The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department shares proper Christmas disposal tips.

It’s the Day after Christmas, and several families are disposing any gift wrap or boxes in the trash, but not properly disposing them could cause the Grinch to steal Christmas.

“You have items like computers, guns, laptops, iPad, televisions anything high value like that is really best to break those boxes down and put them inside of a trash bag. When you put that out at the curb, you just advertise that you have a new whatever it is at home.”

Calhoun says this time of the year criminals are scoping out Christmas present boxes to see what houses might be good to break into.

“Having boxes out in the street or in some way there’s a notice almost that says hey: at this house, they have whatever it is a computer, television, whatever. Then, the bad guys start thinking about it and they say ok, that might be the best place we want to go.”

It’s not just the wanted presents you have to be concerned about, but it is also the ones that have to be returned too.

“It’s always best to keep things in trucks or areas that can’t be seen, you don’t want someone who might be walking through a parking lot where your vehicle is parked or even at your residence to see something; even if it’s in a bag, in their mind it’s something of value, or it could be, and again about that opportunity.”