Dark, spooky nights are drawing in. Stay safe this Halloween with essential home security tips.
The dark, gloomy nights approach as we get closer to Halloween. As the nights grow longer, it’s important to make sure your home stays secure. From excited trick-or-treaters to mischievous pranks, Halloween can bring fun as well as potential security risks.
Updated for Halloween 2024: This post has been updated in October 2024 with the latest tips to help you protect your home this spooky season.
Read on to make sure your home is protected this Halloween and keep intruders and unwanted spirits at bay.
Are You Ready for the Clock Change – and Is Your Home Security?
The clocks will go back by 1 hour on the 27/10 (the last Sunday of October), marking the end of daylight saving time. With the earlier sunset, Halloween trick or treaters dressed in spooky costumes will be taking to the streets sooner, and so could opportunistic burglars who want to take advantage of the darkness.
So, while you’re getting ready for Halloween, decorating your porch with carved pumpkins and hanging cobwebs, make sure your home security is just as ready for Halloween.
Halloween Looks for 2024
This Halloween, expect to see costumes inspired by iconic characters from some of 2024’s most popular movies and TV shows. Trick or treaters will be dressed to impress for Halloween, but is your home just as prepared?
With films like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Joker: Folie à Deux and Deadpool & Wolverine hitting the big screen this year, costumes inspired by these will be everywhere. Look out for Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, Shrunken Head Bob, Joker, Harley Quinn, Deadpool, Lady Deadpool, Wolverine, and more.
Popular TV shows like Fallout and the highly anticipated season 4 of The Boys are sure to inspire looks like The Ghoul and Homelander roaming the streets this year.
Of course, Halloween wouldn’t be complete without horror fan favourites lurking around – Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees. These characters are experts at finding ways in, but with upgraded home security, you can make sure your property stays secure from any real intruders.
While Halloween is a night of fun, it’s important to be mindful of your home security, as the darker evenings offer more opportunities for unwelcome visitors.
Home Security and Burglary Statistics
ONS figures show there were 271,449 recorded burglary offences in the year ending December 2023. This marks a slight decrease compared to the previous year, and suggests that more people are prioritising home security measures to keep the ghouls away.
According to Crimestoppers, the Office of National Statistics recently said it’s widely accepted that improvements to home security have been an important factor in the reduction seen in domestic burglary. This highlights the importance of improving your home’s security – not just as a general precaution, but as a proven way to reduce the risk of burglary year round, and not just for Halloween. By making simple improvements, you can decrease the likelihood of your property being a target for burglary.
With this in mind, we have put together some actionable Halloween home security tips to keep your home secure in October 2024 and beyond.
Lock up, day and night!
Keep potential intruders away this Halloween by making sure your home is securely locked, especially when you’re out. It’s simple, but it’s the first step to improving the security of your home, and is often overlooked, so take a moment to double-check your locks.
Heading out to a Halloween party? Before you go, be sure to lock up and secure your home. You don’t want to come back to find an unexpected “guest” like Ghostface waiting in your living room!
Burglars will take advantage of unlocked doors and open windows, and combined with it getting darker much earlier, it only makes it more convenient for them to enter your home undetected.
A quick check of your doors and locks can help ensure that your night stays fun and your property remains secure.
Use Indoor Smart Lights and Timers
Using timers for your indoor lights is an effective way to improve home security during the Halloween season when the darker nights creep in. When you’re out for the evening trick-or-treating or attending a Halloween party, timed lighting can create the illusion that someone is home, which can help deter potential intruders.
In The Purge (2013), where lighting played a crucial role in signalling that a home was occupied and secured, keeping your house well-lit can make a huge difference in discouraging unwanted visitors. Set your timers to turn lights on and off in different rooms at different times, mimicking the natural activity of your household. This random pattern is more convincing than leaving one light on all night, making your home appear occupied. Place them in important areas that can be seen from outside, like your living room, kitchen, or hallway, where light would normally be visible.
If you have a smart home system, like Hive, that uses smart plugs or smart light bulbs, you can control your indoor lights remotely, adding even more flexibility to your home’s security setup. Adjusting the lights on the go will make it even harder for anyone to predict whether someone is inside.
Light Up the Darkness with Scary Decorations
Carving some spooky pumpkins for Halloween? Take the opportunity to add LED lighting inside and place it by your front door or on the porch for an added layer of illumination.
Use well-lit Halloween figures like skeletons or ghosts near pathways or dark corners of your garden. Bright decorations could help deter anyone trying to sneak by.
Add motion-sensor Halloween decorations that activate sound effects or lights when someone walks past. These could startle would-be intruders and alert you to activity around your home.
What better way to make intruders intimidated and expose anyone lurking in the shadows with petrifying decorations that light up the darkness.
Add Outdoor Lighting
While indoor lighting can create the illusion of activity inside your home, outdoor lighting is just as crucial for deterring intruders.
Outdoor lighting can give burglars the impression that people are home, making it less likely that they will try breaking into your property this Halloween. Motion sensor lights can be particularly effective as they surprise intruders when approaching your property, instantly illuminating the area and signalling your awareness of their presence.
Create a Tricky Landscape
Consider strategically placing prickly plants and bushes near your windows. Thorny plants can act as a natural barrier to deter potential intruders and the moment they get hit with a prick, you’ll be alerted by the telltale signs of their presence.
Another way to spot intruders on your property is to add gravel around walkways, beneath windows or near entry points. The sound created acts as a natural alarm system, discouraging potential intruders from approaching your home. Much like in the films “A Quiet Place”, where the smallest sound can alert deadly creatures, gravel can serve as your own defence and subtle warning system. The crunch of footsteps on gravel will give you an immediate heads-up, making it difficult for anyone to approach silently, helping to keep your home safe during Halloween or any time of year.
It’s also worth noting in regards to landscape the importance of trimming your front hedges. Crimestoppers did a poll which showed that ⅔ of people surveyed faced an increased risk of burglary due to high hedges.
Security Cameras
Catch all the spooky activity around your home this Halloween by installing 24/7 security. CCTV acts as a powerful deterrent for burglars, warning any intruders that your home is under constant watch. Potential burglars will be spooked with a sophisticated security system in place.
Intruders, much like Ghostface, prefer to target less secure properties. Even a simple camera can be enough to prevent unwanted break-ins.
Video doorbells are useful for knowing exactly who is at your door when they ring the bell. Especially handy if masked visitors arrive at your doorstep this Halloween, they come equipped with a camera and a microphone. You can see who’s there before you speak to the person and decide whether to open the door, minimising the risk of distraction burglary without leaving your sofa.
This Halloween, don’t just look out for ghosts and ghouls, protect your property from thieves with a high quality security system.
Consider installing a 24/7 surveillance system like our Yale Smart Home CCTV.
Keep your valuables locked away
This Halloween, the only people who should be taking goodies for free are the kids trick or treating – not burglars! Don’t leave expensive jewellery, electronics, or other valuables lying around. Keep any cash, sensitive documents and high-value possessions locked away so intruders don’t get enticed to try and steal it. Ideally, you want it to be so secure that not even those sneaky, spectral spirits can get to your valuables. Consider using a safe or lockable drawer to keep these items well protected.
Halloween is a night where the mischievous thrive, and for many homeowners, it can be quite worrying to think about all the things that could happen. It’s important to focus on what you can control vs what you can’t. While you may not be able to control what other people decide to do on that hallowed night of fun and danger, you can control your own home security. If you’re looking to update your security, contact your local locksmith today.
Sources:
Office for National Statistics: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingdecember2023#theft-robbery-and-criminal-damage
