Before you leave on vacation, follow these tips to feel more secure about your home being vacant.
1. Don't advertise that you are gone.
- Discontinuenewspaper delivery or have a neighbor bring in the paper each day. Aneighbor can bring in the mail and any other deliveries at the sametime.
- Arrange for someone to keep the lawn trim.
- Leave a car parked in the driveway.
- Leave lights and a radio on timers.
- Don'trecord a message on your answering machine or voice mail that says youare gone. If you use an answering machine, have someone remove messagesperiodically to prevent overloading its message capacity. An overloadedanswering machine won't take messages properly and can tip-off thievesthat you are away.
2. Improve home security.
- Makesure all windows and doors are locked, including those above the groundfloor. Use broom handles to wedge sliding glass doors shut.
- Ifyou have an alarm, let the monitoring service know you are going. Makesure alternate contacts are going to be in town.
- Tell neighbors you are leaving so they can watch your home.
- Install exterior lights that automatically come on when it gets dark and go off when it's light.
3. Take inventory of your valuables.
- Hidesmall valuable items like jewelry. Don't place items in the freezer, asit is an overused hiding place. A banged-up box high up in a closet orin a remote corner of the basement should suffice.
- Engraveyour driver's license number into a metal surface of large valuableslike video equipment, computers, and bicycles (local police departmentswill loan you an engraver). While this will rarely prevent theft, itwill increase the odds that the thief is caught and that yourpossessions are returned. In most jurisdictions, the police will loanyou an engraving tool.
- Photograph valuables as record forinsurance purposes. Even better, take a video inventory of each room,zooming in on brand names, model numbers, and serial numbers.
