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Vacation Safety Tips

Posted by Officer D.M. Semega on June 22, 2009

burglary, Crime Prevention, Home Safety

If you are going to be leaving town for a vacation of a few days or more please follow these tips to help keep your home safe and secure:

• Notify a trusted neighbor of your trip and also leave a key for them.
• Make sure the mail and newspapers are stopped or someone is picking them up for you.
• Put various lamps on timers throughout the house.
• Put talk radio on a timer to provide the sound of voices in your house.
• Make sure lawn mowing is taken care of if you are away more than 5 days.
• Install low voltage or solar landscaping all around your house that will operate during the hours of darkness.
• Install photo electric cells on your outdoor lighting around doors and windows so that they come on during hours of darkness.
• Make sure all doors and windows are locked, including those on garages and garden sheds.
• Notify the Police Department of your trip and at a minimum give them the following information:
• Name and phone number of a keyholder.
• The dates you will be away.
• What vehicles are okay to be in your driveway while you are away.
• Name of who may be checking on things in and around your house.
• A phone number to contact you in case of an emergency.

If you follow these simple tips you will make it more difficult to allow the bad guys the opportunity to turn you into a victim. This in turn should allow you some peace of mind while you are away unwinding and decompressing.

As always these items are merely suggestions and all of the ideas may not work for you. There is also no guarantee that following any or all of these steps will prevent you from becoming a victim.