VIDEO: Grinch Proof Your Gifts

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s the giving season, but there are some greedy grinches out there, and burglaries are a big problem.

That’s why it’s important to know how to protect your presents.

Gifts are already being unwrapped, and more empty gift boxes will be thrown out this week.

Police say it’s a big sign for someone ready to take what you just got out from under the Christmas tree.

Fifty-two burglaries in November, that’s according to the latest monthly report by the Columbus Police Department.

“Christmas holidays, usually everybody is in a crunch for all different types, for money or something else, and it’s also an opportunity. There’s more people out shopping, and there’s more people out spending money, and that also gives the burglars an opportunity to prey on somebody that normally probably wouldn’t be burglarized,” says CPD Investigations Commander, Captain Brent Swan.

Swan says burglary numbers ebb and flow.

“Sometimes, they spike certain months, and they’ll go down. Over the last few weeks, they’ve actually decreased from the month of November, so we’ve been working hard on trying to target locations where we’ve been having a lot of burglaries, and things of that nature. We’ve been sending extra patrol officers there also.”

Swan says to put things out of sight from thieves, letting them see as little as possible.

“When you set it out on the street corner, and whether it be a brand new TV box, or whatever, a would be thief that may live in your area, that’s just giving him even more intention or more motivation to go and possibly burglarize your home.”

After putting the boxes away, take pictures of your valuable items and email them to yourself or a loved one.

“If you have a television inside your home, if you get a brand new TV and you’ve got the serial number, when we come out and take a report on it, we can enter it in on the NCIC, which is the National Crime Information Center, and if anybody comes across that TV, even years from then, they can identify that as being the TV that actually came out of your home.”

Swan also says it’s important to be careful when it comes to posting on social media.

Specifically, posting pictures of gifts and your out of town plans, can put you and your family at risk of crime.

Avoid posting pictures of things like TV’s, guns, and jewelry. When you do, you’re advertising what’s in your home.