Invite friends and family into your home this Christmas, not burglars!

As part of Humberside Police’s Operation Impact members of the public encouraged to make their home a castle with strong defences to keep burglars out in the run up to Christmas.

Opportunities for thieves to burgle homes can increase with people leaving presents on view under Christmas trees, buying lots of new items and leaving homes unoccupied.

In order to beat burglars the force have embarked on Operation Impact running throughout November to tackle burglary and the handling of stolen good across the Humberside Police Area.

Superintendent Andy Foster said: “At this time of year burglars may attempt to take advantage of the darker nights, hoping to steal the high value goods people buy in the run up to Christmas.

“I am asking people to take steps to ensure they keep doors and windows locked, invest in timer switches if they are going to be away and to ensure they have plans in place to stop mail visibly piling up or deliveries being left outside. Thoughtful use of social media will also prevent you leaving clues as to when your home will be empty.

“These seemingly simple measures really do go a long way towards ensuring that your house is a hostile environment for burglars.”

The public are urged to support the force in the run up to Christmas by adopting the following crime prevention advice and stop thieves ruining Christmas :

• Keep your home secure with doors and windows locked – amazingly a 3rd of burglaries are due to offenders coming through open windows or doors.
• Store Christmas gifts out of sight until Christmas day.
• Be a good neighbour, report anything suspicious in the area to the police on 101.
• The best burglary deterrent is to make the home look occupied at all times even when you are out or away. Do this by using time switches on your lights, asking a trusted friend or neighbour to close/open your curtains for you and use a plug-in timer for the radio to make it look and sound as if someone is at home.
• Keep high value goods from being on display.

The public should support the police by calling them if they see people acting suspiciously in their community, if there is a burglary in progress or if they have details about those involved in criminality. This can be done this using 999 in an emergency, 101 in a non-emergency or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

For more information visit about Operation Impact used the link.

For more advice on how to protect your property use the link.