By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS
lmunnings@tribunemedia.net
POLICE have warned people to be more vigilant and take the necessary precautions to avoid becoming victims of crime this Christmas season.
Press liaison officer Chief Superintendent Chrislyn Skippings told reporters on the sidelines of an event yesterday that she cannot “definitively” say whether crime has increased leading into the Christmas season, however, she offered words of advice to locals.
CSP Skippings urged Bahamians to discard Christmas gifts in a proper manner to avoid being targeted during this holiday season.
She said: “If the Bahamian people are not wise on how they go through this Christmas season, they can find themselves or their homes being broken into, by them not taking the proper steps in discarding gifts that may have been received over the Christmas holiday.
“What we found over the years that has assisted criminals is that after the Christmas holiday, after persons have already opened their gifts, they have a tendency to place all of the boxes that those gifts came in, right at their garbage.
“And so those persons with deviant mindset, traverse the neighbourhoods and they can tell exactly what it is that you would have received for Christmas,” she added.
CSP Skipping encouraged people to discard the gift boxes by “cutting them up” or disposing of them at the nearest dumpster site, rather than placing them outside of the garbage receptacles of their homes.
She also suggested that residents keep their blinds closed as an additional step to avoid being a victim of crime, as she said Bahamians are refusing to take the necessary precautions.
“I would like to say in order for crime to occur three things must be present,” she told reporters yesterday.
“You must have a suitable target, the opportunity must present itself, and there must be something of value.
“If you remove one of those from the equation, crime can’t cannot occur,” she continued.
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