How to Secure Your Home When You Are Away

Not home because you are at the office? Going on a business trip? Heading out on vacation? Here are some tips that will make it more likely that your home is secure when you are away.

Face it- most residential burglars are not rocket scientists. Their biggest fears are doubt and uncertainty. Is anyone home? If so, they are moving on. So even if you have an alarm system and security cameras, your best defense against a home burglary is to give the impression someone may be home.
Don’t forget the simple stuff. Double check that all of your doors are locked. How often have you noticed that someone forgot to lock that patio door? And remember to shut and secure any windows, particularly on the ground floor.

Leave some lights on. Not all of them, but a few in some strategically placed locations. Upstairs lights are the best, because the perp can’t see what is going on up there. Leave a bedroom light on and a bathroom light on. For the more advanced, you can place some lights on timers so they go on and off at pre-programmed times. Worried about energy usage? It costs about 2 cents a day to leave a 60 Watt standard light bulb on, and well less than a penny a day to keep an equivalent LED light on.

Make sure your garage door is locked. Entry through an unlocked garage door is easy pickings for a burglar, and a common route of entry. And just as an additional precaution, make sure to lock the door inside the garage that leads into the living space of your home.

Turn that radio on. Place a cheap clock radio directly inside your garage door, and turn it to a volume that is audible just outside your garage door. Clock radios, even when left on, use less than a penny a day in energy. And consider placing another radio on the inside of your home near a sliding door.

Park cars in the driveway. If you are going to be gone a few days, and you have an extra car, don’t park it in the garage- park it in your driveway. Again, this will give the impression that someone is home.

Newspapers, mail and flyers. Particularly if you are going to be gone a few days, have a trusted neighbor pick up your mail, and any newspapers left on your driveway or porch, as well as flyers that may have been left on your porch by vendors.

These are just a few simple tips to make it less likely you will be burglarized when you are away from your home. Of course, there are other good practices, such as motion sensing outdoor lighting among many others. But they all have the same purpose, to make the perps think that you are home!