Stay Safe This Halloween: 10 Essential Tips For The Big Night Out

Although children look forward to tricks, treats, and ghoulish garb, Halloween can be fraught with fright for parents, with candy given to their kids by strangers and a legion of masked and costumed trick-or-treaters at the door. However, following a few safety tips can ensure safe fun for kids and candy-givers alike.

The activities below focus on Halloween, which is celebrated in the last week of October. The efforts throughout the month generate enthusiasm for crime prevention so it can grow stronger and become more widespread.

To ensure that trick-or-treaters, you, and your house stay safe, remember the following tips.

  • Clear your yard and sidewalk of any obstacles or decorations that may be hard to see in the dark, lest someone go bump in the night.
  • Keep your house well lighted, both inside and out; you wouldn’t want to miss any particularly good costumes, would you?
  • Ask your Neighborhood Watch or local citizen’s group to haunt (patrol) your community.
  • Report any suspicious or criminal activity to your police or sheriff’s department.

To make sure even the scariest costumes are safe, keep the following in mind when buying or designing one.

  • Try makeup instead of masks; it’s more comfortable and doesn’t obstruct vision the way masks can.
  • Check to ensure that costumes are flame-retardant so that young ones are safe around jack-o’-lanterns, candles, and other flames.
  • Keep costumes short to ensure that the only trip taken is the one around the neighborhood.
  • Look for brightly colored costumes, attach reflector strips to costumes and bags, and remind trick-or-treaters to carry glow sticks and flashlights.
  • If a costume involves any sort of fake weapon, make sure that it is made of a flexible material such as cardboard or foam. Or, avoid the whole problem of weapons by challenging your child to design a costume that is scary without one.

Keep in mind the next few tips to make sure your trick-or-treater’s night in the neighborhood will be safe and fun.

  • Older kids should trick-or-treat in groups; kids walking around alone are never as safe as those in groups, and especially not at night. Younger kids should be accompanied by a parent or trusted neighbor.
  • Review the route for trick-or-treating beforehand and set a time set when kids should be home. Also, have a plan if your child gets separated from his or her friends or from you.
  • Remind your children not to enter strange houses or cars.

After a successful and safe night around the neighborhood, remember that the treats still need scrutiny before anyone eats them.

  • Remind your children not to eat treats until they’ve come home. To help ensure this, feed them a meal or a substantial snack before they go out.
  • Check all treats at home in a well-lighted place. Be especially wary of anything that is not wrapped by the factory or that is no longer sealed.
  • Remind kids not to eat everything at once, lest they be green even without the makeup.

About All Action Alarm

All Action Alarm has been a family-owned business since 1980. We are experienced and maintain a high standard of continual knowledge and education in all areas of residential and commercial electronic systems.

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Surprising Burglary Tactics You Need to Know

For the criminal, crime is a job—and they are masters of the profession. Those who commit crime are exceptionally creative and use a multitude of subtle tricks and tactics to achieve their goals. Most people are unfamiliar with all but the most common and commonly talked about tricks, and that is why they continue to be successful to the burglar.

Being aware of the tricks and tactics burglars use can help prevent you from becoming a victim, and make your community safer. Here is a rundown of some of the most surprising methods and tricks criminals use.

  • Google maps. With street view, a burglar can gain knowledge of your property, such as the location of doors and windows, as well as whether or not there is sufficient cover to break in.
    They can also use it to gauge neighbor perspective and proximity as well as plan their escape.
  • Calling police. A criminal might also call police from the neighborhood to test response time.
  • They leave flyers on your door. A criminal may leave a flyer on your door to get an idea of the hours the home is occupied based on when it is removed. They may do this several times, on different days, or the same day over several weeks to determine the regularity of your schedule.
  • They check your trash. There is a wealth of information to be found in the garbage, whether it is personal information from bills or clues to recent purchases.
  • They look for signs of pets. Having a pet means you probably make accommodations for them, such as leaving a window open so the cat can enjoy fresh air, or having a dog door. These accommodations usually mean making your home vulnerable.
  • They leave markings. Criminals may also leave markings when casing several homes. The markings may be chalk symbols or litter positioned a certain way to indicate information about the home and its occupants. For example, one symbol may mean the home does not have security, another means it is vacant during the day, or contains target items.
  • They may research you. If they have your name, they may search it to see your estimated earnings and gauge the valuables you own.
  • Once they find your information, they use it to probe. They may call to see if you are home or email to see if they get an automated response when they expect you to be away on vacation.
  • They may use a planned power outage as cover of darkness.

