Coming back from a holiday to a home that’s been broken into can ruin the entire trip. Morgan Murphy from Southern Living recently offered these tips for securing your home before you go on vacation.

• Make sure all your doors and windows are locked and that the alarm system is armed.
• Suspend newspaper and mail delivery, or have someone pick it up for you.
• Don’t post your name on the mailbox — it makes it easier for a thief to find your home number and call to see if you’re home.
• Give your local police department the dates that you’ll be gone. Many police departments will step up patrols by your house.
• Don’t change your answering machine message to say, “I’m out of town.” Instead, say “I can’t get to the phone right now; I’m feeding the dog, Fang.”
• Leave the curtains, blinds and cars as you normally do when you’re home.
• Leave a radio on; most break-ins occur during daylight hours.
• Don’t put a house key under the mat or in one of those fake rocks; give it to a trusted neighbor instead.

Read the full story: Foil burglars when you’re on vacation

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Lifestyles, Vacation and Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.