Secure Your Columbia SC Home for the Holidays

Your Columbia SC home becomes more vulnerable to thieves around the holidays, and with them fast approaching, now is the time to analyze whether there is anything you need to do for tightening security around your home.

Around the holiday season, thieves tend to hit homes they suspect are vacant, even if for the day while you work. And the closer we get to Christmas (when gifts have been purchased and are under the tree) the more home break-ins occur.

The advent of automated electronics has been a big relief to those of us who may have to leave our Columbia SC home empty. It’s now quite simple and relatively inexpensive to attach your lighting system to a series of timer switches. They’ve been developed to look a lot like dimmer switches, to make them even less detectable. They operate the lighting throughout your house on a set pattern, so you can program them to turn themselves off at the time you would normally go to bed, to come on in the evening etc. Televisions and radios can also now be given timers, often integrated into the hardware itself without the need for additional technology.  

If you have a dog that doesn’t mind being left alone and the weather is warm enough, consider leaving it outside while you’re away. Having the run of your garden with a kennel to shelter and sleep in, your dog will often be happy enough as long as somebody is feeding it. If you don’t have a dog, you might want to consider making it look like you have one even if you don’t. Putting a kennel in your garden or a wooden stake in the ground with a chain attached to it will fool inexperienced thieves, especially if the chain is thick and long. Consider even buying a dog water bowl and leaving it outside near an entry door within reach of the dog chain.

Last of all, consider installing a burglar alarm! They’re half the price they were ten years ago, and they’re twice as good. In most cases, installing an alarm will save you on your homeowner insurance, so be sure to notify your insurer if you go this route. Just seeing a blinking blue box in the front of your Columbia SC home will deter any individuals with ill intent, the prospect of a wailing screech as soon as they enter your house will frighten them away. And after all, who’s to know if that alarm is real or even works?

There are many other ways to keep your Columbia SC home safe from would-be burglars this coming holiday season. But now is the time to prepare, not the week before Christmas.