Limerick gardai issue advice on protecting your home this winter

GARDAI in Limerick have issued advice to the public on how to protect their homes this winter.

Statistics show that burglaries increase by 25% at this time of year as criminals can detect if people are home by if their house lights are on or off. 

Sergeant Ber Leetch, Crime Prevention Officer at Henry Street garda station gave advice on how to make your house safe this winter. 

"In these dark evenings, your home must look like somebody is inside. We can do this by having lights on timers and using a television simulator that is a great device.

"You simply plug it into a timer and it gives off a light that appears from the outside that somebody within is watching TV.

"The preferred entry point is at the rear of the house because the burglar hopes that they will not be seen by neighbours or people passing by.

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"My colleagues in the scenes of crime office have seen an increase in break in to homes where the door was pulled out, it could not be opened from the outside but it was not properly locked because the owner did not lock it from the outside with the key.

"Burglars have discovered that they easily open these types of doors if the key is not used. My advice is to check if you have a door like this and double lock your doors."

Sergeant Leetch also issued advice on how to protect vacant homes. 

"Provided there is electricity at the house and it can be lit up but do not leave anything of value in a vacant house.

"Ask a neighbour to park their car there and to keep a look out for suspicious or unusual activity in the neighbourhood, a neighbour should gather as much identify information as possible but not put themselves in any danger.

"Report these details to the local garda station."