Protect Your Home from Halloween Pranks and Vandalism

Protect Your Home from Halloween Pranks and Vandalism

Don't want egg all over your doors? Follow these simple steps for minimizing damage on Halloween.

1. Treat visitors kindly. The biggest reason that people tend to attack your home on Halloween is that you might be avoiding giving them candy. If you show yourself to be a welcoming neighbor, you might not get vandalized.
2. Pretend you are not in. If you decide to ignore trick-or-treaters, make sure you make people think you just aren't home. People probably won't attack your house if they don't think you are there. Turn off the main lights, shut the curtains and pretend you aren't there.
3. Tape up the letterbox, the only point of entry to your house. This prevents things like stink bombs, etc.
4. If you have the choice of parking your vehicles behind your house or next to the street, pick behind your house. This prevents drive-by egging.
5. Hide in a bush with a hose. If you see someone who is going to vandalize your house aim and fire. Also you could use a air soft gun with low fps so it will not hurt or a water gun.
6. If you have to go somewhere, ask someone who is not doing anything to do the above step for you.
7. Have a big dog tied up in front of your house. Be sure the leash isn't too short.
8. Stand in front of your house looking big and scary.
9. Put a sign or something that says something like this. "You vandalize, you don't get candy."
10. If you are a police officer, stay in uniform all night.
11. Freak the pranksters out! Hide behind bushes or leave a hidden tape of you saying "I see you..." Beware as this may drive people away.

If you follow the above steps, the worst thing that can happen is that the front of your house get a little messy/smelly. This is sad, but not the end of the world, and remember, Halloween is supposed to be fun!! This isn't so much protecting your home as it is taking "aggressive-defensive" measures. If your house has already been targeted and vandalized several times on Halloween, or even in general, you should probably call the police. Especially, don't forget Halloween is a fun tradition. Some pranks are tolerable, such as foam in the mailbox (or anywhere else), the toilet paper routine (it is biodegradable) or any other unharmful acts. However, do not tolerate eggs, guns, paintball guns, rocks, paint, mustard on the car and graffiti. Be especially wary at night time, when "older kids" come out. Their pranks are not as innocent as the "little kid" pranks. Bologna on your car will peel the paint off in circles when left out overnight so be diligent and check every so often for malicious tricks such as this

If, despite your precautions, your house does get vandalized, try not to tell anyone about it. Then, if someone happens to come up and ask you about the prank, you know they probably did it! (ps. this has happened! Don't knock it until you try it). Work with a group. Siblings, cousins, parents, friends, or just people you know and trust can help you. If you are working in a group, and you have walkie-talkies, give them out to each member of the group. If you don't have enough, or don't have any, ask a person in the group. If they don't have any, simple communication can work (taps, hand gestures, talking in a code). Make sure you have at least one person guarding each door, at least one person guarding each side, at least one person inside, and at least one person on the sidewalk. Also, make sure each member has someway to defend him/herself. Fists sometimes can't win against rocks, sticks, paintball guns, and eggs.

If you live in an area where you can expect passerby to be carrying weapons, you might be safer skipping the hose step. It is not recommended that you retaliate on an individual carrying a weapon, call the cops! Regarding the hose spray: do not spray someone unless you are really sure that they are going to vandalize your house. You must be sure of this. Make sure you are able to defend yourself if the trick-or-treaters have eggs or sticks. In a fight, sticks will beat bare fists.