Nov. 29, 2025
Smart Holiday Security: From Shopping Trips To Safe Homes And Travel Plans
Send us a text Holiday cheer shouldn’t come with preventable risks. We’re sharing the field-tested tactics we use with clients and students to stay safe while shopping, traveling, hosting, and running businesses during the busiest—and most tempting—time of the year for thieves and scammers. From the moment you enter a crowded mall to the time you unload gifts at home, you’ll hear simple habits that cut risk without killing the vibe. We start with personal safety in public: how to carry walle...
Holiday cheer shouldn’t come with preventable risks. We’re sharing the field-tested tactics we use with clients and students to stay safe while shopping, traveling, hosting, and running businesses during the busiest—and most tempting—time of the year for thieves and scammers. From the moment you enter a crowded mall to the time you unload gifts at home, you’ll hear simple habits that cut risk without killing the vibe.
We start with personal safety in public: how to carry wallets and bags so pickpockets pass you by, why a decoy wallet can buy precious seconds, and why group shopping and quick vehicle entry matter. Then we tackle parking lot realities, using light and positioning to your advantage, and choosing credit over debit to limit fraud fallout. At home, we focus on what actually works: locks, alarms, visible signage, smart camera placement, delivery instructions that beat porch pirates, and the underrated power of a trusted neighbor. We also unpack seasonal scam spotting—fake charity asks, phishing delivery texts, and shady links that mimic your favorite retailer—and the best ways to verify before you click.
Travelers get a full checklist: airport bag control, ID security, rideshare verification, and lawful firearm transport with reciprocity rules top of mind. We talk itinerary sharing, sober ride planning, and the small prep steps that pay off when delays or emergencies hit. For business owners, we cover deposit runs with varied routines, police escorts, staff training for robberies, working cameras at critical points, solid internal comms, and hiring practices that reduce internal theft during seasonal spikes. It’s a practical, no-drama guide designed to keep you, your family, and your team safe while you enjoy the season.
If this helped, follow the show, share it with someone you care about, and leave a quick review so others can find these tips faster. What’s the one safety habit you swear by during the holidays?
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00:00 - Setting The Holiday Safety Agenda
02:16 - Street Smarts While Shopping
07:16 - Wallets, Decoys, And Group Awareness
12:00 - Cars, Carts, And Parking Lot Tactics
16:58 - Cards, Cash, And Skimmer Risks
21:20 - Routes, Lighting, And Fast Getaways
24:25 - Home Security Basics That Work
28:18 - Beating Porch Pirates And Package Scams
32:58 - Cameras, Alarms, And Trusted Neighbors
36:53 - Spotting Scams And Safe Online Shopping
41:48 - Vacations, Fire Risks, And Utilities
45:43 - Airport Habits And ID Protection
WEBVTT
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Hi, welcome to the Armed Guardian Podcast.
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I'm your host, Brian, here with our co-host Crystal.
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Today we're going to talk about holiday safety, personal home, travel, business, shopping, things that you can do to be more secure, safe with your holiday stuff, because this is going into a time of the year where a lot of people are out shopping, a lot of money is trans transacted between people.
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And no theft and burglary are higher during the holidays.
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So we wanted to kind of reach out to everybody and just kind of give them some tips, some information.
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And let's go from there to help make you, your home, your travel, everything a lot more safer and more comfortable.
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Crystal, welcome.
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How you doing today?
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Doing great, Brian.
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I'm looking forward to the holiday season, as well as spending this time to educate our listeners on some safety tips that hopefully don't ruin their holiday season.
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Right.
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Okay.
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Well, I guess we'll uh we'll do this like we did with Kess, uh, the last recording, just kind of have an open discussion about you know the four different uh topics that we have here.
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And we'll go, I'll give you the opportunity to talk about yours, and then I'll I'll interject a little bit.
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And then if I've got anything to add, then put mine on the tail end and we'll just follow that through the four four topics that we have.
