After you’ve packed up your bags and filled your gas tank, it’s time to think of what you need to do to keep your home and possessions safe while you’re gone. While having a residential alarm system is by far the most effective deterrent, there are other ways to help ensure that your home is safe in your absence.
- Call the Post Office and Newspaper provider
Have you mail and newspapers withheld for the duration of your trip. This can “telegraph” to potential burglars that you are out of the house for days at a time.
- Place a window facing bathroom light on a timer
Most people place a timer on outdoor and front hall lighting to suggest to criminals that someone is in the house. While this is quite effective, experienced thieves will often ignore this due to the abundance of homes employing this tactic. The best room to place in a timer is a bathroom light. This light not only suggests that someone is home late at night, but that they are awake and active.
- Lock ALL of your doors and windows
While this should go without saying for outward facing doors, one should also lock interior doors as well. Most of crime prevention isn’t about making crime impossible, just too inconvenient to bother with. The more time they expect to spend in your house, the less likely they will be to stay. While it is preferable that no one breaks in at all, the secondary goal of your preparedness is to make sure the authorities are able to get there before the criminal leaves.
- Put a bar on your sliding glass door
Placing a bar in the interior space of your sliding glass door prevents it from being knocked off of its track. This is the most common way of circumventing the lock on a sliding door. If you don’t want to buy a bar made for this purpose then you can quite easily use a wooden dowel rod or even a broom handle for the same purpose
- Mow your lawn
Mow your lawn before your trip. If it grows to an unmanageable length it could be taken as a sign that you aren’t home. If necessary, hire a lawn service to maintain it in your absence.
- Designate an Emergency Contact
Be sure that a neighbor or friend has your contact information as well as those of all the services you employ in your home (security, pool, yard, plumber, etc.)
- Don’t post about your vacation on social media
No one is asking that you don’t tell your friends all the amazing things you did on vacation; just don’t post about it until you get back. This information is, more often than not, visible to people beyond your friends and family.
With Spring Break in full swing and Easter weekend on its way, we hope you all use this information to prevent any unwelcome surprises when you get home. Safe travels!