This time every year, general security to prevent home invasion is a concern of mine. My boys are addicted to Home Alone {the movie} right now and I guess that has really made me paranoid. {snicker}
I’ve always wanted to know what I should do to ‘lock up’ my house when I go on vacation.  I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in asking this question.  I think that a lot of people, particularly mothers and fathers of young families often wonder how to ensure the protection of their homes when they are away.
Since this is a topic that I’ve always wondered about, I welcomed the advice of experts on keeping one’s home safe. Â Here’s what they said,
“Of course, there are a number of steps that can be taken in general to ensure the safety of a home. For example, you always want to make sure that your doors and windows are locked, and you may even want to look into a Home Security System like Protection One, if you feel that your protection could be more adequate”.
Prevent Home Invasion
Besides getting an alarm system, I wanted to know some of the things that I can do to get my home ready to leave unattended. They gave me these three tips:
- The easiest possible way to get into a home is through an open window or a door without a lock. These will leave your house vulnerable for home invasion.
Tip #2: Consider advertising any protection that your home does have. Â For example, if you are protected by an ADT security system, invest in a small sign for the front yard, or even stickers for the windows.
Tip #3: Make it appear as if people are still home when they are not. Here’s how:
- Make sure that there is a car in the garage, or in the driveway. If you are flying out of town, Â have a friend drive you to the airport so that your car will remain at home.
- You may also want to leave a few lights on, though some strategy is involved here. For example, do not leave a bedroom light on, as a clever criminal will realize that your bedroom light is on all night, and figure out that you simply left it on. The best idea is to leave a few more subtle lights on, perhaps so that a criminal can see light in the house but can not tell which individual rooms are lit or not.
As the holidays creep up on us, keep these three easy things in mind to prevent home invasion. A HUGE thanks to Protection One for giving us these insider tips and sponsoring this post. It makes me feel so much better that I’m already doing the basics. {whew!}
How Do You Protect Your Home While On Vacation?
Some local law enforcement agencies will do a “vacation watch” while you are out of town. It usually involves simple paperwork and officers will drive by your residence more frequently while you are out of town.
One thing that I am ALWAYS shocked to see: people blogging, tweeting and using fb to announce they are on a trip. It’s like announcing: “Hello, robbers, come get whatever you want.”
My readers NEVER know that my entire family and I are on a trip until after the event.
My Dad always used timers on his lamps. And once when we had a older relatives house empty for a while, he put a lamp in the ensuite bathroom so it would turn on a minute after the bedroom lamp would turn on and then turn off about 5-10 minutes later. It looked like someone was using the washroom. I always thought that was brilliant.
we use timers for lamps. we set them to go on at a certain time and off at a certain time.. we use them all throughout the year regardless of whether we are home or not. it is a good way to ‘show’ you are home even when you aren’t.
other ideas are to ensure you have your mail picked up (nothing says not here more than mail in the letterbox) or newspapers on the lawn. if you are away for a number of weeks, ask a neighbor to mow the lawn for you.
My grandmother, once retired, used to work taking care of houses when people went on vacation. They would pay her a small amount of money to stay at their house during their absence, so that people would know that there was always someone there.
We have our neighbours pass by, turn on the lights, etc, and we do the same for them when they go out.