Isle residents urged to take steps to avoid burglaries

A home break in during the darker nights through a back door

Humberside Police is urging Isle residents to take steps to keep their homes more secure now evenings are getting dark earlier.

Many people leave for work in the dark and return when it is dark which can lead to properties looking vulnerable and unoccupied. In a small number of cases these houses are then targeted by opportunist burglars.

To combat this people can take some steps to make there homes less desirable targets.

These include:

· Keep your home secure, make sure that you’ve locked all outside doors and windows and, if going out and you have a burglar alarm, make sure it is set.

· When going out, use automatic timer-switches to turn your lights on when it goes dark.

· If you are going out for a long time ask a trusted friend or neighbour to close the curtains and turn on lights in the property when it gets dark.

· Consider using a plug-in timer for the radio would make it sound as if someone was home. Tune the radio to a station that has more talking than music.

· Look at your doors and windows. Make sure you have sufficient quality locks, restrictors and door chains.

· Be a good neighbour, report anything suspicious in the area on 101.