NEW YORK (AP) – When a family goes away on vacation, the last thing it wants to do is put out a welcome mat at home for burglars.

But that’s what can happen if people don’t take some basic steps to make a house look lived in and therefore not an easy target for would-be thieves.

“Your house should be safe all the time, of course,” said Jeanne M. Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute. “If you take the time to make sure it’s not inviting to crooks where you’re not away, so much the better when you are away.”

Key measures include making sure outside areas are well-lit, doors and windows are protected with locks or grates, and alarm systems are in place to scare off home invaders or trigger a response by a security firm, she said.

Security is especially important in the summer, when there traditionally is a spike in home break-ins, she said.

Dave Simon, spokesman for Brinks Home Security in Irving, Texas, said many new homes come with alarm systems built in, while families buying existing homes often install them. He said he encouraged his in-laws, Steve and Mary Lyne, to put an alarm system into their retirement home in Rockport, Maine.

Lyne, a retired diplomat and emeritus professor of international relations at Boston University, and his wife installed an alarm and signed up with a local security agency. Lyne believes it’s important to have a real person look in on their house periodically when they’re away.

“We have someone who checks the house twice a week to make sure everything is OK,” he said.

A neighbor or relative or hired house sitter can do things like make sure flyers and other deliveries don’t accumulate, that the grass gets trimmed and that there’s no sign of forced entry into the house.

Lyne also pointed out that having someone look in on the home ensures that nothing goes wrong with the plumbing, cooling or heating systems.

“It hasn’t happened to us, but we’ve heard horror stories about people who were gone and a sink or toilet started to leak and they returned to find $20,000 or $30,000 worth of damage to their house,” he said.

Simon of Brinks Home Security, which is a division of The Brink’s Co. that’s perhaps best known for its armored cash delivery trucks, said it’s important to make a house look like someone’s at home.

Some steps are obvious, like stopping the mail, suspending newspaper delivery and putting interior lights on timers so the place isn’t dark for days on end, Simon said. He added that there’s an often-overlooked sign that a family is away – trash cans pulled out to the street for pickup that aren’t put away.

Simon said that sometimes major changes are needed.

“High bushes may give you a sense of privacy, but they also can shield intruders,” he said. “So consider trimming them.”

And, he said, outdoor lights triggered by motion sensors can deter burglars.

“Burglars don’t like light,” Simon said. “They’ll go to the defenseless household – not one that looks defended.”

Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-funded center based in New York, said that a family’s goal should be erecting as many barriers as possible to discourage a would-be burglar.

“The more difficult you make it to get into your house, the more likely a thief is going to go elsewhere,” she said.

Salvatore suggests that families try not to inadvertently “broadcast” their plans to be away by talking about their travel friends in public places, like supermarkets or nail salons.

And people who live in apartments and town house communities might want to lower the volume on their answering machines so passers-by can’t hear a family’s messages.

“You don’t want someone walking by and hearing, ‘I’ve been calling you for days and no one has picked up,”‘ she said.

Salvatore also warned that consumers shouldn’t try to hide spare keys outside their homes. That’s because the places that are obvious to homeowners – under a doormat, in a porch planter, behind a downspout – are also obvious to burglars.

— On the Net:

http://www.iii.org

http://www.brinkshomesecurity.com

AP-ES-06-20-07 1659EDT

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