I love Halloween – it’s a night filled with fun and festivities (and candy). But before you get wrapped up in the thrill of costumes and candy, take a moment to ensure that your home is 1. safe for those ridiculously cute trick-or-treaters while simultaneously 2. discouraging criminal activity from thieves and mischief-makers. Let’s dive into these 8 tips to protect your property on Halloween.
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8 Safety Tips to Protect Your Property on Halloween
With just a few good ideas listed below, we homeowners can create a delightfully spooky and hazard-free experience for everyone for the spookiest day of the year!
Happy haunting!
1. Adequate Lighting
Dimly lit pathways pose the potential for injuries. Sufficient light is crucial for visitors and trick-or-treaters to safely find their way in your yard.
At a minimum, leave the front porch light on to prevent flips, trips, and falls. Switch on other outdoor lights around the perimeter of your house. But consider these good ideas as well:
- Check and replace dim or burned-out bulbs
- Commonly use a softer bulb in the entranceway? For this one night, swap out a higher watt bulb
- Add additional lighting – perhaps a temporary flood lamp strategically aimed up your walkway
If you don’t want to participate in your neighborhood’s trick-or-tricking, signal your intent by turning off your porch lights. It discourages kids from approaching your property.
However, a completely dark house can be a target from thieves and vandals looking for an opportunity. Leave some lights on either in the back of the house or an upper floor. Or even switch on the television.
2. Clear Walkways
Let’s face it, most kids don’t stick to sidewalks and walkways. They tend to take the quickest route – i.e. through yards – to go from house to house to gather fistfuls of that prized Halloween candy.
To prevent an injury occurring on your property, make sure all walkways and front yard are clean and clutter-free to prevent falls with these tips to protect your property on Halloween:
- Keep spooky props and lawn Halloween decorations away from walkways.
- Don’t run extension cords over sidewalks where people might trip and hurt themselves. Use tape or cord covers to keep them safely in place.
- Rake up wet leaves (slippery!!) from sidewalks and stairs.
- Move bikes, garden tools and hoses, fallen branches, potted plants and skateboards
- Fix uneven paving stones, fill holes in lawn (i.e. minimize uneven surfaces.
- For you northerners, stock up on ice melt if there’s a risk for an early freeze.
3. Tighten Railings
If you have railings on your front steps, ensure they are sturdy enough to weather a gaggle of little trick-or-treaters grabbing and rocking them as they walk up and down your stairs.
A wobbly or broken handrail can cause severe injuries if a little person (or big person!) leans too hard and falls. Not only does this create an embarrassing situation but a potential lawsuit or insurance claim!
Merely test your railings by leaning on it or pushing it. If you feel any give, it’s too loose and requires mending.
4. Consider Your Car
When Halloween season comes to mind, cars might not be the first thing on your spooky checklist. For many, it’s all about leaving the car in the driveway and embarking on a neighborhood adventure. Yet, as it turns out, Halloween does bring some significant car safety concerns into play.
Here’s a startling fact: On Halloween night, more child pedestrians are killed in motor vehicle accidents that any other day of the entire year. In fact, children ages 4-8 are 10x higher to be killed by a vehicle on Halloween.
Unfortunately, these stats make sense. There is an unprecedented number of children walking around your neighborhood at night – more so than any other day of the year. And young trick-or-treaters often wear costumes that don’t prioritize visibility, making it a challenge for the children to see cars and conversely, for drivers to spot them.
If possible, park your car in the garage (instead of the street or driveway) providing a clearer view for all.
Secondly, let’s talk car theft and damage. Halloween isn’t just a favorite holiday for candy seekers. It’s also a prime time for thieves and pranksters looking to vandalize your car (remember egging?).
Halloween is consistently ranked as one of the top holidays for car thefts, according to data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
To safeguard your vehicle from theft and the teenager damage, take these precautions:
- If you have a garage, today is the day to use it
- If you must stay o the street, park in a well-lit area
- Lock your car doors and roll up your windows
- Give the illusion that your car is empty by removing valuables such as phones, computers, wallets, sunglasses, and any other items of value, including cords
5. Safer Fires
Using flames and real candles during Halloween can set the right spooky mood, BUT you need to keep things safe to avoid any creating a fire hazard that results in unintentional house fires.
The statistics on fires from the NFPA during Halloween are intriguing. Every year, Halloween decorations inadvertently set on fire result in an average of:
- 800 reported home structure fires (esp older homes)
- 2 civilian deaths
- 34 civilian injuries
- $11 million in direct property damage.
Avoid being one of those stats with these safety tips to protect your property on Halloween to fully enjoy the holiday vibe with candles and flames while still being safe:
Safe Distance
Be smart about where you place your candles. Inside the home, don’t stick them near anything that can catch fire easily, like curtains, papers, or dried-up decorations like cornstalks. Stick candles in metal candle holders or pumpkin containers specifically manufactuered to handle the heat.
Outside, ensure there’s nothing flammable hanging out near your candles. Place candles, including lit jack-o-lanterns far away from doorsteps, walkways, and yards. You want to keep an open flame away from your holiday décor as well as those little treat-or-treaters with billowing costumes or long-trailing fabric (i.e. those princess and superhero capes!) running up to your front door.
Go Flameless
Change out the real flames for safer LED candles or battery-powered lights or flashlights. Technology has come a long way and these lights flicker like the real deal.
Keep an Eye Out
Don’t leave open flames out alone, especially if there are kiddos or pets running around.
Firefighting Tools
It’s smart to have some firefighting tools on standby. Keep a fire extinguisher, a water bucket, or a fire blanket nearby in case anything gets a bit too hot to handle.
