have alarms but there still numerous cases of stolen cars every day. I am not a skeptic. I just think that unless those criminals are punished then we will have more of them. Would you believe that traffic offenders here are prevalent particularly the public utility vehicles? Simply because they are not arrested so they continue on violating maybe because they can bribe their way out of trouble.
It is documented, here in the U.S., that many vehicles are broken into due to the owners forgetting to lock/put on the alarm on their vehicles when they leave it. And, I've read that not every new vehicle is equipped with an alarm when sold. An alarm can be added, when sold, but some folks don't even do that. For us, living straight across from the Rental Office is a plus for us. We have talked to neighbors, in our apt. complex, that don't lock their dead bolt locks or set their built-in alarms when they leave their apartments for a long period of time. They were even surprised when we told them we do.
I have ADT security system for my house and I always park my car in the garage. Plus I have Pickles the Barking dog! I also wont open my door to anyone because I have read that there have been instances in broad daylight where robbers will pretend to be a salesman then push there way into the house and tie you up and rob you. I do live in a good neighborhood but that doesnt mean anything...
In the news report on the carnapping (stealing of car), the cop who was interviewed said that car thieves have a device that can disarm the alarm of the car. Aside, they also have master keys that can open the locked car. With the keyless cars, that is one step ahead of the thieves since it cannot be opened by a master key. But in some cases, a keyless car is stolen by cracking the glass window, huh. Those thieves, they will do anything just to fulfill their mission of stealing.
I wasn't going to mention it, but since the subject has come up..... When we bought our home, we were way out in the counrty. We sat back and watched the city of Houston grow in all three directions but ours, so we stayed pretty safe. But of course the city had to come our way since it was the only dirrection left to grow into. So now, we too have been seeing the crime of theft. Yesterday I had to have the people that installed my electric gate and fencing come to repair my gate, because a thief cut the wiring and tore up the control box just trying to get on my property. When they cut the wiring, it set off an alarm inside my home. I called a neighbor from down the street who is part of our neighborhood watch, and I asked him to come over after he called the police for me. I was standing in my driveway pointing my .38 at that thief when then police got here. Since my husband died last December, I have been hit by thieves several time, and they got away with some very expensive farming equipment and machinery. But not this time.
t wasn't bravery Chrissy, but it had been going on for some time, and I realized that the next step would be coming through my door. When the alarm went off inside the house, that woke me up to the fact that the thiefs didn't care if I was home or not, and I was getting tired of stuff coming up missing. I had to place my two large pit bulls with my step daughter for their sake as well as my own. They kept knocking me down, and they missed their daddies, so I built a 40'X40' pen for them at their new home, and now they are getting lots of love, but this left me even more exposed. Today I asked the young couple that I sold the house next door to just when they would be moving in. They are hoping to be in by the middle of December. I'll sure feel better then, because the 4&1/3 acers I sold them covers two sides of my property.