The weeks around the holidays are the busiest of the year for break-ins, and it isn’t hard to see why. Houses sit empty while families travel. Parcels pile up on porches. It’s dark by half past four. And there are more high-value items inside a home in December than at any other point in the year.

The good news is that most of what deters a break-in is straightforward and can be sorted out in an afternoon. Here’s what we recommend to Ottawa homeowners before the season gets going.

Deal with the porch first

Package theft is the most common property crime a lot of neighbourhoods see all season. Parcels sit visible from the sidewalk for hours, and it takes about four seconds to walk up and take one.

A video doorbell is the single highest-value thing you can add here. It gives you a notification the moment something is delivered — or the moment someone approaches — and lets you speak to whoever’s at the door from wherever you are. Most porch thefts end the second someone realises they’re being recorded and spoken to.

If you’re travelling, arrange for a neighbour to collect deliveries, or hold parcels at a pickup location. A doorbell camera tells you a package arrived; it can’t bring it inside.

Cover the entrances that matter

You don’t need a camera on every wall. You need clear coverage of the ways in:

• Front door and driveway — the most common approach, and the most useful footage if something happens
• Back door or patio door — often the actual point of entry, because it’s out of sight
• Side gate or the path between houses — the route people use when they don’t want to be seen from the street
• Garage — tools, bikes, and a second door into the house

Mount cameras high enough to be out of reach but angled low enough to capture faces rather than the tops of heads. That angle is the difference between footage that identifies someone and footage that just proves something happened.

Be able to check in from away

If you’re going to be gone for a week, remote viewing changes the trip. Being able to open an app from a hotel room and see that everything is normal is worth a lot — and if a motion alert comes in at two in the morning, you can look before you decide whether to call anyone.

Before you leave, actually test it. Open the app on the data connection you’ll be using, confirm live view loads, confirm alerts arrive on your phone. Finding out your notifications were switched off is much better done from your kitchen than from another province.

Light the dark hours

Ottawa is dark from mid-afternoon through the whole holiday stretch. Motion-activated lighting at the front door, the back door, and along the driveway does real work — a light coming on unexpectedly is one of the few things that reliably makes someone leave.

Pair it with cameras and you also get much better night footage, because most cameras produce far more usable images with some light than in full infrared.

Make the house look lived in

An empty-looking house is the target. A house that seems occupied usually isn’t worth the risk.

• Put a few interior lights on smart plugs or timers with varied schedules — not the same lamp at the same minute every night
• Have someone clear the driveway after a snowfall; an untouched driveway after a storm announces that nobody’s home
• Stop mail and newspaper delivery, or have a neighbour collect them
• Don’t post the trip on social media until you’re back
• Keep gift boxes out of the recycling at the curb — an empty TV box tells everyone what’s inside

A five-minute pre-trip checklist

• All doors and windows locked, including the garage service door
• Alarm armed and phone alerts confirmed working
• Cameras online and recording, live view tested remotely
• Lighting schedules set
• Deliveries held or redirected
• A neighbour who knows you’re away and has a key

None of this requires a monitoring contract or a complicated system. Cameras, a video doorbell, sensible lighting, and alerts on your phone cover the great majority of what actually happens — which is exactly the approach behind our home security systems in Ottawa.

Want it sorted before you travel? Call AV Geeks at 613-627-0660.