Your trash could make you a target for thieves.
Now that you’ve opened your Christmas or Hanukkah gifts, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office is warning homeowners about leaving the big boxes they came in out on the curb.
JSO warns that those boxes could be like an advertisement for burglars.
“There are thieves that specifically wait until after Christmas to go into neighborhoods looking for those items,” said Action News Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson.
Southside Jacksonville homeowner Ryan Harris said he peeled all the labels off his boxes before putting them on the curb.
“You get the thieves that come around and they spot the boxes, so they know what you got,” said Harris. “They understand there’s new stuff in there, so it gives them an opportunity to want to break in.”
JSO tweeted its own strategy, recommending homeowners break down the boxes their high-price gifts came in and then put them inside black garbage bags.
Jefferson said what people post on social media may be just as dangerous.
“People want to show off what they got for Christmas and post certain pictures and things like that. My advice is not to do it,” said Jefferson.
He said that’s because it’s not always friends looking at your posts.