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So our first is uh personal tactics.
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What can we do to make ourselves more secure, more safe, either at home personally, or while we're out in the public?
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What's what are some things that you suggest or that you teach or advise people on?
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Let's start from being out in public during the holidays.
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There's a lot of shopping going on.
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This is a time of year where everybody is out doing their thing, and oftentimes we let our guards down.
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We need to remember that we always need to be aware of our environment at all times.
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This is not the time to let it down and get on our phone and get distracted because that's exactly what criminals are looking for.
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Okay where my screen just went to because now it's not there.
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Oh, if you want to keep it uh this, I wasn't gonna do the video, I was just gonna do the I lost you and I'll edit the the silence out, but the see what was it?
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Uh pickpocketing.
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Okay, uh your safety being no not letting your guard down with your phone and stuff, and that that's about the point that I lost you and we'll pick up from this point continuing on.
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Okay.
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All right, so I was saying was during this time of year, we're in crowds, such as the shopping malls, and pickpocketing can be a big problem for us.
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So if you're a gentleman, make sure you keep your wallet in your front pockets, don't leave them in your back pocket, which makes it a lot easier for criminals to come up and snatch it without you knowing.
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For the ladies, if you have a crossbag or a purse that goes over or uh even a fanny pack, let's just say put those special items or your valuables, your wallets inside of that area.
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Don't just fling it over your shoulder where somebody can grab your purse and run.
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We don't want to look like an easy target for them.
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Right.
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Yeah, the the one thing with the fanny packs, if you carry one, I know a lot of them have so their, well, not a lot of them, I know some that have their securement on the back side.
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So if you're carrying the pouch in the front, the the latch or joint connecting pieces in the back.
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Some of them will have it up next to the pouch itself, but make sure that that connection is somewhere where you've visibility to watch it and not somebody can come up, press the butt, press, undo it, and then snatch it from you.
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Yeah, that's how mine is too.
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It's right on the side, it doesn't latch in the back.
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So you're absolutely right about that.
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And then another thing, no, you talked about guys with wallets.
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One thing I used to teach in my situational awareness classes that for guys, carry two, carry all your important stuff in your front pocket and carry a dummy wallet with just maybe a couple of dollars, a couple of old debit cards that are no good anymore, or even go get prepaid cards but just don't activate them and put them in your wallet because you giving them criminals something, they're gonna think that they've got something and more than likely run off after you give them what what little bit they are asking for, but you still got your license, your good credit cards or debit cards, and your money and stuff still in you know your your front pocket, or if no, wherever you want to carry it, but no, have have a dummy wallet and actually use that to your advantage.
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I tell them to carry it on their non-dominant side, and that way when they're turning, they can turn and reach for the wallet.
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The people will see that they're reaching for the wallet, and if you're carrying, it actually will give you a chance to move your other hand to your concealed weapon if you need to to draw it while distracting them with giving them that wallet.
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So that's just some of the tactics that I used to teach uh whenever I was teaching that situational awareness and carry options.
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Yeah, I call it the decoy keys or decoy wallets.
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So you're exactly right about that.
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I encourage them to do the same thing, but just whatever we do, we want to make sure it's a lot harder for the criminal to target us.
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And if you're if you just give them something, they run off, they're happy, you're safe.
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That's you know exactly what we're trying to do.
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Yeah.
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And during the holiday seasons, more of no, if you can shop, shop in pairs or groups, and then just have somebody designated more so if you need to, to be an observer while you're putting stuff in the car, getting out of the car, going in and out of businesses, just uh no, do it in groups because, as we know, criminals, especially solo criminals, they don't want to engage a group of people that they think that they could be overpowered or you know caught injured or something like that.
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And that goes into another point you're saying, like when we're going out to our vehicles, and if we have our gifts that we've just purchased and we put them in our vehicle, we want to make sure that they're in the trunk.
