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The Illusion of Occupancy - How to Protect Your Home While on Vacation

When on vacation, make sure that you leave your home in the care of someone you trust and let them know where you can be reached in case of emergency.

Arrange to have your mail and newspapers picked up, the grass cut, the leaves raked or the snow removed as necessary and have a neighbour check both inside and outside the house every few days. During the winter, ask them to partially shovel the snow or at least leave lots of footprints in it.

Use timers on interior lights when you are going to be away or just out for the evening. These can be set to turn lights/radios/televisions on and off intermittently to give the appearance that someone is home. This may seem like it would drive up your electric bill, but in reality it only costs $0.75 per month.

If you have a clearly designated outside parking space (as is the case in many townhouse neighbourhoods), ask a neighbour to park their car in your space sometimes. If you have a garage, keep the door closed and locked so no one can see if your car is gone.

Turn the ringer on the telephone off, or set your answering machine/voice mail to pick up on the second ring and do not leave specific information about your absence.

Install security lights around the perimeter of your house. These lights are relatively inexpensive and are great deterrents, especially if they are set with motion detectors. If your existing lights don’t have sensors, there are battery operated add-on motion sensors on the market now that simply screw into the existing light socket and mount near the fixture.

Do not leave notes indicating you are not at home. Leave shades, blinds, and curtains in normal positions or have a neighbour open and close them for you on a regular basis.

And most importantly, tell your neighbours to call the police if they see any suspicious activity around your home while you’re gone. That’s what good neighbours do.