Going on Vacation – Burglar-proof your home!

This story was written by Alison Bell.

August is one of the biggest months for home robberies, but experts say you can keep your home safe when you are away by:

1) Doing some landscaping: Trim hedges or trees that obscure your home from the street. Burglars look for houses that they can enter without being seen.

2) Rounding up spare keys: Burglars know exactly where to find those spare keys you’ve left hidden outside! “No matter how clever your hiding place, they’ve thought of it,” warns Lauren Russ, of the Burglary Prevention Council.

3) Clearing your answering machine while you are away: “A full voice mail box is a sure sign you’re traveling,” says Robert Siciliano, author of The Safety Minute. No wonder savvy burglars call before they enter a house to see if the voice mail is full.

4) Borrowing a car: Burglars are always on the look-out for an empty driveway or a car that sits for days in the same spot. Simple resolution? “Ask a neighbor to park in your driveway or to move your car every few days,” Russ advises.

5) Faking them out: Homes without security systems are three times more likely to be broken into. But studies show that just putting stickers on your windows that say you’re protected is an effective deterrent, Russ notes. Find them online at: http://www.home-security-signs.com/

Did you know that a recent study revealed that 12% of burglaries occur through an unlocked door? Lock it or lose it!

Lucy’s notes: Whenever we go out of town for a few days we always have someone pick up our mail and news papers. I don’t know how many times I have seen newspapers piled up in the yard and think to myself that they must be out of town.
I will ask a neighbor to feed our animals. With our dog in the back yard, it looks like we are home. It is also advisable to use timed lighting switches to turn the lights off and on at certain times of the day or night. You might also leave a radio on so that it sounds like someone is home. If you are going to be gone of more than a week then you might want to hire someone to cut your grass and edge. One last note, If you can get someone to stay at your house while you are gone it also helps.