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Don't just sit them on your front seat or your back seat where they're visible because criminals are opportunists.
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And the minute that they walk by and they see your bags there, your window's gonna be smashed and your bags are going to be gone.
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So make sure you put them in your trunk.
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It doesn't mean it can't happen in your trunk because there are people who will watch you in the parking lot and then just pop your trunk and go.
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But um, it's it's a lot more secure though, if they're not just sitting in their front seat.
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Yeah, or the back.
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Go go ahead.
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No, that was it.
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Okay, I was gonna say also, you know, with some of the SUVs that have that open back, make sure you have, if you can, purchase or have included the cover that retractable cover that you can pull over because out of sight, out of mind is a big determent, but you just don't want it to look like hey, there's something in there.
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If they can't see in there, they it's less of a enticement for them to break in and then not have anything uh comprised to looking in, seeing something, and okay, I break this window, I can grab this and go, and and things of that nature.
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So uh just be aware of you know, if you've got an open area in your SUV or van or something that you know you have some way of covering or making it look like not much is maybe in there.
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So yeah.
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And another thing too, when we're out shopping, if you can, if you have credit cards, use your credit cards.
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I'm not telling you to go and get in debt, but use your credit cards because if something were to happen and there's fraud on your credit card, it's a lot easier to get that taken care of with credit than it is for debit.
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So if you can use credit, use credit.
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Just don't go crazy and get yourself in debt because that's gonna be a whole nother problem for you.
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But yeah, use your credit cards if possible and be very wary of where you're shopping at.
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You know, you got to make sure it's a legit business.
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Um, if you're doing online shopping, that's another problem in itself.
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Yeah, but definitely use your credit card when possible.
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Yeah, and no, I have heard stories and have actually seen it, but be aware, you know, popular like restaurants or stores where you know you give your card to the waiter, waitress, the cashier, and they turn and and move away for or book the card out of your site.
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Be leery because they may be running that card through a skimmer before they run it into your the register and stuff where they got your information.
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So just be aware of that.
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Try not to let your card out of your site uh while you're giving it to somebody for a purchase or something.
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Yeah, and don't carry large amounts of cash.
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There's people that run to the bank and they don't want to use credit or debit, and for whatever reason they go take out a lump sum of money and they're walking around with it.
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Now you get robbed, and you can't get that cash back.
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Right.
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So it's not a good idea, and don't go out wearing fancy jewelry and you know, expensive purses, anything that makes you look like an easy target or look like you have something of value.
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So, you know, leave your your beautiful diamond earrings at home, diamond rings, nice necklaces.
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This is not the time to be out there flaunting it, right?
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Okay.
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Let's see.
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I can't really think of anything else that we really haven't covered.
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Just remember, you know, your if you've taken a class for situational awareness, remember the color codes, you know, and remember the path of that you really need to watch or go through.
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Don't cut through the alleys, don't go in through the parking garages, you know, try to minimize that if you do that.
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Because that's where you're more so out of the sight of others, and that's the prime breeding ground for robbery or assault or something to happen.
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And uh, we want to try to minimize that.
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Stay on the sidewalks, take the long way around if you have to, and then no, always if you can go in groups.
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So that's pretty much ahead.
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Yeah, and well-lit areas, be mindful of where you're parking.
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I know it's gonna be busy, the parking lots are full, but if you can park near a if you're out shopping at night, and even now, so with the time changes getting darker a lot earlier.
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So if you know, six, seven o'clock at night, it's dark out.
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You need to make sure you're parked where there's bright lighting so somebody just can't ambush you in the dark.
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And it's also a good idea to have a tactical flashlight if you are gonna be shopping out night, even if you're parked under bright light.
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I do like tactical flashlights to give you more of an advantage so I can see what's going on around me.
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And if I have to use it as a defensive weapon, I can do that as well.
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Right.
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And there's one other thing that just popped in my mind that when you're pulling into a parking lot at a restaurant, mall, a store, or something, whenever you park, keep your doors locked and wait just a few minutes.
