Don’t get spooked this Halloween, keep your home secure - Yale

The build-up to Halloween is often filled with pumpkin carving, costume designing and adding some spooky decorations around the home.

However, it’s not all treats - Halloween can also be a popular time of the year for opportunistic burglars to approach their next target. With homes left empty, front doors unlocked and the nights getting darker, there are plenty of opportunities for unwanted visitors to gain access to your home.

But there are a few tactics to keep in mind to secure your home whilst you’re out celebrating the many Halloween activities you have planned. Here, our team of experts provide their top tips on how to keep your home secure and avoid any unwanted tricks this Halloween.

Know who’s at the door

Halloween can bring a lot of surprise visitors to your door. Hopefully they’re from excitable young children dressed up, but it sometimes can be opportunists trying their luck.

It’s important to always check who is at the door before answering it and assessing the situation before opening it. A door viewer lets you check who is on the other side of the door before opening it, so you can be sure to only open the door to trusted trick or treaters.

Alternatively, a smart security camera positioned to watch over your home lets you check who is at the door, and if it has two-way talk functionalities, you can speak to your guest, welcomed or not, before opening the door.

Make it look like someone’s at home

A home which is empty can often be seen as an easy target, so if you’re out the house during the Halloween festivities it’s important to make it look like someone is at home.

Using smart lighting or smart plugs, you can set your lights to come on using a timer, so your home isn’t plunged into darkness when the daylight fades. Ensuring lights come on when you’re not at home can act as a deterrent, as it looks like someone is in the property.

It might be disappointing to treat or treaters when you don’t answer, but it will help to prevent your home from being a target - and you could always leave some treats outside the house!

Keep your home locked up

If your home is in an area where you get lots of trick or treaters in fancy dress, it can feel like you’re regularly getting up to answer the door throughout the evening. It can be easy forget to lock your door from time to time, or leave it unlocked to make your life easier, this however can provide a perfect opportunity for a tempted thief to gain access to your home.

Gaining access to a home through an open front door is common practice for a burglar, and so at Yale we regularly remind homeowners of the importance of remembering to lock your door securely. And not only should you lock the door between each trick or treater, but also make sure the windows to the property are also locked for heightened security.

If you have a smart lock, it’s possible to check if you’ve locked your front door through your smartphone, and if you haven’t then with a simple tap of the smartphone app you can lock the door from anywhere. Using it for Halloween would be beneficial, but a smart lock would provide convenience to busy homeowners all year round.

Secure your garden

Dark nights and lots of people walking around for Halloween can make it much easier for burglars to creep around unseen.

Our gardens, sheds or garages are often filled with expensive tools, equipment or much-loved bikes and can be easy targets for opportunistic burglars. And so it’s important to ensure your garden is secure around Halloween, keeping all gates to gardens or the back of the property locked with a maximum-security lock.

Having a floodlight camera or motion detection lights positioned to light up the garden, shed or garage will ensure if there’s unusual activity the area, it will be lit up with a bright light, giving the burglar nowhere to hide.

Halloween can be lots of fun for all the family, so make sure the holiday isn’t ruined by a break-in by ensuring these key security measures are put in place.

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