8 tips to prevent a break-in during your vacation

"Pretend you want to break into your neighbor's house."

'There's nothing to get with me anyway, so they really won't break in,' is the thought among many people. "But that's not how a burglar thinks," says Coen Staal, president of the National Burglary Prevention Weeks (NIPW). "He's just going to try to see if there's something to get and pay very close attention in advance to whether someone is home or not." Also, look through the eyes of a burglar at the home of, say, your neighbors who have gone on vacation a little earlier. What do you notice then? For example, are there piles of mail and newspapers visible on the doormat? Or do you put them neatly sorted for them on the table in plain sight. Are there no lights at all at night, or only one or two lights in the living room, and are the blinds or curtains closed during the day? Is there no car in the driveway for days on end? Have all the plants in the front yard withered away due to lack of water? All signs by which you can recognize as a "burglar at your neighbor's house" that they are on vacation.

Properly insured against burglaries less important?
A burglar often has plenty of time during vacation time to break into your home and take the things you are so attached to. Sometimes these are things that are irreplaceable, even if you are so well insured. The bracelet you got from your grandmother or your laptop with all the pictures of the (grand)children just to name a few! And you might be called back from your vacation address because your house has been broken into. Yet none of that is the most unpleasant thing burglary victims say they experience. Steel: "What people often underestimate are the emotional consequences of a burglary." Nearly three-quarters of victims of a burglary or attempted burglary say they significantly underestimated the emotional impact of the burglary (attempt) and experienced unpleasant consequences for months to come. According to recent research* by the NIPW foundation. Staal says: "The emotional consequences of a burglary include sleeping problems such as not being able to get to sleep, restless sleep, nightmares or waking up at any sound. But it also affects people during the day, think of fear of coming home, being startled by a strange noise or being nervous and dejected."

Bill on door: "Milkman, we are on vacation"
Such a bill was encountered in the days when there was a string hanging from every door with which to open the door. Those days are decades behind us. But leaving your house clearly unoccupied is about the same to an observant burglar as the bill to the milkman. The burglar most often strikes at the back door or through the (kitchen) window. An experienced burglar sees at a glance whether a back door lock is a "piece of cake" or whether it will be a tough job. Usually he chooses the easiest prey. After all, in summer he has plenty of choice: there are a lot of people away from home for long periods of time and they clearly show it.
Research shows that as many as 70 percent of back doors have such poor locks or hardware that a burglar with a screwdriver and pliers can be inside within 1 minute. And then he has plenty of time to search for your valuables. You can easily prevent this.

8 tips for feeling safe on vacation
For everyone, never make it easy for burglars, especially during your vacation.
To travel to your vacation destination soon with peace of mind, the National Burglary Prevention Weeks Foundation has 8 simple tips:

1. Do the burglary prevention check via www.inbraakmislukt.nl. If the test recommends it, put new hardware on the back door before you leave. That might cost you 70 euros. Or install approved window latches on your kitchen window for about 50 euros. This will reduce your chances of being burglarized!
2. Download the BurglaryPreventionCheck app in the Appstore or via GooglePlay (search for "stop burglary"). The app guides you through the different rooms in your home in simple steps on your mobile to check how well your home is secured against burglary. You can send in a picture of the lock or window handle and ask for advice.
3. Put a time switch on all the lights you normally have on at night and set them at different times. Leave the lamp in the bedroom on for fifteen minutes after all the lamps in the living room have gone out. These days there are also handy lamps that you can control with an app, even for (ceiling) lamps where a timer cannot be placed.
4. If you usually close your living room blinds or curtains all the way at bedtime, change that a few weeks before you go on vacation. Leave them half-open during the day and half-open at night so that you can see inside, but in doing so you don't have a view of the entire room. If a burglar looks in, he can't survey your living room.
5. On the contrary, don't tidy up your living room and kitchen perfectly neatly. Leave a cup on the table or some dishes on the counter. And a newspaper or open book, as if you could go right back to reading.
6. Stick a no/no sticker on your mailbox (temporarily) to prevent excess advertising mail or ask someone to empty your mailbox/doormat regularly. Or tape the window in the front door with black cardboard so a burglar won't see the piles of mail.
7. Ask one of your neighbors to keep an eye out, not only to water the plants, but also to get the mail out of sight. Then have them put the mail not in piles on the table, but out of sight; in a closet, for example.
8. Don't post too much on social media that shows you are away from home for extended periods of time. Or set your Facebook privacy settings so that only close friends and family members can follow you.

Also look on Youtube at : https://youtu.be/9LpEGLURPiE

This year's tenth National Burglary Prevention Weeks
The National Burglary Prevention Weeks Foundation is a public-private partnership aimed at raising awareness among homeowners about the value of good burglary prevention, and encouraging them to take measures themselves. And thus contribute to the goal of the Ministry of Justice and Security to substantially reduce the number of burglaries and burglary attempts. The foundation campaigns twice a year, in May and June and in November and December. The current campaign is already the tenth. Partners in the foundation are the companies Assa Abloy, Zo Veilig and Yale. They work closely with the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Association of Insurers.

For more information including burglary methods and burglary prevention, visit www.inbraakmislukt.nl.

* survey of 613 households in March 2019