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Uh, observe around you before you get out.
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And then whenever you return to the vehicle, once you get in the vehicle, get in as quickly as you can to put your stuff up and then jump in the vehicle.
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But as soon as you get in, lock the doors.
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That way you prevent anybody from just snatching open the doors.
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They'd have to break the window to get in or get access to you.
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Yeah, and don't sit there and check your text messages and emails at that point.
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Just go ahead and get out of that spot.
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And if you have to go someplace else to do that, that's fine.
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But just don't do it in the parking lot in case somebody's actually watching you.
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Right.
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You don't want to make yourself an easy target by just sitting in your car any longer than you need to be.
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Right.
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Okay.
00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:22.480
Uh, anything else on under the personal that you want to address or touch on?
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Just like we were saying, we want to make sure we're aware of our environment.
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If you feel like something is off, trust your gut.
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There's a lot of sketchy people out out, a lot of sketchy people out this time of year.
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So just be mindful of that.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:44.079
Well, let's talk about home tactics that we can use for you know fortifying or you know, being safe at home.
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What are some of your recommendations or your your teachings that you do?
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So, first of all, we need to start by locking our doors.
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It's amazing how many people don't even lock their doors.
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Yeah.
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And that's a big problem.
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So make sure you have your home safely secured.
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If you're gonna go on vacation, don't announce it, don't put it all over social media.
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The countdown has begun, you know, four more days till our trip.
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And, you know, anybody, especially if you have a public profile, if they know you're out of town, you're gonna be an easy target for somebody to come in and break into your home.
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So just be very careful of what you're sharing on social media.
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And maybe you're out of town and you're sharing pictures of where you're at at that current time.
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It's not a good thing for a criminal.
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I mean, it's not a good thing for you because criminals will also know that you're away.
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If you have a neighbor or somebody that can come and check your product uh property, make sure you set that up beforehand.
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Back in the day when we used to get newspaper deliveries, that used to be a big thing, like you got to have somebody pick up your newspapers.
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Not too many people have that anymore.
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But if you're gonna be away for an extended period of time and you do have mail, the mail will hold that for you.
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So you don't have to worry about you have, you know, a mailbox that's getting full, and people see that and they say, wait a minute, you know, there's a lot of mail in that box, somebody's not around.
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But contact your mail, your post office, and have them hold your mail for you.
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And even some of your carriers like FedEx, UPS, uh, some of those you can have actual delivery instructions uh for packages after they ship.
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So if you know you're not going to be there, you can actually say, leave it, leave this with my neighbor at such and such.
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And most of them that I have encountered will do that, or either you can just have them hold it.
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They don't like to hold it, but some of them understand and will do that.
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But if you can't do any of that, you know, again, your neighbor that you have that you trust, hey, I'm having a package come on Wednesday.
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You know, I'll be out of town.
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Would you pick that up and take it in and I'll get it when we get back and stuff?
00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:50.480
And then you were also saying about the photos, social media, wait until you get back home from your vacation or your trip to photo dump and everything.
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Right.
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Yeah.
00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:55.519
Uh back to the home delivery, too.
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During the holidays, porch pirates they go crazy.
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This is the time of year I I mean, it's a good percentage of the holiday crimes that do occur are porch pirates.
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So if you have Amazon Prime and you have those smart garage door openers, you can set it up where they can deliver those packages into your garage.
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They get like a one-time code and they put it in, whether or not you feel comfortable with that.
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But if you do and you have that technology, they will more than happily, they're more than happy to deliver those packages into your garage.
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You can also request that they leave them behind your house.
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Like if you tell them, hey, deliver, you know, in my backyard or behind my fence, they're willing to do that behind some kind of a plant.
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You know, people have like these big pots and stuff, put it there.
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But you can request that.
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Also, if there's a way to request a signature so that you know there's not just going to be left behind if you have no other options.
