With warmer weather comes better conditions for criminals.

Stuart Police Sergeant Katie Guisinger says that as winter weather leaves and temperatures begin to rise, criminals start to become more active. She adds that buildings further from houses, like sheds or barns may be targeted during thefts before more heavily trafficked areas. Sergeant Guisinger tells Raccoon Valley Radio about a few things that can help deter burglars.

“Motion lights are usually a pretty inexpensive way. You don’t have to spend electricity all the time to keep it lit up. But if someone’s walking down a dark alley, or maybe you’ve got a back shed kind of way back in your yard, you put some lights up there, so as soon as someone steps into that path, all of a sudden your shed’s lit up, your building’s lit up. Same thing, cameras are pretty standard technology anymore. They’re not too expensive, that’s an additional thing you could look at.”

Sergeant Guisinger adds that regularly checking buildings to make sure they’re locked and secured can also help. She mentions that if you see something that doesn’t look right, like maybe someone you haven’t seen before acting suspicious around a neighbor’s house or one of your buildings, go ahead and call it in to law enforcement and they can check it out.