I was talking to a few friends, and one of them is planning on a summer vacation for up to a month in Europe.

We live in Miami, South Florida, where hurricanes like to go.

When my friend goes on vacation, he basically closes all his metal accordian hurricane shutters on doors, windows, garage doors, all entrances. He stops mail, newspaper delivery etc...and move his car into the garage.

Another friend when going on vacation, says he leaves everything the same. He parks his car in his driveway, he draws his blinds, but leaves the shutters open. He sets up a lights in the front "room" on a timer that comes on at 7pm and goes out at 1am. He said that's safer because no one knows you are gone. He said if you lock up your home you are basically advertising to driveby thieves your home is ready for the picking. He doesn't even stop mail, he has a neighbor that comes every 2 days to pick up his mail and starts his car and move it's position on the driveway. He is concerned again if he tells the post office that he would be gone from July 1 to July 25, that someone in the post office might give that information to whoever...paranoid? or NOT?

I can see both sides. What do you think?

 

With your chances of storm damage, unless you have a way deploy the hurricane shutters while you are away, I would button up the house. I think having a well lit outside of the house is a good deterrent to thieves.

Your friends method works for him as he has a good neighbor to take care of things.

 

If the neighbor friend is willing to close the hurricane shutters then I suppose that I wouldn't close them. Trouble is, will the friend have enough time to close 'em or remember to do so?

I'd still stop the mail though.

We park in the garage most of the time...

 

In my opinion, there is little you can do to deter a determined thief...however, if leaving the home unattended, perhaps securing the property with a combination of physical security products like, bump proof deadbolts, window shatter proof film, door frame strengtheners and even maybe a localized alarm system might be worth a consideration. It is nice to have a neighbor look in, but realistically this rarely does anything to deter a burglar.