The holidays bring joy, happiness, and all-around good cheer, but they also bring out the phone scammers, porch pirates, and petty thieves. Madison Police Captain Doug Harkins is making some recommendations for residents to help lessen the odds of being a victim of one of these crimes this season.

According to Harkins, the first action residents can take to keep from being a victim of a crime is to make sure they lock their cars and to keep packages and those presents in your trunk or out of sight. These simple recommendations can thwart most of the petty car crimes that have been reported by almost every shoreline town in recent months.

Harkins said Madison’s number of car break-ins appear to be ebbing, but several other area towns are still experiencing this crime. According to Harkins, car break-ins tend be cyclical and will periodically rise or fall in most municipalities, but simple safety measures can go a long way to preventing this type of crime.

“As far as the car break ins, we’ve actually had a little bit of a reduction. There was a little bit of spike during the summer. We met with the community at our police commission meetings and have a campaign along the lines of educating the public to lock their cars and not keep your key fob in the car,” said Harkins. “What happens is that frustrates a lot of thieves. We’ve actually seen this on Ring cameras, where thieves will approach a car door in a driveway and test the door. When the door is locked, they leave. More times than not they don’t smash the window to try and get into a vehicle the hard way—they want the easy steal. But if they find an open door, they will press the button to see if it starts, if it does, they steal the car. If not, then they look for valuables to steal and then they’re on to the next driveway.”

Harkins said a recent education program in town, including digital signs reminding residents to “Lock it, or Lose It” have been effective is decreasing the number of vehicle thefts and break ins.

“We had this campaign with the public and we came together with the public…and we have seen that people are locking their doors more and we have seen a reduction in car thefts, a significant one. It is really going well, see we are crossing our fingers that this will continue,” Harkins said.

There have also been several phone scams reported in area towns, including Madison, in recent weeks. Some of these scammers are not only purporting to be police looking for bail money, but have “spoofed” actual police phone numbers, making the caller ID seem legitimate.

“We definitely get our share of phone scams here in town,” Harkins said. “Certainly, never give away any personal information, certainly not your Social Security number or your date of birth, unless you are sure of the person you are talking to. If you think even for a moment that a call is suspicious, get a number from them and see if you can call them back.”

Harkins recommends residents contact police if they receive a suspicious call. Though there is often little that can be done as far as prosecution, the information provided to police can assist them in monitoring and alerting other residents.

“Always, if you feel it’s suspicious, call the police and we will certainly conduct an investigation. Some of these investigations are a little more difficult because some of these scams originate from outside the country, so they can be difficult to follow through with, but definitely alert law enforcement,” said Harkins. “That lets us get information out to the public and make residents aware.”

According to government officials, the IRS never contacts taxpayers via phone or email. Its correspondence is via USPS mail service only. According to Harkins, local police departments will rarely, if ever, contact residents via phone for donations and will never call demanding payment with a threat of arrest.

According to Harkins, though the town hasn’t seen a spike in package thefts, residents should also be vigilant with shipments and articles left outside the home. Harkins said that many of the major shipping companies have put measures in place to mitigate package theft, but recommends speaking to company drivers about leaving packages in a particular spot to minimize visibility or theft.

“They can also speak to their driver. If you see the same driver over and over again, ask him or her if they can leave packages in a certain spot for you. They are usually more than happy to do that,” said Harkins. “[Residents] can also do the neighborly thing—if they see a neighbor’s package down by the mailbox, maybe they can grab it and hold onto it for their neighbor. Doing the neighborly thing and looking out for one another is a great thing to do.”

Harkins also reminds residents to be smart this holiday season and be safe when celebrating. Drinking and driving—and smoking and driving, now that cannabis is legal in the state—continue to be a troubling issue for all area law enforcement.

“Certainly, we don’t want people drinking and driving. In this day and age, there are so many ways to avoid that. Utilize Uber if you feel that you are going out and drinking more that you feel you should. Or just stay at home,” he said. “We know that people will be out seeing family and friends, but we want residents to be careful. If you’re driving, try and have a designated driver, or if you don’t have one, just utilize a drive service or something along those lines. It’s simple: Don’t drink and get behind the wheel or do so under the influence of marijuana. Don’t turn a holiday into something tragic. We want everyone to safely enjoy the holidays.”