Holiday
Security - For Your Home
In Victoria each year over 40,000
homes are broken into. This results in property worth tens of
millions of dollars being stolen.
Many burglaries occur when homeowners
are away on holidays. A good neighbour can be as effective as a
police patrol in protecting your home while you're away. To give
your home a "lived in" look while away on holidays consider taking
the following steps:
- Ensure all doors and windows
are securely locked.
- Let your neighbour know you'll
be away and leave a contact telephone number for yourself or a
relative if possible.
- Arrange for mail to be held or
re-directed by the Post Office, or collected by a trusted friend
or neighbour on a daily basis.
- Ask your neighbour to watch
out for visitors.
- Ask a trusted friend or
neighbour to collect all junk mail.
- Cancel all deliveries.
- Consider installing automatic
timing devices for lights and electrical appliances such as
radios and TVs. By automatically switching on lights, your house
can maintain its normal lighting pattern.
- Electrical timers can be used
to turn your radio on to talk-back programs during the day.
- Disconnect the electrical
supply to electronic garage doors and engage manual locks.
- Advise the local police of
your absence, providing a contact address and telephone number.
Be sure to notify police when you return. This is especially
important if you return home early.
- If cars are left at home,
secure them and leave the keys with a trusted friend or
neighbour.
- Do not leave any keys
concealed inside or outside the house. Give them to a trusted
friend or neighbour.
- Engrave or mark valuable
property with an identifying mark being a driver's licence
number preceded by the letter "V" for Victoria.
- Turn down the volume on your
telephone the day you leave.
- Arrange for someone to mow
your lawn and water the garden.
- If you live in a Neighbourhood
Watch Area, consider informing the Area Co-ordinator that you
will be away.
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