It’s time for your summer vacation. This year you’re prepared to make your home as secure as possible while you’re gone because more burglaries happen between May and September. Criminals know that this is a popular time for homeowners to leave on vacation, which gives them the perfect opportunity to break in while you’re gone. Here’s a checklist to help ensure your house is safe when you return.
Summer Vacation Home Security Checklist
- Use timers on interior and exterior lights to illuminate your property. Also, set timers on your televisions and radios that turn them on at random times throughout the day and evening.
- Ask the police to provide extra patrol and check your property while you’re gone.
- Put your mail on hold and stop the newspaper so that would-be thieves don’t see them accumulating. You can also have a friend or neighbor pick them up instead.
- Place all of your valuables, such as jewelry and cash in a safety deposit box.
- Make sure that all of your windows, doors, garage doors, and pet doors are secure.
- Check for burned-out lightbulbs in your indoor and outdoor lighting.
- Raise some of your blinds and shades to make it appear as if someone is home.
- Continue to have your yard maintained, and snow shoveled so that burglars think someone is home.
- Keep a vehicle parked half-way down your driveway to make it appear that people are home. It also prevents criminals from using your driveway to access your property better.
- Have a neighbor, family member, or friend check the inside and outside of your residence daily.
- Check your answering machine every day and remove all messages to eliminate the long beep that signals you have messages, letting burglars know you’re not home.
- Keep your garbage cans hidden in your apartment or the garage.
If you take these precautions before you leave and while you’re away on vacation, you’ll come home to a safe and secure house. Burglars watching your property won’t see an excellent opportunity to break into your home when you create the illusion that someone is there.
About Wain Security
For over 20 years, Wain Security has been in the business of keeping homes and families safe. We are an independently owned, full-service security & alarm company in Northeast Ohio. Contact us today for a complimentary security evaluation.