Safeguard Your Home While on Vacation

• Strive to make our home look a lived in as possible while you're away.
• Don't broadcast your plans but do let your neighbors and local law enforcement know.
• Give a spare key to your neighbors and give them an emergency telephone number to reach you.
• Arrange to have our mail and newspaper either stopped or picked up daily.
• Have someone mow your yard or rake the leaves so your house looks lived in.
• Use automatic timers on a radio and lights at different intervals to hide the fact you aren't home.
• Turn down the ringer on the telephone. An unanswered telephone is a dead give away.
• Be sure you don't announce your absence on your answering machine message.
• Leave your blinds like you normally would if you were home. Only close them all the way if that is what you would normally do.
• Be sure to close and lock the garage as well as any storage sheds, gates, etc.
• Engrave all your valuables with your driver's license number. If possible videotape the contents of your home. Be sure to keep the video and the list of valuables in a safety deposit box.
• Ask your neighbor to occasionally park in your driveway. If you are leaving a vehicle parked outside, have a neighbor move it periodically so it looks as though you are home.
• Be sure someone knows your itinerary and your estimated time of arrival and return.

For local police services, please see Police Services