Christmas wrappings can be a giveaway to the thief

I’ve noticed that several police forces are advising us to dispose of our Christmas wrappings and boxes carefully this year.  It seems that leaving a large box with ‘52” HD 3D TV’ slapped all over it is a sort of giveaway to a potential thief that you’ve got something brand new in the house to steal. 

Likewise, mobile phone, tablet and laptop boxes can also attract the attention of the passing thief, so be careful about disposing of these too, even though our advice is to keep these containers for when you sell the product on or need to send them away for repair.

I see that West Mercia police are also suggesting you take the boxes and other giveaway packaging to the recycling centre yourself rather than leave them out for the council collection, but if you can’t do this then do please turn the packaging inside out, so information about what it contained can’t be read.

The other main message is to mark and register these products and to set up the tracking software to ensure that if you are unfortunate enough to lose the item during a crime there is an increased chance of having it traced and returned and the thief successfully prosecuted.

You know all this makes sense!

Source West Mercia Police: http://www.westmercia.police.uk/news/news-articles/don-t-let-your-christmas-wrappings-become-a-shopping-list-for-burglars.html

Property Identification: Marking, tagging and tracking: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/security-inside-the-home/484/property-identification--marking-tagging-and-tracking/