As the fall air turns crisper and the days grow shorter, spooky Halloween decorations have begun popping up on stores and in front lawns. This time of year means plenty of candy and parties for kids and adults alike. However, some people take the “trick” in “trick or treat” a little too seriously. Most Halloween revelers engage in harmless pratfalls this time of year. Unfortunately, vandalism and impractical jokes played on homeowners also spike during this season. In this post, we share some valuable tips to add Halloween security to your home.

We will begin by focusing on lowering your risk for becoming the victim of a damaging prank or vandalism. From there, we will examine some security equipment to beef up your Halloween security measures. We’ll follow that up with a couple ideas for keeping your yard visible in case of sneaking vandals or crooks. Finally, we will also look at a couple general tips to increase awareness levels for suspicious activity. Let’s begin with a look at ways you can remain proactive about potential Halloween pranks.

A house with pumpkins decorating the yard

Beware that pumpkins make popular weapons for Halloween pranks if you plan on decorating with them during this time of year.

Be Proactive About Preventing Pranks

Taking simple steps to make your home a less attractive target can go a long way in avoiding pranks. For example, keep your car in your garage rather than the driveway or street on Halloween if at all possible. Many people walk around the neighborhood on Halloween, making it easier than usual for someone to key your car without detection. Clean up any heavy or potentially damaging decorations when you go to bed. Pumpkins make especially popular items to smash or even to throw through windows.

Also consider removing decorations that troublemakers may want to vandalize, or at least keep them as close to the house as possible. While some Halloween-related pranks do more damage than others, making it as hard as possible for others to victimize your home creates the greatest amount of Halloween security. Now, let’s look at some security equipment that can help you accomplish this goal.

Install Equipment that Adds Halloween Security

We offer many security solutions that come in especially handy during this prank-filled season. We’ll begin this section by looking at adding equipment that adds security to your home’s entry points. From there, we will look at a couple options for adding exterior surveillance cameras. The presence of this technology can certainly help discourage tricksters from targeting your home. If something does happen, you can use the video captured to put together what happened, and when. Let’s begin with a focus on adding doorbell cameras to watch some of your home’s most vulnerable areas.

Doorbell Cameras

Over the past few years, doorbell cameras have gotten very popular very quickly. Our preferred doorbell camera comes packed with customizable security settings to add security to your own doors. If you have a security system monitored through our cellular dialer powered by Alarm.com, we can add a doorbell that interacts with your alarm quite easily. The Alarm.com cellular dialer already gives users the ability to arm and disarm their security systems remotely with a smartphone or tablet. Adding an Alarm.com doorbell camera also provides a video notification if someone rings the doorbell. At this point, you can engage in a conversation with the visitor. This comes in especially handy if the doorbell rings when you don’t expect visitors, or if the doorbell rings later at night than usual on Halloween and you want to view your late trick-or-treaters before opening the door.

An Alarm.com doorbell camera showing a smartphone user an image of a visitor

Installing an Alarm.com doorbell camera allows you to identify visitors immediately, even if you are away from the house.

Additionally, doorbell cameras allow you to view them remotely at any time. If your doorbell cameras sense motion, they will even capture and store a video for your later viewing. Furthermore, you can create a notification that alerts you immediately when these cameras sense motion. The ability to track activity around your doors make these an extremely popular way for homeowners to add Halloween security. Let’s look at another option to create video security to your home’s exterior.

Exterior Home Surveillance Cameras

As we mentioned in this section’s introduction, installing home surveillance cameras can act as a deterrent from pranksters and criminals alike. Many of our customers install exterior cameras to watch over their driveway, doorways, sheds and garages, and any other areas of interest. Many customers install Alarm.com smart cameras around their home. This provides them with the ability to set up the same types of alerts afforded by the Alarm.com doorbell camera. They also provide a relatively low price point compared with hardwired camera systems. However, hardwired surveillance systems also offer benefits of their own. Let’s take a closer look at this type of system to provide a comparison.

We often install high-quality, hardwired surveillance systems for homeowners. We install these cameras with a recorder that records video 24 hours a day. While we can connect these surveillance systems to your home network, they still operate independently from it. This means that glitches in your network will not affect a camera’s ability to capture video. For this reason, customers with the need for the most consistent surveillance available often go this route.

Additionally, the cameras included on this system tend to have a higher resolution than their Wifi-based counterparts. This allows users to get a closer view of what happens in front of their cameras. Of course, the additional recording equipment, installation of camera wiring, and higher-end cameras also make this option the more expensive of the two. We can always act as a resource for those looking to make a decision on their own home surveillance equipment. Now, let’s look at making sure that you keep the exterior of your house bright and uninviting to troublemakers on Halloween.

A house at night with no lights on

Leaving the exterior of your home completely dark always increases your odds of becoming a target for crime. Photo credit: mjmonty on Wikimedia Commons. Used under the CC BY 2.0 License.

Keep Your Home and Yard Visible Even if You Celebrate Halloween Elsewhere

You may remember our recent Tips for Better Vacation Home Security. In that post, we discussed the importance of “maintaining appearances” for your vacation home’s exterior in your absence. After all, a home that is clearly vacant makes a much more likely target for burglary. On Halloween night, the same concept holds true. Many homeowners keep their lights on to indicate a good stop for trick-or-treaters. Conversely, turning the lights off acts as a signal to let families know the house is empty.

While it may result in a few trick-or-treating families ringing your doorbell for naught, keeping the exterior of your home well-lit can make it less obvious that your home is empty on Halloween, and thus make you a less obvious target for a prankster, vandal, or burglar. Additionally, keeping exterior lights on also allows passersby to see your doors and yard. On a night when a dark home clearly indicates an empty home, houses without lighting can turn into low-hanging fruit for troublemakers. We recommend taking steps to keep your entire yard visible on Halloween, even if you celebrate elsewhere. Now, let’s take a look at one more security tip for the Halloween season.

Maintain a Close Watch in the Days and Weeks After Halloween

Halloween offers both friendly and not-so-friendly characters alike the chance to stroll around the neighborhood. Burglars have the opportunity to mingle around neighborhoods and check out several houses for potential later crimes. Teenagers who might be bold enough to break in to a home may even see a television set or other item of interest while trick or treating with friends or younger siblings. Keep an eye out for suspicious activity both during and immediately following Halloween night. Also, remember that installing some of the security equipment mentioned earlier can help you keep an eye on your house in the days following Halloween.

Creating a Complete Plan to Improve Halloween Security

We hope that this post helps you increase Halloween security in your own home. If you have any questions about the material in this post, we encourage you to contact us. We provide free site surveys for both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any security concerns you may have. Additionally, we can add our own security insights to increase security during this time of year and all year long. We would love to work with you and your family to make the entire household feel as safe and secure as possible.