00:17:53.039 --> 00:17:57.759
So these are some things that we can do to kind of counter these porch pirates.
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I've been a victim of it myself, and it's it's so annoying.
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And then you have to contact the Amazon or whoever and see if they can re-deliver it.
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And if it's the holidays, they may not get it in time.
00:18:08.639 --> 00:18:11.359
So another thing too is make sure you report it.
00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:15.440
I believe it's only about 10% of these types of crimes are ever reported.
00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:24.000
So when we're talking about crime statistics in our area, we can't get a really accurate indicator when people are not reporting these types of crimes.
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So definitely report it.
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Doesn't matter if it's the smallest item, please report it.
00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:43.680
And and talking about the porch pirates and you know, leaving your packages, alternative spots on your property, security cameras, uh, ring cameras, they actually would be a wise thing.
00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:57.119
I've you know people have them set up uh you know as their doorbell or they have a camera in a window or on the eve of their home where they record people coming up to their door around their property and stuff.
00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:09.039
Now, if you've got that, and and you don't have to have that through a security system, you can do that you know individually, like with uh I know Roku security has cameras, uh Ring has cameras.
00:19:09.279 --> 00:19:24.480
There's several people that you know you can do the wireless-based and it will record it to either a cloud if you pay for it or to the memory card, or you you know, you get notification on your phone that there's movement or something, you can look at it while you're away.
00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:43.200
So do that if you have an alarm system, make sure that that's armed during the vacation while you're gone or even while you're at home, because they are big deterrents a lot of time, especially if people know that you have an alarm system or you have the the signage out front.
00:19:43.359 --> 00:19:51.200
And I've I've known people that have gotten signs and put them out front, even though they don't have an alarm system, but it's a good deterrent.
00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.399
Right, I've seen that too, or fake cameras, even.
00:19:54.559 --> 00:19:55.599
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.799
Anything you can do to try and trick the bad guys, right?
00:19:58.960 --> 00:20:12.240
Yeah, and then no, like like we were saying, uh no, some of the other things that you can do for your home while you're away is you know, have a neighbor come over, turn on, turn off and on lights in the home to make it look like there's somebody in and out.
00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:33.440
If you have a relative or a neighbor that has a spare car, you know, have them move a car around in your driveway or on your property so it makes it look like somebody's there and it's less more of a deterrent for somebody not knowing if you're home or not, actually, to you know do something.
00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:36.960
So yep, that that works.
00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:38.639
Let's see.
00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:48.559
We talked about alarms, we talked about porch pirates, cameras, neighbors, mail holds.
00:20:50.639 --> 00:20:52.319
Uh anything else you can think of?
00:20:52.799 --> 00:20:55.839
Yeah, we gotta be careful of the holiday scammers out there.
00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:56.240
Right.
00:20:56.399 --> 00:21:00.079
Well, these offers that are too good to be true, be very careful of those.
00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.000
They're everywhere during the holidays.
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.240
They're going around asking for donations.
00:21:04.399 --> 00:21:08.480
You need to do your research and make sure that they are they are in a legit organization.
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:16.319
Because anybody, well, nowadays everybody has Zell or Cash App or Venmo to have some way of getting your money.
00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:16.799
Right.
00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:20.879
And if you didn't do any research, God knows where that money's going to.
00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:21.119
Right.
00:21:21.440 --> 00:21:23.359
So be very careful of those scams.
00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:33.759
Another thing they do online is you'll get, being that we're always doing a lot of online shopping, you'll get these notifications about your tracking and information of that, or click on this.
00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.240
Be very careful because oftentimes those are scams.
00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:38.000
Yeah, or they look real.
00:21:38.879 --> 00:21:45.759
And the ones that say, uh, there's a problem with your package or your delivery, click this link.
00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:54.480
So I we do a lot of online shopping, so it's hard during the holiday season, so it's hard to know if that's true or not.
