Holiday Security

With the first holiday of the year just around the corner…..okay, I know some of you may have already been lucky enough to have had some winter sun or a skiing holiday but for the rest of us, this is the first one. Many will be planning to go on holiday for a few days or maybe longer, I don’t want to dampen your spirits but there are some things to think about before you pick up your cases and walk out the door.

Over half of burglaries occur when there is nobody at home and so clearly this is something that we should take seriously. So I’m going to run through some things you need to do before you go on holiday for a few days or weeks.  Many will seem like common sense, but it’s always useful to have a checklist.

We do hope you never come home from a wonderful holiday only to discover that you’ve been broken into.  A burglary is bad at any time, but there’s something about the one that happened while you were away that just seems worse.

I don’t want you to ask yourself “Why didn’t the neighbours hear what was going on, why didn’t the neighbours realise I was away?” “Why didn’t I run the table lamps off the plug-in timer switches that I bought last month?” “Why did I splash it all over Facebook that I was away?”

Most of the following suggestions assume that you’re leaving your home unoccupied.

You may need to cancel these but be careful who hears you…

• Papers
• Grocery & Milk deliveries
• Appointments you made before you knew you were going on holiday

Who should you tell

Trusted neighbours & friends – Leave them your contact details & possibly a spare set of keys at your discretion

Arrange for some of these things to be done by someone you trust

• Pop in each day and draw the curtains
• Switch lights on & off – Or set up plug-in timers in various rooms
• Clear the mail from the letterbox
• Ask them to leave a car on your driveway / use your driveway
• Advise your Alarm and/or Keyholding company – Make sure their records for contacts are up to date and all the keys are current.

Away for longer periods of time – consider

• Having the grass cut
• Using Royal Mails ‘Keep safe’ service for a small charge

Lock up or Lock away

• Garden gate
• Outbuildings & garage
• Garden & DIY tools that could be used to break in
• Garden furniture & barbeque
• All doors & windows
• Remove all keys from locks and put them away out of sight & advise key holders where these are
• Remove all valuables from your car put keys away safely

Have a safe, use it

Need a safe, we have a good range at our retail premises in Margate of new safes and reconditioned safes.

• Valuable jewellery & smaller items that have a sentimental value
• Important documents, credit, debit & store cards that you are not taking with you.
• Larger items of value, such as paintings should be hidden from obvious view or maybe placed in the loft. Your insurers may have laid down conditions.

What else should or could I do?

• Advise your Bank & Credit Card Company that you are away to reduce the possibility of your card being stopped. They’ll still tell you there’s no guarantee that this won’t happen but nevertheless you are protecting yourself from credit card fraud should this happen while you are away
• Don’t leave a message on your answerphone that indicates you are away
• Don’t put it all over Facebook & Social networking sites that you are away