The Great Hunt: How do you make your house look occupied while on holiday?

Doc_N

purpleweasel wrote: »

How do you get back into the house when you come back off holiday? I imagine the lion is pretty hungry by then if it hasn't had any burglars to eat...

Good point! Quite spoiled my holiday, you have........

beady3647

We go away for 6 weeks each year to Florida and take the following steps:-
1. I visit my local post sorting office and make arrangements for them to hold my post for me until we return
2. Part close the vertical blinds in the lounge
3. Have a light on a variable day to day timer in our hallway coming on just after teatime until around 10.30
4. Have a light on a variable day to day timer in our main bedroom coming on at 10 until 11.30
5. Arrange for friends with a set of house-keys to put out rubbish and recycling bins each week and clear junk mail from our porch every couple of days. They bring some of their own rubbish and part fill our bins.
6. Ask neighbours to park on our driveway three to four times a week.
We've done this for ten years now and haven't had a single mishap! Let's hope I'm not tempting providence. We offer the same help to our friends in return and it's almost like our own little security co-operative.

Beady

paulsad

If getting a taxi to the airport make sure you announce that your son and his 4 mates from the rugby club are at home and you hope they don't make too much mess and they take the 2 Rottweilers for regular walks.

Mike_Phillips_2

Biggles wrote: »

That's the big give-away. It absolutely shouts, "They're away!".

So - is it better to have the curtains open during hours of darkness? Doesn't that also scream. 'They're away' ?
Which is best?

lolarosa90

Ask the neighbours to check every so often
Leave a car at home if poss
Close the curtains to the bedrooms
Leave a small radio on quietly
Don't let mail build up, small basket under letterbox etc

Or you could be inventive and make a device that opens and closes the curtains at specific times of the day...

Or go Pyscho and have a dummy dressed as your mother in a rocking chair in the top window.

That would deter anyone! :rotfl:

Biggles

Mike_Phillips wrote: »

So - is it better to have the curtains open during hours of darkness? Doesn't that also scream. 'They're away'? Which is best?

Not really, my lounge and other downstairs curtains are open most nights. But leaving them closed in the daytime - every day for a week - is really just drawing attention to the fact that there's no one there. To a burglar, it's a no-brainer.

As far as bedroom curtains are concerned, it's probably a closer call. There might be a case for keeping the curtains closed in one bedroom just to keep 'them' thinking. Anything that creates a doubt works in your favour.

Mike_Phillips_2

PompeyPete wrote: »

Keep you 'trap' shut.
Avoid careless talk, especially in the pub.
And don't litter Fakebook or Twatter with stuff telling the world that you're going on holiday!

Thanks Pete - that's a good point about NOT leaving messages on social media.

Mike Phillips

rustyboy21

Lounge table light and a table light in hall always on 24/7 as pitch black in night otherwise. Kitchen has table lamp on a multi timer, coming on at random times. 2 bedroom lights come on random too.


Next door neighbour has key and alarm code, so ( Thank God) no issues in 14 years so far.

nearlyrich

PasturesNew wrote: »

I figure it's unwise for me to tell people what I actually do because ..... then burglars will know what to watch for..... which is daft.

I thought that too, we do take steps to ensure the place is not looking unoccupied and my DD lives close and pops in but not going to say exactly how we leave things...

richardw

Make it look like it's already been done over and the non existent good stuff has already gone.