Anyone Worried About Burglary while away?

[Corryn]

Hello again,
You know, I am guilty of posting the dates when we'll be away. Heck, I even have my location in my personal information available for everyone to see.
I've posted what resort I'll be in and all that info.
My question is:
Has anyone been burglarized while away, and feel that they might have given a little too much information on the boards, in public, for everyone to see and felt that maybe that information had a hand in that burglary?
Is there a possibility that there is some guilty burglar out there scouring the Disboards to see when someone in his town/state will be away, and then looking up their name in the telephone book or on the internet to find an exact address?

I know this is scary, but it is a fact of life and is a legitimate concern. I am sorry to bring this up and possibly scare people, but aren't some of us guilty of doing what we tell our children not to do while on they're on the internet?
Does anyone else feel this way?

 

[aprilgail2]

Doesn't worry me at all..while we are away I have my brother come stay at the house so he can dogsit.

 

[tvguy]

I'm always concerned when I am away, but more concerned about a water pipe breaking than a burglary. But I live a couple of houses from a dead end, and several of my neighbors work at home or are retired, so we have a good neighborhood watch. Plus, I put an alarm on my house when I bought it 22 years ago.

 

[Corryn]

That's great ... I used to use our old baby monitors with my neighbor while away. She lives a few houses away and they worked great. We kept them on continually for the length of our trips. She heard when the phone rang, when the heat kicked on, etc. I think I'll break out the monitors once again. I also returned the favors and "listened in" on her house. I even heard her cat meowing, and that let me know I had to go over to let her outside. I forgot all about that until your post. Thanks for triggering my memory!

 

[Jillpie]

Thats why I am extremely careful to not divulge the town I live in. Even when the thread is as friendly as ever, and there have been many, I never talk about exactly where we live. The other thing is, we don't know any last names here. So I wouldn't think it would be so easy to find out somebody's location. I have given it to a chosen few, as they have sent me something (thanks Andy on the cruise boards and kdibattista! ), but a sense of trust in that person has to be there before giving it. As much as I love these boards, you just never know.

 

[Billinaz]

My house alarm system sends me a page when the system is armed/disarmed or if it is tripped... including from what area was tripped. I also know if the power goes out and when it is restored.

I have someone stop by daily and feed the cats and dogs, and I encourage them to jump in the pool or sit in front of the satellite tv.

Im working on setting up my computer to be a server with a webcam so I can look in on the house too!

 

[KarenMom]

I get more concerned about people who post at various times things like "I'll be in room 6099, anyone ever been there" and then a few days/hours later "should I leave my 10 year old alone in the room". I worry that people will piece things like this together, so I NEVER post anything so specfic. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but when it comes to kids, you can never be too careful.

 

[arlenesp]

my family got on my case when I requested the postcards to be sent to the grandkids before our cruise. My DS couldn't believe I gave personal info to a complete stranger.However knowing who it was that did send the postcard put my mind at ease. But I still think we give out too much info at times.Especially hinting that children may be in the rooms alone and such.

 

[chrisn]

The first year we went to WDW in 2002. On the third day of a 10 day trip my home was forcibly broken into and robbed. We had a 25,000 loss including jewelry (my wedding ring and Grandmothers 50th anniversary ring), guns and power tools. My husband flew home and I stayed with the kids. It was a terrible time for me and because of it, our first special trip to the world was tarnished. It took me a long time to get over it. I cried at work for like 4 weeks and then I realized that it could have so easily been prevented. We know who did it but could never prove it. It was a very valuable lesson to learn and we learned it the hard way. It's not a bad thing to be a little extra cautious in securing your home and valuables when leaving.

 

[CarolAnnC]

We have an extensive alarm system and will be sure that the local authorities are watching...

 

[Corryn]

We know who did it but could never prove it.

Meaning that you should have been a little more cautious about telling everyone of your vacation?
How upsetting and violating for you. I'm sorry

 

[Mandabella]

I live in an apartment, and I'm concerned...but more for our cars than my apartment itself. Cars in an apartment parking lot that don't move for a week or more send a signal that the owner maybe away. So, we park our cars at my parents house to watch. They get our mail and check our apartment a couple times while we're gone. Also, we don't order any packages either that may be delivered while we are gone. A package sitting outside a door sends a signal too.

