Avoiding a Halloween disaster

Jay ValenciaContributor - October 25, 2021

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With Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to share some of the safety tips that I have used over the years. Maybe it’s a bit overkill, but I haven’t lost a child to Halloween yet. There are tips that all can benefit from, those with children and those who will just stay home.

• Take your children trick or treating to known houses of people you trust.
• Check the sex offender registry and avoid those houses when trick or treating. Download the NSOPW app from your app store to see a map of houses to avoid wherever you go.
• Go out early and go home early. As the night goes on, people get drunk, it gets darker, and the older kids are out and about pulling tricks.
• Tell people which routes you will be walking and when you will be home.
• Inspect candy for any that have been tampered with by squeezing the packaging. If there isn’t a little bubble of air, it might have been opened. Look for any candy that your child may have a food allergy.
• One of the biggest dangers during Halloween is cars. If your three year old is running around in a black gorilla suit, it will be hard for a car to see them. Make safety fun for them by buying glow in the dark paint, using reflective tape, create a costume with LED lights, or a cheap option is buying packs of glow stick bracelets and necklaces from the dollar store. Make your children as visible as possible.
• If possible, avoid wearing masks that can obscure your vision.
• Drive slow and have your lights on as you are going around the next few days.
• Charge up and bring a headlight or flashlight when going around with your children.
• Print off your contact information and pin it to the inside of your child’s treat bag and costume. If they get lost, they can show that to someone to help reunite you.
• Before going out, make sure your and your child’s cell phones are completely charged and you have settings like Find My iPhone turned on.
• Take pictures of your children with and without their costumes on right before they go out, this can be used to show people or the police a description of your child if they get lost. Don’t make it scary for them and tell them it’s in case they get lost, just mention how you want it as memory. Do the same for your teenagers, no matter how much they complain and whine. Things happen unfortunately.
• If you are handing out candy, have some pepper spray close by the door in case you have some drunk teenagers come by that try and cause trouble and enter your house. Again, things happen, be prepared.
• Pull the jack o lanterns in when you are done handing out candy for the night and you turn your porch light off. Unless you want to pick up pumpkin guts from teenagers going around pumpkin smashing.
• Make sure any security cameras and home alarm systems are armed are working properly a couple days before and after Halloween.
• Do an extra security sweep around your property and house. Make sure all windows, doors, and padlocks are secured. People are just out and about looking for trouble.
• Bring a small first aid kit with you when trick or treating, running around in the dark can lead to some injuries. Have it nearby as well when carving pumpkins.
• If you are sick or think you have COVID, please do not go out trick or treating or hand out candy. There will be many more holidays you can enjoy, take it easy and watch a scary movie at home.

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I’m taking my nephews Trick-or-treating 🎃  this year for my sister and am grateful for these tips. I’ll pick up some glow sticks for them before we start our night and that should be fun.

How often is vandalism for everyone else? We have just been tp’d once by some naughty Charmin bandits.

 

Just had our pumpkins smashed once two or three days after Halloween. I think it was someone’s way of saying that they were getting sad looking and it was time to retire them.

I’ve heard of some people getting potato pearled though. Potato pearls are small round dried balls of potatoes that you add hot water to for rehydration and instant potatoes. What vandals would do is spread potato pearls in your yard and then when your sprinklers would go off, it would rehydrate and swell up all the potato pearls and your yard would be a mushy potato mess. Truly messed up..

 

I guess a bright spot in the whole COVID mess is that no one will be getting TP’d this year – TP is now too precious! 🙂

 

You are right about that!!! 🤣 I can’t even buy more than one pack a day at my stores.

 

When we go trick or treating instead of zig zagging across the street between each house, we go all the way up one side of the street, cross, then go all the way down the other side. We try and stay on the sidewalk as much as possible and avoid the street.

 

Trick-or-treating went well and I used some of your tips! We went out early so I didn’t actually need to use the flashlight, but brought it with me and was prepared. 

Another thing that I thought of as I was walking out of the door was to bring along some Walmart grocery sacks with me in my pocket. The trick-or-treat buckets quickly filled up above overflowing and the night was able to continue as I carried their excess in a Walmart sack. Plus, I got to sneak a few pieces when they weren’t looking 😈