00:21:54.639 --> 00:22:02.160
The best thing is I know, like with Amazon, you can go to Amazon and click on your order and see exactly what's going on with it.
00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:06.639
If there's a problem, they'll have it in the in the app for you to contact somebody.
00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:11.839
So don't just laxly click on the the links or anything.
00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:24.960
Do some investigation on it because that, like you said, they make it look real professional, real true, and all all it is is a fishing or trying to get your information for no nefarious reasons.
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:32.079
So yeah, and I know like when you're shopping, make sure they're verified websites with secure checking out.
00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:37.440
I don't know what they call that, but there's usually like a padlock icon, you know, you have like the HTTP, whatever, yeah.
00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:39.920
The UR, and then there'll be like a padlock icon.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:41.200
So you gotta make sure it's secure.
00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:46.000
Don't just put your card information in not knowing it's an app if it's a secure website or not.
00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:46.399
Right.
00:22:46.639 --> 00:22:49.279
Because as you know, a lot of these crimes do happen online.
00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:54.319
So we got to make sure that these are in fact real legit websites.
00:22:54.960 --> 00:22:56.160
Okay, yep.
00:22:57.359 --> 00:22:58.319
Uh see.
00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:06.079
Oh, one thing too, you can do some departments will have vacation watches.
00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:36.559
If you call like your local police or sheriff's department, some of them have a offer a service where they will have an officer try to run by, not saying that they will, but if they're not busy, you know, residences where they've registered that they're out of town on vacation, and they will try to get an officer to at least ride by, look for anything out of place, and and no, it gives you an extra benefit of security with the police presence in no in that area.
00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:39.519
So that's another suggestion.
00:23:39.839 --> 00:23:40.319
Yeah.
00:23:40.559 --> 00:23:50.799
And also after the holidays, because you know, we're trying to return to normal, but make sure when you're disposing of the boxes, put them away where they're not out in plain sight.
00:23:50.879 --> 00:23:58.639
So if you have new electronics, your computers, laptops, phones, if you put it out on the side of the road and people see that, they know exactly what you have.
00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:03.119
So make sure you dispose of them where people cannot see what those items are.
00:24:04.639 --> 00:24:18.399
And I guess one other thing that I I just popped in my mind that it's not really security uh theft related or anything like that, but be aware of fire hazards, your Christmas tree.
00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:30.879
If you're going on vacation and you have a live tree, don't leave your lights or don't set timers for that unless you've got somebody that's actively putting water into the tray to keep it moisturized.
00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:34.480
Otherwise, you've got a potential fire hazard.
00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:37.599
Be aware of where you're putting things.
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:49.599
Uh, if you're going to be out of town for a period of time, you know, maybe shut your AC maybe off if you can, and just set it on where the fan comes on.
00:24:49.839 --> 00:24:54.799
And you know, just watching for any fire hazards.
00:24:54.879 --> 00:25:01.119
You know, we want to make sure that you know around your home is picked up, there's nothing that's combustible per se around there.
00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:05.519
You got canisters of propane or something on your patio for your grill.
00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:21.279
Just be mindful of keeping that maybe at a distance while you're gone, because that you know, you never know when a canister is going to develop a leak, and then you've got propane going around, and all it takes is just a spark to ignite that.
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:22.639
Water.
00:25:22.799 --> 00:25:33.440
That's another thing, especially in the cold in the you know, with it being Christmas and stuff in some of the colder environments, pipes freezing and no having a water hat leak or uh flooding.
00:25:33.680 --> 00:25:37.519
Maybe shut your water off while you're on vacation if you can.
00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:59.680
It's just uh another way of controlling damage control, I guess is the best thing, because you'd hate to come back and find your house flooded and a lot of stuff uh ruined because water's been in the floor for three days, and that's gonna put a damper on your holiday spirit or your post-holiday spirit.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.200
Yeah, all unless you have you know some work you wanted to get done.
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