The thieves are aware of the customs that Spaniards have at Christmas and how we get together for family dinner. For this reason, these are dates when robbery crimes increase. To avoid them even if you go out to dinner, you should know how to make it look like someone is home. What options do you have to achieve it?
Maybe it has never happened to you and that is great news, but thefts on key Christmas dinner dates are common. Thieves check houses that may be empty and sneak into them ready to take everything they find. They know that there is a range of hours in which it is very unlikely that they will be discovered, so they optimize thefts at those times. Luckily, there are more and more ways to reduce risk, partly due to the progress that technology brings us.
Program the lights
In the past, what was advised was to leave the lights on in some of the rooms. It wasn’t a bad strategy, but it was insufficient. Thieves already know it all and are aware that having the lights on in a room permanently does not mean that there is someone in the house. Therefore, what you have to do is program or control them remotely and leave out any type of possible pattern. Thanks to the connected lights we have access to today, doing this is very simple.
You can set up a routine that is not simple or that cannot be memorized, or simply, from a distance, turn the lights on and off from time to time in different rooms of the house. This will throw off any thieves who may have been watching the house and make you suspicious about whether or not someone is inside.
Be careful with the social networks
Be very careful with today’s thieves and the way they work. You may think that what you post on social media is not seen by anyone, but if it is publicly available it may be being monitored. You don’t know to what extent the thieves who want to rob your home are preparing and if, for example, you publish on .
It’s easy to think that because you’re not famous and have only a few followers, what you post or don’t post isn’t relevant. But, as we indicated, you should not underestimate thieves because they have previously shown that they are capable of anything.
Control devices remotely
That there seems to be someone at home is something that is closely related to the activity that appears to be taking place inside the home. Therefore, everything you have connected will be a tool that you can use to your advantage. Think about the wide variety of possibilities that you can take advantage of in this type of case, because you may have much more at your disposal than you imagine.
For example, something that we have with all the guarantees of remote connection is television with an assistant like Alexa and its voice commands. To make it seem like you are at home, turn it on at times, turn it off, change the channel, put on a movie and leave it playing… think of any kind of thing that gives the sensation of human presence. If you are at a designated Christmas dinner, there is surely a television channel that is logical for you to have on, such as the cotillion, the La 1 comedy special or anything else similar. All of this will make it look like someone is there and you won’t have to worry about theft.
The same thing we tell you about television can be applied to other elements you have in your home. You could even control the computer remotely, start a game, or have a live Twitch stream from one of your favorite streamers. Everything works.
Leave the car parked
If you have your car parked in front of the house or even in the parking lot of your building, a good recommendation is to leave it where it usually is when you are at home. Surely it is not a problem for you to go on public transport, take a walk or have someone drive you. This will allow you to leave the car at home and prevent thieves from using this factor as an element with which to know if you are home or not.
As we have told you before with the example of social networks, think that criminals do their homework and that they have much more information about their victims than you can imagine. If they are monitoring your home to rob it, it is very likely that they already know which car is yours and whether or not it should be parked.
Don’t accumulate mail
This would only apply if you were going away for a few days and not in cases of overnight outings. But if you are going to be away for a certain period, be careful and make sure that no packages arrive while you are not at home. Many Amazon delivery people leave packages on the doormat in front of your door and neighbors generally don’t touch them.
Packages don’t have to be what thieves worry about, as their goal goes beyond that. They will most likely also take your packages if they steal from you, but their intention is to break into your home. What they will do is look at the dates on the labels of the packages and that way they will know from what day you are no longer home. For orders you place on Amazon or other online stores, you have control over the delivery time, so try not to have them arrive on days when you are not going to be there.
What else could you do?
Updating the technique that Kevin McCallister put into practice in 1990, you could also resort to placing silhouettes of real people and putting them on top of your Roomba so that it moves them throughout the house as if there were people. But it is possibly something more complex than it seems and the cutouts would end up on the floor, hindering the work of the vacuum cleaner. In any case, you could make your robot vacuum cleaner move around the house and make some noise.
If you have any other ideas or recommendations for this type of case, we will be happy to read them in the comments of the news. Everything is to prevent theft!
