'Tis The Season For Home Burglaries: Helpful Prevention Tips

RACINE, WI — With the Christmas Holiday season here, the Racine Police is reminding people to take extra precautions to avoid becoming targeted for several crimes, including burglaries, package thefts or vehicle break-ins or thefts.

The following tips will assist people in preventing burglaries and thefts during the Holiday season:

1. National statistics illustrate that most residential burglaries occur during the daytime hours when homes are generally unoccupied.
2. Typical burglary suspects seek targets of opportunity where open or unlocked ground floor windows, door or garage doors are exploited. The same is true for thefts where unlocked vehicles are targeted by opportunistic offenders.
3. Remember to close and lock all windows, doors, car doors and garage doors.
4. When shopping during the Christmas season, use trunk space to avoid the open display of packages.• Avoid the placement of expensive electronics under the Christmas trees.
5. If you have a window air conditioner, secure them so these applications cannot be removed to gain access.
6. When possible, use timers to have lights turned on automatically when homes are not occupied.• Uncollected mail and newspapers is a clear indicator that a residence is unoccupied.
7. Remember to collect newspapers and mail, or have such deliveries placed on hold if you will be away from home for an extended period of time.
8. When purchasing big ticket items such as computers, large screen televisions, etc., remember to break down boxes that bring attention to such items, turning collapsed boxes inside out before placing curbside.

City of Racine police officials say that following a focused burglary reduction effort, from 2014 through 2018, burglaries reached historic lows.

"Additional work remains ahead however as we seek to continue this downward trend.If you see suspicious activity or people, gather as much information as possible and immediately report such activity by contacting police at (262)886-2300, or 911 to report an emergency," Racine Police say.