Leaving your home dark these evenings is making it a target for burglars.
That’s according to local Gardai who are urging people to ”Do the Light thing”.
Carlow Kilkenny Divisional Crime Prevention Sgt Peter McConnon says burglars will take advantage of the darker evening since the hour change if you don’t take steps to put them off, telling KCLR “The burglar will look for the easy touch, you know the unlocked door, the house that looks unoccupied, 5pm to 10pm on winter evenings when you are out and about still doing your thing maybe gone to mass, soccer training, whatever the case but still living our lives, maybe still out at work, 5pm to10pm it’s dark, your house needs to look like it’s occupied whether it is or isn’t”.
He says the easiest way to protect your home is to have lights coming on; “The simple matter of it is putting a light on, make sure it comes on on a timer between those hours, it’s of fantastic value to the security of your home, obviously doors locked, external lights coming on as well during those times and obviously if you’ve an alarm please turn it on, use it, so many times we’ve gone to burglaries where houses have alarms and they haven’t been switched on”.
And Sgt McConnon adds there have never been fewer burglaries locally but some houses are still being hit and you don’t want it to happen to you; “We are at an all-time low in Kilkenny and Carlow, we’re down probably 17 to 20% on burglaries from this time last year which is way down on previous years but again we cannot underestimate, we cannot become complacent in it and we do realise that anybody that has been burgled it’s a very unique thing to a person and they are victimised”.