Only once I had a problem when someone broke my car window (the small triangle one on the rear door on the right side) while I was away, but that happened to the many cars that night in my parent's neighborhood. Nothing was stolen and insurance paid to fix it. My mom was more upset than I was about it.

 

[chrisn]

There were many things I could have and should have done differently. Not telling half the county (we were excited), securing our valuables (instead of thinking they were perfectly safe), having someone stay in our home, etc. I mean I could have rolled my rings into a sock in the sock drawer for crying out loud. I really hold myself partially to blame but I am no longer bitter and it made me a little wiser so something good came of it. That and a big new ring from my sweet hubby so that I could stop crying! We did install an alarm system and the following year had someone stay in our home. I don't think you need to go to that extreme but definitely don't leave yourself as vulnerable as I did. I can't tell you what an awful feeling it was to come home to what happend. I didn't feel comfortable in my own home for a while. I felt totally violated and I was. By the way, the person that did it was a member of my family. Someone whom I trusted never to hurt me that way. Someone that I loved. Someone that I still love.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

The first year we went to WDW in 2002. On the third day of a 10 day trip my home was forcibly broken into and robbed. We had a 25,000 loss including jewelry (my wedding ring and Grandmothers 50th anniversary ring), guns and power tools. My husband flew home and I stayed with the kids. It was a terrible time for me and because of it, our first special trip to the world was tarnished. It took me a long time to get over it. I cried at work for like 4 weeks and then I realized that it could have so easily been prevented. We know who did it but could never prove it. It was a very valuable lesson to learn and we learned it the hard way. It's not a bad thing to be a little extra cautious in securing your home and valuables when leaving.

This also happened to us last Nov. on our vacation, but thanks to the alarm system all they got was the tv in the living room. This year my best friend will be staying at our house while we go on vacation.

 

[DisneyBill]

One of the things that concerns me is the number of people that place their home address on their luggage. It wouldn't take a great deal of imagination/organization to have a baggage handler, cabbie, bus driver conspire with a person in a specific city to relay information about those away from home. We always have someone stay in our place while gone, and odd thing about our street is there are lots of folks home during the day on-and-off, self included.

 

[Regina]

Tvguy, we had the burst pipe scenario when we returned from our cruise in January of '04. Not fun.

The funny part is, our newspaper continued to be delivered despite our requesting that it be stopped. Our neighbor knew that we were away and was bringing it inside. She last did it on Friday, we got back on Sunday and somewhere in between, the furnace stopped and our baseboard pipes froze and burst. (23 pipe breaks in all.)

You just never know what's going to happen.

 

[GavinsMom]

That's one good thing about my Husband staying home this trip! At least I don't have to worry about my home and personal belongings.
This trip is just for Grannie and Us!

 

[DeeCeeSW]

DisneyBill--we always put my husband's work address on our luggage tags for the very reasons you stated!

 

[jrabbit]

One of the things that concerns me is the number of people that place their home address on their luggage. It wouldn't take a great deal of imagination/organization to have a baggage handler, cabbie, bus driver conspire with a person in a specific city to relay information about those away from home.

So that's why my office keeps getting broken into when I go on vacation No it doesn't really, but all of our luggage has my work address on the outside, well and the inside to, with just my work phone number - no need to give some bad guy my phone number to do a reverse phone search on.

 

[kreedham]

I've used timers to put on house lights before and they work well. Make it look like you are home! You could even put one on the TV or stereo. Maybe play the stereo during the day and TV for a couple of hours at night.

If you've got no one to pick up mail have the P.O. just hold it and cancel the paper. A paper in the driveway tells people that you aren't home. Of course in my neighborhood most are just too lazy to pick it up!

As far as luggage tags I offer another suggestion. Put a business card or address label "in" your luggage. Tags can and do get torn off.