Police: do not advertise your gifts to thieves

You just took them out of their wrapping paper, now it's time to hide your Christmas gifts again.

Birmingham Police are warning you tonight not to make yourselves a target for thieves who may be doing their shopping by driving by the garbage on your curb.

Driving around the streets of Homewood on Monday, a FOX6 crew went looking for boxes that might make attractive targets for thieves.

“My wife is very adamant about breaking boxes down and putting them out with our recycling, but no, we do not advertise our purchases,” said John Meacham, a Homewood homeowner.

Meacham says he knows better, but one of his neighbors obviously doesn't. We found the box for a new Sony Bravia TV sitting on a corner near Central Avenue in Homewood. But Meacham pointed out, this isn't right in front of someone's home.

“This is kind of a community area to dispose of boxes so folks from the condominiums do congregate so it would be tough to tell who's TV that is,” Meacham said. “To my knowledge, I've lived in the neighborhood 22 years and I could not tell you who's TV that is.”

“Typically during this time period thefts are up however over the last few years we've done an excellent job at trying to counter that by stepping up patrols and doing measures to prevent these burglaries and thefts,” said Sgt. Alonzo Benning of the Birmingham Police Department.

Birmingham police say their patrol units are on the lookout this week for thieves and for potential victims who may be inside playing on their new Xbox or watching their new flatscreen, not knowing they've got a bullseye painted on their curb.

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