It is that time of year when we lock up our cabins and trailers and call it a season.

The Cochrane RCMP is reminding the public to take extra precautions while winterizing your seasonal homes.

Corporal Troy Savinkoff says that theft from trailers, in particular, is more common than we realize.

"We do find that when a lot of people winterize their trailers quite often they store them at several different locations throughout the county and different areas," says Savinkoff. "They will get broken into and valuables stolen when they're being stored. The advantage to criminals on that is that quite often people don't realize that their stuff has been broken into until they check on it."

Savinkoff strongly recommends making it a priority to check on your stored trailers frequently throughout the winter months. He says it's important that we take away the opportunity for criminals to thrive from the valuables we've left behind. 

"I would like people to remove all electronics, anything of value so that there isn't that incentive for criminals to break in during the off-season." 

Savinkoff says that if there's no obvious temptation, criminals will simply move on.

When it comes to cabins, implementing some of the same safety measures that we do in our homes is recommended. It's important to make sure all doors and windows are locked up, and you may want to look into some additional security.

Having lights on a timer helps to add the illusion that someone is regularly there and putting in an alarm system complete with stickers advertising it will also help to deter thieves.