Smart Home Security is Your Best Defense

As a resident, your job is securing the home and having the right home security features shows you are a master of your profession. Smart security features such as motion sensors and alerts, video surveillance, video doorbells, smart locks, motion activated lighting, and video verified alarms, provide the best tools to spot and defend against the criminal’s best tactic. All make the criminal take notice and think twice.

About All Action Alarm

All Action Alarm is a family owned business that has been dedicated to protecting Long Island homes and businesses since 1980. Our 5 diamond central monitoring station keeps watch over your alarm system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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5 Tips For Kitchen Fire Safety

Every year, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) devotes the third week in October to National Fire Prevention Week. The theme for this year is “Prevent Kitchen Fires,” with fire departments throughout the country holding local community events designed to educate the public on preventing fires in that busy area of the house. Here are some valuable tips they will be sharing:

  • Stay in the kitchen when you’re cooking on the stovetop. If you are frying, grilling, broiling or boiling food, you must be in the room to make sure your food doesn’t burn. The safety concern is not only for burned food, but for smoke in the air and the pan catching fire.
  • Stay in the home when you’re cooking in the oven. If you are baking, roasting or braising food in the oven, you don’t necessarily need to be in the kitchen, but you do need to be in the home – and you definitely need to use a timer to prevent any fire risks.
  • Keep your smoke alarm on while cooking. Some people are tempted to remove their smoke alarm batteries when cooking certain dishes. But whether you are baking cookies or frying up bacon, your smoke alarm should stay on. Disabling it could put your family at risk of harmful smoke inhalation.
  • Keep your kids and pets safe while cooking. Young children have been known to burn themselves on front burner pots and pans. Teaching them not to touch is good, but putting things on the back burner to remove the risk is better. Pets should also be kept at least three feet from the stove.
  • Keep flammable items away from the stove. Avoid cooking with loose-fitting sleeves. Hanging sleeves can easily catch fire. As for necessary items like potholders and kitchen towels, they should be safely to the side on the counter – not the stove.

These are just some of the tips that fire departments want citizens to know when it comes to preventing kitchen fires. If there is a National Fire Prevention Week event going on in your community, we encourage you to attend. Search #NationalFirePreventionWeek on Twitter to find an event near you!

ABOUT ALL ACTION ALARM

To learn more about a remote access solution that leverages your lights to the fullest for the sake of security, contact All Action Alarm today. We will be glad to answer your questions about your lighting control and smart home security options.

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Privacy vs. Safety: Teens and Home Security

If you’re raising teenagers, you most likely have your hands full. As a provider of home security in Long Island, All Action Alarm wants to make your job easier by giving you some tips about talking to teens about home security. Even if they purport to “already know” about home security (after all, don’t teens know everything?), many of them aren’t sure how they would handle a dangerous home security threat – whether they admit it to you or not. That’s why it’s important to educate teens on using your home security system.

Learn The Duress Code

Of course, your alarm is designed to activate when somebody breaks down the door. Regardless, there may be times when that feature is irrelevant. For example, what if your teen lets someone in the house willingly, and that person turns out not to be trustworthy? If that happens, here’s what they need to do: Enter the duress code on the alarm panel. Your duress code is a four-digit code that you set when you first obtain your system. By entering that code, your teen can alert the monitoring center without ever having to pick up the phone, and without the perpetrator hearing any kind of audible alarm.

Home Video Surveillance

Then, there’s the question of your home security cameras, particularly if you have a system by Alarm.com (a system designed to help parents keep tabs on the home while they’re away). What if your teen complains that he or she feels like they’re “being watched” by you? Your answer is this: “You know where the cameras are. The only time I can see you is when you are in those parts of the house.”

Most parents opt to place a camera above the interior side of the front door, and may place others in areas of the home where the kids aren’t allowed (a gun cabinet, a liquor cabinet, etc.). Assure your teen that as long as he doesn’t go near those areas, he isn’t being watched. Then, remind him that the main purpose of the cameras is to have video of anyone who may try to break into the house, and the fact that you can see when he gets home is just an added bonus (wink).

Education Is An On-Going Process

Educating teens on home security is just part of raising them; because you are a devoted customer of All Action Alarm, you’ve already done most of the work by investing in a security system. Use this information to talk to teens about home security, and pat yourself on the back for doing a great job.

About All Action Alarm

All Action Alarm has been a family-owned business since 1980. We are experienced and maintain a high standard of continual knowledge and education in all areas of residential and commercial electronic systems.

 

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