Protect Your Home While on Vacation
By: Diana Bello Aristizábal
Doral is a safe city with a quite low crime rate. Still, according to the FBI, home burglaries occur every 15 seconds across the United States, so having a security plan while you go on vacation is imperative to enjoy a worry-free break.
To start, act as if you didn’t live in a safe community, even if that’s not the case. It is wise to adopt this mindset particularly during this time of the year when criminal activity tends to increase. This is not an invitation to become paranoid, but rather one to leave overconfidence aside. Some people don’t even do the bare minimum such as locking their cars and homes, including windows and yard doors, which is looking for trouble unnecessarily.
In addition, it’s important to think as a community and not just as an individual when being on the lookout for any unusual activity such as a stranger loitering around a residential building or a specific home or engaging in any other suspicious behavior. If you see anything like that, call the Doral Police line at 305-593-6699 or 911 in case of emergency. Remember that we’re all responsible as a collective for keeping us safe and not just the police.
Protect your belongings in and out of home
When we talk about home security, some people think about preventing someone from breaking into a house. But what about the porch area where packages from e-commerce companies like Amazon or Temu aren’t picked up for days or even weeks?
According to a Nov. 5 report made by Contimod, a company that rents and sells shipping containers, 44% of Americans have faced package theft, with 17% saying it happened in the last three months. Also, on average, 235 million package thefts occur each year, and 49 million Americans have had at least one package stolen in the past 12 months.
Given the prevalence of this issue, the first step to protect your packages if you must take a trip and still haven’t received all your purchased packages is to reach out to your neighbors. “Ask them when they will be home for the holidays, meaning the dates they will be away and the dates when they’ll return,” said Edwin Lopez, Doral Police Chief, in an interview with Doral Family Journal.
“Your neighbors can watch your packages, keep them stored at their homes or call you if they see something suspicious,” he added.
Also, have an effective security system. “If you keep cameras installed, make sure the batteries are working and that the cameras are positioned in the right direction to capture anyone who may enter the house or who should not be there and also all angles of the house, including its surroundings,” the Chief of Police said.
If possible, the camera system you have installed at home should be cutting-edge with motion sensors in outdoor spotlights and an app for remote monitoring and not have been purchased too many years ago. If this is the case, consider replacing it as is a good investment worth making.
One tip is to opt for cameras that have high-definition resolution so that you can obtain more detail and looks good on a computer or mobile phone, and analyze where to place fixed view cameras, best suited to perimeters, fence lines or any area where you need to focus on a certain section, and where PTZ surveillance cameras that can swivel left and right, tilt or zoom in and out remotely.
To reduce the possibility of theft inside residences, hide valuable objects, park vehicles inside a garage and not outdoors, reinforce doors and windows with double locks, activate an alarm system, avoid disclosing your holiday plans on social media and get an insurance in case of theft.
Finally, protect your home from potential fires or gas leaks. According to Edwin Lopez, the Miami-Dade Fire Department has made available to residents a program to install gas, fire and smoke detectors at homes. As informed by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Public Education Bureau at its website, qualifying households can receive free smoke alarms. For more information, call 786-336-3473.