Make Sure Your Kids Stay Safe This Halloween

Trick or treating will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday in Mentor, and while it can be a lot of fun, it can also be unsafe if kids and parents aren't careful.

Marilyn Satterfield, the crime prevention officer for , says the tips for staying safe on Halloween haven't changed much since she was a kid.

However, they always merit repeating this time of year.

So, without further ado, Satterfield offers these suggestions for keeping your kids safe while trick or treating:

• Go in a group, and make sure a group with young kids always has at least one adult.

"Sometimes, the parents stay home and hand out candy while the kds go trick or treating and that's not always the safest thing," Satterfield said.

• Stick to neighborhoods you know.
• Stay on the sidewalks and wear something motorists can see, like reflective tape.
• Similarly, make sure your kid can see all right in his or her costume.
• Agree on a meeting place -- a car or someone's house -- just in case the worst happens and someone gets separated from the group.
• Don't accept homemade treats unless you know and trust the person making them.
• Check your kids' candy before they eat it. (We know, we know. Tainted candy isn't commonplace. But it only takes a moment to make sure that it's safe.)
• Don't eat unwrapped candy.
• If a piece of candy looks particularly suspicious, you can call Mentor Police at 440-974-6760 or even bring it by the station. If somebody's giving your kid bad candy, they're probably giving it to everybody else's kid, also.
• Don't be afraid to call police if you see something you think is suspicious and potentially criminal. Don't wait until the next morning.
• Have fun! (But don't try to eat all of your candy at once.)
• Oh, and don't let your teen leave the house with four cartons of eggs and a dozen rolls of toilet paper. They're probably not working on an art project.