COMMENT
Five Ways To Avoid Festive Burglaries

By Jane Mack (TMFJane)
December 8, 2004

The burglar tackled by Ozzy Osborne a couple of weeks' ago must have thought it was Christmas when he managed to break free from the ageing rocker's grasp and escape with a £2 million jewellery haul.

Well, it is Christmas, of course, and burglaries do tend to increase at this time of year not least because we've all have raided the shops for expensive gifts for the festive season. And the sight of a pile of beautifully wrapped presents under the Christmas tree can prove rather tempting to the passing burglar - after all, there's bound to be an iPod in there somewhere!

According to the latest Home Office statistics, there were an estimated 943,000 burglaries and attempted burglaries in the year up to April 2004 and, amazingly, nearly half of them involved uninsured items.

With people at office parties and out socializing over the festive period it is important to take extra care so take note of the following tips from insurers:

• Keep presents away from places, such as under the tree or on window sills, if they can be easily seen from the road.  Don't put them under the tree too early, especially if the house will be empty quite often.
• Close curtains and leave some timer lights on if you are going to be out at night.
• Check all windows and doors are closed properly, and fit safety locks to doors and accessible windows wherever possible - houses without window locks are far more likely to be burgled than those which have them
• Ask a friend or neighbour to keep an eye on the house while you are away or out of the house for long periods.
• Install a monitored home security alarm system – an effective year round security measure that is shown to reduce the risk of a break-in.

Most importantly, make sure you're properly covered for insurance purposes and that you comply fully with the policy requirements - Sharon Osborne's jewellery loss wasn't covered because she'd failed to lock it all in a safe.

> Find out more and get a competitive quote for Home Contents Insurance.