The Practical Lawyer

November 30 - December 6, 2015

Stay safe this Christmas season

By Ethan C. Nobles

Back in my days as a newspaper reporter, I visited with a few police officers about an increase in residential burglaries around Christmas.

Of course, thieves were breaking into homes to clean out Christmas presents. The question I had for all of them was pretty basic – what can people do to secure their homes from thieves?

The answer I got consistently was startlingly simple – keep your doors and windows locked. That’s it. Just keep your place locked and that will deter thieves.

Why? It seems that thieves will go for the softest target. If a thief comes to a locked door, he’ll move to a window. If that window is locked, he’ll probably keep on going until he finds a home that is more accessible.

Another tip I got was to make sure to not allow access to an attic. Quite often, homes will have a ceiling-mounted door that allows access to a folding ladder that leads to an attic. Some of those doors are in carports, while others might be in garages. If those doors aren’t secured behind a locked garage door, by a padlock or something else, then a thief can get up in the attic of a home, move to the interior of the house, stomp through a ceiling and have full access to the entire home.

And, no, a lot of thieves aren’t too concerned about the thousands of dollars in property damage that can be caused by stomping through a ceiling. They just want to get inside the home and steal things.

Another great piece of advice was to keep presents out of site in a car and to make sure your vehicle is locked at all times. Once again, thieves go for the softest targets and a locked car door may deter them.

Finally, some crooks have been known to mug people who are leaving stores and are heading to their cars with a bunch of presents. Some good ways to avoid being attacked before you even get your presents home include shopping with a friend or two, going to stores at times when a lot of people are around or simply parking in well-lit areas.

The point of all this is that the best way to avoid thieves looking to grab some gifts around Christmas is to exercise a little caution. The police and the judicial systems in central Arkansas deal with crime pretty well, but a careful individual can avoid falling victim to crooks in the first place.

Ethan C. Nobles is an attorney in Benton focusing on real estate, evictions, contracts, wills, trusts, incorporations and other areas of law as the mood strikes. You can reach him at Ethan@NoblesLawFirm.com or visit him on the Internet at NoblesLawFirm.com.