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Protect Your Home

Low Cost/No-Cost Ways To Protect An Empty House

• Check and lock doors when leaving your home.
• Have neighbors or relatives watch your house. Also inform local police how long you'll be away so they, too, can keep an eye on your home.
• Organize a neighborhood Crime Watch for an effective, simple self-help program (Ask your police department for more information).
• Stop delivery of mail (or have a neighbor take it in every day), newspapers, milk, etc.
• Arrange to have your lawn mowed or snow shoveled.
• Install three or four timers that turn lamps on at dusk and off at bedtime. Do NOT have all lights on and off at the same times; this is too obvious to a potential burglar.
• Turn your telephone bells down so they cannot be heard from outside. Also install a radio or TV timer to turn on and off during the day and evening.
• Have a neighbor change window shade and curtain positions at least once a day. Install a photoelectric cell switch or socket on all outdoor lighting. Good lighting (front, rear and side yards; garage) helps keep prowlers away.
• Lock ladders and outdoor furniture in a shed or garage to prevent their use as steps to an upper-level window.
• Don't advertise a coming vacation in the society section of the local newspaper.
• Secure each outside door with a dead-bolt lock. Secure and sliding doors with a cut-off broom handle placed in the inside track with a Charley bar or with a spring loaded latching device designed for this purpose (an easy do-it-yourself job).
• Make sure all windows have strong double latch protection. In double hung windows the secondary latch can be a nail or pin placed in a downward slanting hole you have drilled through both frames where the frames overlap.
• In apartments and some homes consider the installation of fire department-approved security gates for windows accessible to fire escapes and the street.
• All foundation shrubs and trees should be kept low trimmed, so as not to provide cover and camouflage for a burglar.
• With an electric engraving tool, mark valuable TV sets, stereos, jewelry, etc. with your Social Security number or any other label. Many communities have a Project Identification program that provides the tools. Local police will keep a list of your engraved valuables.
• Don't keep spare keys in mailboxes, under mats, on top of doorframes or in planters. Burglars know all the "good" spots. Give a spare key to a trusted neighbor instead.
• Don't tag keys with your name or address.
• Rent a safe-deposit box in a bank. It's more secure than a home safe.
• Agree to watch your neighbors' homes and have them watch yours.

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