Teach Youngsters
If you have young kids, give them a quick lesson on candle safety. Make sure they know to stay away from the candles and lit-up decorations.
Ground Lights
If you need additional exterior lighting or power for that awesome blow-up Halloween décor, be sure not to overload electrical circuits. Use covered electric outlets with ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs).
End the Show Safely
When Halloween winds down, don’t forget to put out those flames! Use a candle snuffer or a lid to gently snuff them out—don’t blow them out, or you’ll get hot wax everywhere.
Test Smoke Alarms
Speaking of fires, now is the perfect time to test your smoke alarms. Chances are you haven’t checked them in a while, right? And it takes just a few minutes, so there really is no excuse.
Not sure how to correctly test your smoke alarms? Click here for a step-by-step tutorial.
6. Protect Pets
If you expect a stream of trick-or-treaters coming to your front door, consider how to handle the effects on your pets. Pets can easily be frightened during this spooky season, with the constant doorbell rings, door openings and closings, kids yelling and maybe even reaching out to pet your dog or cat. This chaos can get overwhelming for even the most-behaved pet. And the last thing you need on Hallows Eve is your pet freaking and either snapping at a trick-or-treater or even running away from home.
Consider keeping them in a separate and enclosed room where they can remain calm and eliminate the risk of escaping.
Also keep in mind that black cats are associated with superstitions and are an easy target for pranksters or others who wish to harm them.
7. Lower Theft & Vandalism Risk
While the biggest crime most people will commit on Halloween is indulging in too much candy, there is a segment of the population who use this holiday as a time to wreak havoc and commit property crime.
Most Halloween pranks are harmless – smashed pumpkins, toilet-papered trees. However, insurance companies report a significant increase in homeowner insurance claims on Halloween. Travelers Insurance reported an approximate 25% increase in crime-related insurance claims submitted from Halloween, with a significant 60% spike from home burglaries/theft and 20% from vandalism.
So what can you do to lower your risk of theft or personal property damage from potential vandals?
Strategic Lighting
Ensure you have adequate lighting throughout your house. And after the prime hours of trick-or-treating, continue to keep on lighting. Or better yet, use motion sensor lights to illuminate the whole house to scare away thieves and vandals.
Security Cameras
In addition to lighting, make sure your securty cameras and on and visible. The mere presence of a security camera will make a potential vandal think twice before committing an act of vandalism (spray paint, broken windows, etc.) on your property.
Lock Windows and Doors
While you are at the front door chatting with all the cute trick-or-treaters, mischief makers may take the opportunity to do some damage in the back. So lock all windows and doors.
And if you plan to leave the house to take your children trick-or-treating be sure to lock your front door.
Secure Halloween Decorations
Decorating for Halloween is one of the best parts of celebrating the spooky holiday. Nothing like a bone-chilling graveyard or spooky witch’s house on your front yard to celebrate the essence of Halloween.
However, this scary décor can also be a prime target for thieves and vandals. Consider protecting your Halloween decorations and inflatables with these tips:
- Secure with metal or wooden stakes
- Tie them to a permanent structure – tree, railing, fence,etc.
- Weigh down with sandbags or water jugs
Protect Mailboxes
Halloween is prime time for pranksters. Tape up mail slots and mailboxes to avoid receiving any unwanted “mail” on Halloween night.
Hang Out with Neighbors
Thieves don’t like crowds – too many wandering eyes. Be social with neighbors and transform Halloween into a neighborhood event. The more houses that have activity, like passing out candy or having a party, the more thieves are deterred.
Haunted Houses
Hosting an open haunted house in your house or garage for the neighborhood? Good idea (am I invited?) But recognize that you are opening your home up to potential strangers (and would be thieves) into your home.
Tightly secure your valuables. Lock up areas of the house not meant for viewing. Enlist friends to take shifts standing at various locations in the haunted house to 1. ensure overwhelmed visitors can quickly exit but also 2. keep a vigilant eye on mischief makers.
And if you do unfortunately do experience a theft or property damage during a Halloween party, be sure to reach out to your insurance agent ASAP to understand what is covered under your homeowners insurance policy and start an insurance claim.
Update Home Inventory
In the unfortunate case of your home experiencing theft or vandalism, make sure your home inventory is updated and handy.
Why? So that any insurance claims will be handled quickly and smoothly to get you reimbursed for your stolen or damaged items ASAP.
Don’t have a home inventory? It’s time to start one now. Start here.
Not Home During Halloween?
If you will be away from your home during Halloween, take these extra steps to ensure your home looks occupied:
- Set your security alarm system before you go.
- Activate motion-sensitive lights.
- Lock all windows and doors
- Store valuables out of sight (i.e. don’t leave laptops in clearview of windows)
- Alert your neighbors that you will be away.
- Keep plans off social media – post all those fun pictures the next morning
8. Remove Storm Door Glass
Do you have a storm door installed in front of your exterior door that swings out into your entranceway? If so, you run the risk of accidentally pushing enthusiast trick-or-treaters off the front step. This is especially problematic if you have a narrow entranceway.
To avoid this issue, consider removing the glass (or screen) from your storm door on Halloween night. Store it in a safe place for the night.
When the doorbell rings, merely open your exterior door and easily reach through the storm door opening to hand out treats to the eager trick-or-treaters. Your storm door remains closed and latched. No more hassle!
We have a small entranceway (you can see a photo here). A few years ago we bought a new storm door to replace an ancient one and honestly, it is amazingly easy to pop open and remove the screen and glass panels.
Bonus points – If you’re a pet owner and your storm door has glass only on the top half of the door, this setup prevents pets from sneaking out through the front door.
Once the Halloween festivities are over, simply replace the glass (and other removed accessories) to restore your door to its original state.
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