Taffy wrote the following comment in another thread and it got me thinking:

Quote: Taffy wrote in post RE: Nearly an owner!

---

claims can be negated as it as a welcome sign letting all and sundry know you were away and the possibility of an empty house. Perhaps we should all be mindful of this when taking our pride and joy away.

---

.
First off, the insane - and inane - ramblings below look as if they're aimed at you Mr C, but they aren't - it's supposed to be you as in the royal you, so I apologise for giving that impression.


In my humble opinion I think it's a matter of taking whatever common-sense precautions you can without going over the top.

As far as Facebook and all that guff is concerned I reckon an awful lot of people are far too cavalier in their use of it, and forget that to all intents and purposes anyone anywhere - literally - with access to an internet connection can stumble across (or find out, if they are so inclined) what you are up to.

If you are worried about that, don't use it.

How on earth did we all get on a few years ago without social media? Life must have been an absolute nightmare without being able to upload a picture of the rock salmon and chips you are about to tuck into or to send everybody in the western hemisphere a selfie of you and your best mate leering drunkenly into a phone camera.

I simply can't imagine how miserable we all were in the past few decades and how much better off we all are now.

Isn't it just a matter of stopping for a second to think through the possible ramifications of pressing that send button before you do?

Is it necessary? Is your life - or the life of the recipient - going to be significantly enriched by it? Do 697 million complete strangers really need to see a blurry picture of what might be your neighbour's wife's backside through the curtains?

We don't keep our caravan on the drive so there isn't a caravan-shaped gap where it was when we're away, but when we are away, like Derek we tell the neighbours that they're welcome to use our drive. All our neighbours do the same. We leave a few lights on timers to discourage opportunistic ne'er-do-wells, because I reckon that most burglaries aren't months in the planning, and that that you aren't being cased for weeks on end and all your movements written in a grubby little notebook in spidery burglar-writing.

If someone is determined to break in to your house, they will. It's as simple as that.

In the meantime, do what you can reasonably and prudently do to deter the opportunistic didicoys cruising past in a rusty flatbed Transit, but if you get paranoid about it and attempt to turn your house into Fort Knox you won't get any pleasure at all out of going away.

No offence intended, but I think decoy caravans are several steps too far.

.

For once I agree with everything you say, Pete.

The decoy caravan was a flight of whimsy after reading about the inflatable tanks, aircraft and guns used by the allies to confuse the Germans in the build-up to D-Day. (Inflatable Eribas, now there's an idea.)

I don't use social media. Whenever I've looked at Facebook (using someone else's access details with permission) I've been appalled by the inanity of most contributions and refuse to be drawn in.

One's mind is, however, focused when one's house has been burgled in the past, as ours was one year while we on holiday in France in our VW Devon camper in the 1990s. Again, perhaps the scrotes had noticed that the camper wasn't in its place in the garden and judging by the ridiculous things taken, it was more than likely local kids, according to the police who in those days actually responded to burglary notifications.

The bastards got in by forcing the sliding patio doors with a garden spade but fortunately a neighbour noticed the damage the following morning, rang the police and got a locksmith in to install additional security as it was thought that they would have been back later to take the valuable stuff that they'd left in place.

I spent weeks after the break-in checking passers-by for striped jerseys, flat caps and bags marked 'swag' but sadly they were never caught.

Quote: Poptop320 wrote in post #9

---

The son-in-law is ex Parachute Regiment.

---