Throughout this coming fall, many residents will be raking leaves and doing other yard work. Please keep in mind that there are criminals who will drive through residential areas looking for easily accessible garages or items. Please read through these important tips to help prevent criminal activity:
• When possible, keep your garage door CLOSED. Thefts will often occur from garages that are left open, as this allows a thief to pull up, grab items, and leave quickly.
• Keep the service door to your garage locked at all times, and install a deadbolt to help prevent forced entry. Thefts often occur in garages that are left unlocked, or which have damaged service doors that are not repaired.
• Keep your vehicles locked at all times, even if they are parked inside your garage. This helps to prevent thefts occurring from your vehicles in the event that a thief is able to access your garage.
• If your garage is attached to your residence, always make sure to keep the connecting door to your residence closed and locked at all times. Leaving it unlocked allows easy access to your residence and could lead to thefts, burglary, and injuries to residents.
• Consider hanging window treatments inside your garage so that thieves cannot see what valuables you have stored inside.
• Write down the serial numbers of any expensive tools or equipment that you keep inside your garage so that they can be provided to police in the event of a theft or burglary. The serial numbers can then be entered as stolen into a national database for easier recovery, tracking, and identification purposes.