Police Are Urging Women To Practice ‘Safe Shopping’ When Buying Gifts This Holiday Season

It’s common knowledge that holiday shopping, depending on when you go, can be incredibly frustrating and hectic. It’s also collectively understood that a lot of theft and robbery go down during the holiday season, and none of us ever want to be caught in that situation where we are the ones getting stolen from.

In light of the impending holiday shopping season, the Windham, New Hampshire Police Department has shared a couple of tips, specifically for women, when they go off to do their holiday shopping this year. Among some of the suggestions are keeping their purses closed, zipped, and secured to a shopping cart by hooking the child safety straps through the purse handles.

Additionally, for women who are practicing those ‘safe shopping’ tips, the police department has urged women to carry a carabiner clip (as shown in the photo above) in case there are no child straps present on the cart. This will ensure that your purse will be secured to the cart and unable to be snatched away by a potential thief.

In addition to this one post that has gone viral from this police department, other law enforcement agencies have provided additional tips for women to practice safe shopping during the holiday season.

• Parking in busy, well-lit areas and avoiding parking garages
• Staying alert of your surroundings and ensuring your vehicle is locked
• Storing shopping bags in your car’s trunk so they aren’t visible through the windows
• Shopping with friends or only during daylight hours
• Carrying only small amounts of cash and keeping it in a front pocket
• Notifying your credit card company immediately if your card is lost or stolen
• Staying wary of strangers who approach you for any reason

Holiday theft is no joke. It happens all around retail stores and can even happen to you. Yes, you, the person reading this. It’s too easy for someone to just snatch your wallet out of your purse while you aren’t looking, or grab your purse altogether and make a run for it.

This even expands to holiday home theft, especially for those who are receiving packages to their home on their front porch. In 2017, a study concluded that 26 million Americans were affected by what they call ‘Porch Pirates’, otherwise known as people who steal holiday packages right off your front porch. This percentage has increased since 2015 when it was 23.5 million Americans.

It has been suggested that in order to ensure your front porch packages are safe, to provide delivery instructions (i.e. where to deliver the package so it is out of sight from street view) or simply have it delivered to a post office location where you can pick it up yourself. Other important package safety tips can be viewed here.

So, this holiday season, be sure to follow these safe shopping tips to ensure that you (and your loved one’s gifts) are safe this year.

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