One man's trash could become a burglar's treasure.
Duncanville police are warning residents not to leave holiday boxes and gift wrapping in their trash piles, because it can tip off what's inside the house to bad guys.
"(I) did not think about it at all. You know, everybody just puts their trash out and (lets) it get picked up," resident Ross Jordan said.
Jordan said he guilty of leaving the packaging of high-end electronics in his trash pile.
"We had the box sitting out there for a couple, three days," he said. ""It said, 'Mitsubishi flat panel,' and that's probably a $5,000 TV."
"You're setting it out on the curb for the recycler or the trash man; now you're advertising to everybody what you have in your house," Officer Doug Sisk said.
Duncanville police said residents should break down boxes and put them in plastic trash bags so burglars can't easily see what was unwrapped inside.
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Jordan said he plans to follow the advice so a Grinch doesn't steal his Christmas.
"I won't leave mine like that anymore. That's just a dead tipoff," he said.
Duncanville police also said residents can look for cardboard and paper recycle containers at certain churches and schools.
