Ready For Vacation? Don't Forget To Protect Your Home

BLUEFIELD (Sunday, June 12, 2005) - Your family vacation needn't be a coming home party for burglars.

While you cruise the highways, hoodlums may patrol your neighborhood streets for homes that look dark and unlived in.

Before you load the car with belongings, take time to protect the items you leave behind.

There are obvious precautions to remove telltale signs you're gone. Stop daily delivery services so newspapers don't pile up at the door or mail won't overflow the postbox. According to Jim Young of Housedoctors.com, "Vacation planning is really a lot of common sense stuff. You walk through the house room by room and decide 'how can we do the best job of protecting our property?'"


The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department also suggests you exhibit signs of life. Ask a trusted neighbor to water potted plants and vegetable or flower gardens. Prying eyes know homeowners seldom allow plants or carefully tended gardens to wither.

As long as you're asking for neighborly help, give the neighbor your itinerary, cell phone number and e-mail address. Ask, too, to have circulars removed from doorknobs or check for package deliveries. (Don't forget to thank them with a bottle of wine or other gift upon your return.)

Houses perpetually dark mean the lights are off and nobody's home. Young advises the use of variable timers to turn lamps on during evening hours. Plug the TV into a separate timer for late evening hours; the blue cast from the screen (bring the volume up a notch) is a sign of household normalcy. Usually, curtains are open but it's OK to be closed in the TV room. Position boxes of cereal, nonperishable snack foods or tableware on kitchen tables in plain view.

Pluck spare keys from beneath door mats or other hiding places. Store jewelry and other valuables in a safe deposit box.

It won't hurt to have a third set of watchful eyes to keep track of things. If your community is small enough, tell local police you'll be gone, or hire local security services to drive by your home on a short-term basis during evening rounds.

Higher up on the protection scale are house-sitters and electronic security services. You could pay $40-$75 per night for someone to stay at your home. That price moves upward if they are in the home during daylight hours. In-home security is a good idea not only for vacation trips but as year round protection. If you already have a security service, call it with your vacation timetable.

Some more tips:

- For less than $30 you can install motion detectors on outside floodlights at both the front and rear of the home.

- Etch your driver's license number (not your Social Security number) on TVs, appliances and other goods. In the event of a break-in, this can make recovery somewhat easier.

- Trim bushes or plants that obscure doors and windows or offer safe hiding spots for criminals.

- Install deadbolt locks. Installation kits are inexpensive. Buy key-operated locks without inside knobs. Remove the key. Thugs who reach through broken door glass can't turn the knob to open the door.

- Foil thieves who jimmy locks on sliding doors. Cut dowels to length and place behind the slider to stop the door from opening.

- Padlock outbuildings or storage sheds where ladders might be stored.

- Cover basement window wells. Consider covering basement windows with plywood. This provides a visual deterrent.

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