Protect your home’s contents

 Everyone can help protect the contents of their homes from theft and make it easier for police to return stolen property to its rightful owner – it takes just a few precautions. The Calgary Police Service suggests the following easy tips:

  • Identify your valuables: Mark your valuables with some kind of identification. An engraving pen is often the most effective way to do this, because it’s easily visible to police – this makes returning stolen property to its owner a lot faster. A note of caution, however: NEVER use your Social Insurance Number to mark valuables, because the thief can then use the number to steal your personal identity.
  • Keep records: Record the serial number, make and model of all valuable items such as electronics.
  • A picture is worth a thousand words: Make a visual record of your home’s contents – you can use photographs, videotapes or digital recordings of valuable and of entire rooms.
  • Go off-site: Keep all of these records at a site away from your home, such as a safety deposit box. In case your home is broken into or there’s a disaster like a fire or flood, you’ll have excellent records to show police and your insurance company.
  • Be discreet: When you buy big-ticket items such as electronics, take the cardboard boxes to the recycling depot – don’t put them out on garbage day, because they advertise that you’ve just purchased something new and valuable.
  • Read the fine print: Check your insurance policy annually, to ensure that it covers the replacement cost of your home and its contents. Pay special attention to the exclusions for higher-value items such as jewellery, computers and sports equipment.
  • Protect your valuable: Keep your blinds or curtains closed at night so people can’t see what valuables are inside your house – otherwise, burglars can case your home and plan their crime.
  • Stay alert: Guard against crimes of opportunity; don’t leave items where they could be easily stolen. Leaving a garage door open could be an open invitation for thieves to steal items such as bicycles, lawn mowers or even cars from inside.

For more tips about crime prevention at home, work and play, visit the Calgary Police Service website at www.calgarypolice.ca