Home security while away

Rent the house or have a house sitter. Out in the boonies makes it a target. A theif will case a place and see no traffic. You can put in a camera system that will call your cell if it detects motion. Around here a lot of people who live in the country have more problems with that, they know people will leave for work and not be back until after 5. The same theif that took your stuff knows you might have new replacement stuff as well.

I heard once of a guy that posted signs all over the property saying that there were Diamond Back Rattle Snakes on the property and anyone entering could be bitten and die.

The short answer is this, you can buy insurance. The real answer is the same as everyone that has a second home already knows. I am sure you are already taking the sensible precautions, after that, there is nothing more you can do. Ours was broken into last winter. There was nothing worth taking so i am sure out of spite they knocked the thermostat of the wall. So we replaced the thermostat and fixed the front door they had broken down. Life goes on. P.S. - our yard is fully lighted, I'm sure they thought about that for about 1.3 seconds before they kicked the front door in.

I like motion activated floodlights. I don't get the turning off the electricity. What are you really saving with that.

If you are worried about theft then there is not much that can be done. If a theif just wants 'stuff' then they can enter, pack and steal, and be gone with most of the valuables in less than 10 minutes.

Since your home is 'out in the boonies' an alarm would only make noise and whomever breaks in would be gone before the LEO could arrive.

You might want to use motion detector cameras to capture whomever is doing this and use it to prosecute after the fact but I don't think you will be able to stop someone in the act or prevent if from happening.

Good luck in your search and keep us posted.

You cannot prevent a break in. You can only make yourself less of a target.

Leave the utilities on. Put lights on timers. If the house can be seen from a street, cut down large bushes so the outside of the house is visible. Encourage/Invite friends and neighbours to park their cars in the driveway, use the (outside) of the property, or even use the house itself. Set up a 50 amp connection and a connection to the septic system and encourage some fellow posters from RV.net to hang out at your place. Put a small travel trailer on the property and rent it out. Make the rent payments to be utilities plus cost of any damage to the house.

Or you can go the other way...put up bars on the windows and doors, razor wire and land mines, dig a moat and put in alligators. But even this with an alarm will not prevent vandalism. Alarms dont stop spray paint, rocks and molotov cocktails.

You cant prevent a break in. You can only encourage the scumbags to go somewhere else easier.

Around here it is the good neighbor policy to keep you home setup looking like it is being used.... Not much you can do when you are 1500 miles away anyway...

With todays CELL PHONE APPS you can do all kinds of things with your unoccupied house.

Roy Ken