- Once the clocks fall back, most people get home after dark. Burglars know it, and evening break-ins climb through the fall.
- The fall checklist: lighting, sensor batteries, camera angles for deliveries, holiday travel settings, and getting your monitoring account current before you leave town.
- Certified Protection can do a fall system check-up in an hour. Call 732-346-5333.
Why Fall Is Different
Summer gets the attention because of vacations, and we covered that in our summer burglary post. Fall has its own pattern. When daylight saving ends in early November, the commute home happens in the dark. A house with no lights on at 5:30pm is a house nobody is in, and that is visible from the street. Add the start of package season and Thanksgiving travel and you have the busiest stretch of the year for both break-ins and porch theft in New Jersey.
1. Fix the Lighting Before the Clocks Change
Put exterior lights on dusk-to-dawn sensors or a schedule tied to your alarm app. Motion floods over the driveway and back door. Inside, at least one lamp on a timer or smart plug so the house looks occupied at 6pm. This is the cheapest item on the list and the one most people skip.
2. Check Sensor Batteries and Test the System
Wireless door and window sensors run on batteries that last two to five years and tend to start failing in the same season they were installed. Walk the house, open every protected door and window with the system in test mode, and confirm each one reports. If your keypad shows a low battery or trouble light you have been ignoring since spring, now is the time. If you are not sure how to run a test, call us and we will do it with you over the phone or send a tech.
3. Point a Camera at the Porch
Package theft in NJ climbs from October through December. A doorbell camera or a camera covering the front steps with a clear view of faces and the street does two things: it deters, and it gives police something to work with. Our guide on stopping porch pirates in NJ has placement specifics, and the home camera placement post covers the rest of the property.
4. Clear Sightlines
Trim shrubs below window height and cut back anything that hides a side door. Falling leaves also pile against basement windows and motion detectors outside can be triggered by blowing debris, so check that exterior sensors are aimed correctly and not creating false alarms. Speaking of which, if you have had false trips this year, read our post on NJ false alarm fines before your town sends a bill.
5. Set Up the House for Holiday Travel
- Update your emergency contact list with the central station. If your neighbor moved or your brother changed his number, dispatch is calling the wrong people.
- Pause deliveries or have a neighbor collect them. A stack of boxes is a vacancy sign.
- Use vacation mode in your alarm app so you get notified on any activity, not just alarms.
- Ask us to add a temporary user code for a house sitter or pet sitter instead of handing out your master code.
- Consider adding low temperature and water sensors. A frozen pipe over a long weekend does more damage than most burglaries.
The full list is in our vacation security checklist.
6. Heating Season Means Smoke and CO
Furnaces come on, fireplaces get lit, and space heaters come out of the closet. Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and if yours are not tied into the alarm system, ask about monitored smoke and CO. A monitored detector calls the fire department whether you are home or not. Standalone detectors just make noise.
7. If You Just Moved In
Fall is peak closing season in New Jersey. If you bought a house with an existing alarm system, do not assume it works or that anyone is monitoring it. The previous owner's account was almost certainly closed. Our post on taking over an existing alarm system explains what can be reused. In most cases we can get an inherited system live again in a single visit.
We are a family owned company in Edison serving homeowners across Middlesex, Monmouth, Union, Somerset, Essex, and Morris counties. Call 732-346-5333 or use the form below to schedule a check-up before the clocks change.