Summer is upon us and so is the desire to head out on vacation, but St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne warns a home could be vulnerable to burglars without taking precautions.
Champagne recently imparted some advice to parish residents to curb such incidents – while also offering a helping hand.
The Sheriff’s Office offers a “patrol request” service in which residents can inform deputies working near their home that they will be out of town and no one should be staying at the home.
According to Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Pat Yoes, a patrol request allows patrol deputies to be more vigilant about a residence that will be uninhabited during vacation time, and if someone is around or in the home during that time, police can pursue the matter accordingly.
“They’ll know to check that beat with a heightened level of awareness,” Yoes said.
Yoes said the service works best if the vacationers designate a friend, neighbor or family member to keep an eye on the residence as well, one perhaps allowed to hold an alternate key to the residence. If the homeowner provides a phone number for that designated person to the Sheriff’s Office, it makes the process of protecting that home flow much better.
“In that case, if we see something suspicious at the residence, we can call the contact person and find out if it’s an emergency or if anyone should be (at the home),” Yoes said. “If it’s a keyholder, it helps, certainly, if it’s a situation where we need to go in and search the residence.”
Champagne gave additional tips via Facebook as to how to lessen the probability that one’s house be burglarized when out of town.
“Have a designated person check your mail box, pick up your newspaper and go to the house daily to turn on and leave on various lighting in your residence,” Champagne said. “The last thing you want to do is leave for a week and have obvious signs at your home that no one has been there in a few days.”
Yoes added another point, as well: with today’s proliferation of social media – and, therefore, the often-easy access the world can have to a person’s personal life – it may be prudent to save the vacation photos until after one’s return.
“If you know nobody’s going to be at your home, you probably shouldn’t post those pictures at the beach until you come back,” Yoes said. “At the very least, be a little conscientious of what you post, because in many cases it sends a flag up that the home has been left unattended.”
To set up a patrol request, call (985) 783-1145.
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