Hi all--looking for suggestions as to how to prevent a break in while away. Our Pennsylvania summer place was burglarized recently while we are here in Florida. We have been lucky in the past that this has not happened before I guess. We are away for six months at a time and put everything away and lock up tight, but this time it wasn't enough. Thieves took stuff, but thankfully didn't vandalize or burn. I have some broken windows to attend to in the spring and "stuff to replace. We turn off all utilities while away so a security system wouldn't work and we are out in the boonies anyway. Afraid if I board up, it will look like an abandoned building and the results will be worse. What can I do to prevent a reoccurrence? Thanks for any and all suggestions.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Home security while away | Good Sam Community

47 Replies

DUNEBUGGYDOUG
Explorer
Nov 23, 2013
my buddy has a security system that he moniters with mobile phone/tablet.It has about six cameras pointed at different things at his house/lot.Kina neat to sit around and listen to him telling about who goes up and down road
B_s_Bunch
Explorer
Nov 23, 2013
We went to vivint. Check it out besafe larry
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Nov 23, 2013
mlts22 wrote:

I'd be leery of a 3-4 megapixel camera. I don't know how well something like that will handle face details, especially from the IR LEDs at night. I'd test it out first.

yep, I'm skeptical of a camera less than 5 mpix myself.
bumpy
mlts22
Explorer II
Nov 23, 2013
Same with my neck of the woods. A clear HD photo of a perp will be enough to spur a DA into actually starting an investigation and possibly making an arrest.

I'd be leery of a 3-4 megapixel camera. I don't know how well something like that will handle face details, especially from the IR LEDs at night. I'd test it out first.

Of course, there is always going the DVR route and installing cameras that are connected to a monitoring computer and the HD video written to disk. This would have to be on a UPS so a burglar can't just cut power for a free shot at all the goodies inside.
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Nov 22, 2013
down home wrote:
what the heck is a fine photo of some perp going to do fer you? The object is stop them not take pictures.

in my neck of the woods a photo of the folks entering my home and the license plate of the vehicle they drove up in would be good to be able to give the sheriff. after a few of these rats get caught and prosecuted, folks may think twice of robbing these vacant homes. how do you propose to stop them? I mean bad guys break into bank vaults.
bumpy
down_home
Explorer II
Nov 22, 2013
what the heck is a fine photo of some perp going to do fer you? The object is stop them not take pictures.
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Nov 22, 2013
jamway wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
jamway wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
dalenoel wrote:

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.

I have a game camera aimed at my front door but am only gone for about 3 weeks at a time. they don't make SD cards large enough to carry you for 6 months.
bumpy

Our game camera worked for a little over three months this summer. It took over 900+ pictures of our dog and cat feeders. The cats, skunks, opossums and coons are there almost all night and the dog eats most of the day. The camera was still taking pictures when we came home.

If it was on our door the SD card would last a year or more. The camera is motion activated and I don't think there is a lot of traffic to our door.

Most of the pix on my camera are blank or are the east end of a deer going west. there are very few with people in them. the fella that mows the lawn has a couple on there and occasionally my neighbors cross in front. many are of little critters that trip the shutter so you will find that there is a lot of traffic to your door. it is not unusual for me to have 50-70 pictures in 3 weeks. at your 900 pix in three months that is a whole lot of pix for 6 months. don't think any of my SD cards will take 1800 shots of a decent resolution. and you have to have good resolution to pick up license plates, faces, etc.
bumpy

I did some looking and found that we have a 3.0 megapixel camera with an 8 gb card.
The pictures are very good for what we need.

A Google search shows 4 megapixels = 4000 pictures for 8 gb card.

Have a good day.

good, if it is a 3 mpix camera, that 8 or 16 gb card should work.
I should add, assuming the squirrels don't go crazy and pose a bunch.
bumpy
jamway
Explorer
Nov 22, 2013
Bumpyroad wrote:
jamway wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
dalenoel wrote:

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.

I have a game camera aimed at my front door but am only gone for about 3 weeks at a time. they don't make SD cards large enough to carry you for 6 months.
bumpy

Our game camera worked for a little over three months this summer. It took over 900+ pictures of our dog and cat feeders. The cats, skunks, opossums and coons are there almost all night and the dog eats most of the day. The camera was still taking pictures when we came home.

If it was on our door the SD card would last a year or more. The camera is motion activated and I don't think there is a lot of traffic to our door.

Most of the pix on my camera are blank or are the east end of a deer going west. there are very few with people in them. the fella that mows the lawn has a couple on there and occasionally my neighbors cross in front. many are of little critters that trip the shutter so you will find that there is a lot of traffic to your door. it is not unusual for me to have 50-70 pictures in 3 weeks. at your 900 pix in three months that is a whole lot of pix for 6 months. don't think any of my SD cards will take 1800 shots of a decent resolution. and you have to have good resolution to pick up license plates, faces, etc.
bumpy

I did some looking and found that we have a 3.0 megapixel camera with an 8 gb card.
The pictures are very good for what we need.

A Google search shows 4 megapixels = 4000 pictures for 8 gb card.

Have a good day.
ctpres
Explorer
Nov 22, 2013
Maybe you could find a construction/job box for the smaller items.
Bumpyroad
Explorer
Nov 22, 2013
jamway wrote:
Bumpyroad wrote:
dalenoel wrote:

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.

I have a game camera aimed at my front door but am only gone for about 3 weeks at a time. they don't make SD cards large enough to carry you for 6 months.
bumpy

Our game camera worked for a little over three months this summer. It took over 900+ pictures of our dog and cat feeders. The cats, skunks, opossums and coons are there almost all night and the dog eats most of the day. The camera was still taking pictures when we came home.

If it was on our door the SD card would last a year or more. The camera is motion activated and I don't think there is a lot of traffic to our door.

Most of the pix on my camera are blank or are the east end of a deer going west. there are very few with people in them. the fella that mows the lawn has a couple on there and occasionally my neighbors cross in front. many are of little critters that trip the shutter so you will find that there is a lot of traffic to your door. it is not unusual for me to have 50-70 pictures in 3 weeks. at your 900 pix in three months that is a whole lot of pix for 6 months. don't think any of my SD cards will take 1800 shots of a decent resolution. and you have to have good resolution to pick up license plates, faces, etc.
bumpy

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Home security while away

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