On 22/11/2016 08:25, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 21/11/16 20:46, Rod Speed wrote:


"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
news
On 21/11/16 16:48, Capitol wrote:
harry wrote:
On Monday, 21 November 2016 10:34:58 UTC, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:
An elderly friend is going abroad over Christmas for 5 weeks to visit
family, and wants to know what to do about his letterbox, which wont
hold 5 weeks of mail and would rather give the game away if left
stuffed
with weeks old letters.

Poste Restante seems to only hold mail for two weeks.

What are the alternatives?

He also needs to turn off water and drain down tanks in loft.
Including central heating.
Also gas& electricity.

Empty freezers& fridges.
Get rid of perishable food.
Clean and leave doors open.

Hide/remove all valuable items.

Leaving houses empty this time of year is bad news.

Get someone to go in every few days& check the place out.

Scaremongering. The risks are minimal if you don't have a modern
boiler. If you turn off the heating, you give yourself lots more
problems, like having yo put anti freeze into toilets etc. BTDTGTTS!

One useful and cheap thing is a couple of timers to switch lights on
- one
downstairs and one upstairs. Or in a couple of different rooms if a
bungalow or flat on one level.

Its far from clear that that does actually make any significant
difference.

Apparently most of the crims knock on the door to see if there is anyone
home.

We really need some decent stats now that its so easy to log when that
sort of thing happens with so many with decent surveillance systems
but I spose they arent likely to be too keen on publishing the stats
even if they have them.

Probably not. I guess the idea is to dissuade the crims. If there are 10
houses in a street with lights on, whether occupied or not, and a couple
without lights, I think they would try those first. I wonder if those
"fake TV" lights flashing various colours behind closed curtains are any
better?

I've got one of those. It looks convincing to me but then a) I haven't
got a real telly to compare it with and b) I'm not a burglar whose
livlihood depends on such discernment.

Nick