Home Security: How to Defend Your Home When You Are Away
Is your home going to be empty for several days while you go on vacation? That's when your home or apartment is most vulnerable to break-ins.
Here are several specific things you can do to ensure your home stays safe even when you are away.
- The best defense
for your home is to have a house sitter.
There's no getting around it. A house
where someone is staying is almost
always safer than a house that's empty.
See if you can get a trusted friend
or relative to stay at home while you
are away.
- Stop your mail
delivery and newspaper delivery for
the entire time you are away. An overflowing
mailbox or piles of newspaper advertises
that no one's home. Alternatively,
get a neighbor to collect them regularly.
- Similarly, if
you keep a garden or have potted plants
that are visible, get someone to come
in regularly and maintain them. Wilted
and dying plants are another signal
that the house is uninhabited. At the
very least, move the potted plants
out of sight.
- Put lights as
well as TV / radio on timers. Put lights
on timers in multiple rooms. Try to
create a natural-looking sequence for
the lights. Set the timer to turn on
the living room lights at sunset. Later
on, at your regular bedtime, set it
to switch off the living room lights
and turn on the bedroom lights at around
the same time.
If you regularly turn on the TV at 8:00 pm and it remains switched on till 11:00 pm, set the timer accordingly. Quite often, even if the lights are on, the absence of the bluish glow from the TV can give away the fact that no one's really home. - Ask a neighbor
to drop into your house regularly,
if you don't have a house sitter. Windows
being opened and closed, curtains being
worked and so on are signs that someone
is home.
- If you live in
a rented home or apartment, you may
want to notify your landlord that you
will be away. In fact, some lease agreements
stipulate that you must inform them
if you are going away. Some landlords
like to keep an eye on an empty house,
even if they don't enter it.
- If you have an
alarm system installed, make sure the
house sitter knows how to operate it.
- Leave your contact
details with the house sitter and/or
neighbor. Whoever is checking on the
house should know who they should call
if there is a problem.
HOME
