- Hey everyone.
My name is Siya Zarrabi.
And if you're new to this channel,
you've never watched our videos before,
we make travel content.
We have over 500 videos teaching people how to travel.
But we've never made a video like this.
This video is going to be about
keeping your home safe when you travel.
And the last thing you want is
you go off, you have this amazing adventure,
you go on vacation, you have an amazing time,
you come home, a window's broken and your TV's gone.
Now using the information in this video
hopefully we can avoid these type of situations.
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Here is how to keep your home safe
when you travel.
- Ring has partnered with us to make this video.
It's their mission to make neighborhoods safer
and it's our mission in this video
to help make your home safer when you travel.
Now they have video doorbells, they have floodlights,
they have security systems,
they have cameras for inside your house,
and we have a whole system setup here
so when we're away we can check in
we can make sure that things are good.
And the video doorbell, so handy!
Like if someone comes to our door and rings the doorbell
I get a notification on my phone
and I can see who's there and I can talk to them.
I was never able to do that before!
So, so handy.
Ring also has a special offer for you guys,
so stay tuned to the rest of the video
to find out what it is.
Without further ado here are 15 ways to keep your home safe
while you travel.
- [Narrator] Ask neighbors to pick up your mail.
- This is the simplest thing to do
to make your house not look like it's vacant:
like no one's around; no one's handling the mail;
no one's picking anything up.
If you have newspapers just piling up on the front porch,
if your mailbox is overflowing and exploding with letters,
that's a key indication that nobody is home.
Have a neighbor pick this up,
keep it in a pile for you for when you get back.
That way it looks like
someone is coming in and out of the house
and cleaning the mail.
- [Narrator] Have a friend stay over.
- If you have a friend with roommates
or they're living with their parents
or they have just a place that isn't that nice
and they want to stay in your place,
offer it up to them because it will be used.
Lights will be going on and off,
people coming in and out,
cars going (car starting)
in and out of the driveway,
that way, you know,
if someone is looking at your house to break in,
they won't,
because they see that someone
is coming in and out of the house.
- [Narrator] Leave a light on inside.
- Not just your front porch.
If your front porch is on at night,
sure that might deter some people.
But if it's on all day and then all night
and then all day and all night
it's a little obvious that no one's turning off
this front porch light.
So what I recommend to do
is turn on a light on the inside of the house
so that you kind of see like through the window
or through the curtains
that a light is on inside so someone must be inside.
You can also have a light that is on a timer.
So at a certain hour it goes on and then it goes off.
Kind of like your Christmas lights.
You can probably use the exact same timer
for just a lamp or something else
that it turns on and turns off.
You can also use this
for a radio too. (radio tuning to channel)
So if you want some noise that's inside the house
that way, you know, it can deter some people
if they're approaching your house
and they hear noise coming from inside.
Some of these tips are going to seem like common sense,
others you have probably never heard of before.
- [Narrator] Lock
all doors and windows. (doors locking)
- It seems obvious!
I know that my parents lock their doors and their windows.
So I thought, until I lost my key
when I was like 15 years old and I needed to get in
and like half the windows where unlocked.
So, make sure that all your and all your windows are locked.
Try and break into your own house.
And if there's a sliding door
and you need to put like a piece of wood
in front of that sliding door, do it!
Make sure that nobody can get into your house.
I know, it seems like common sense.
But people aren't doing it.
- [Narrator] Don't tell people you are leaving.
- If you're on the phone (phone rings)
with a telemarketer
and they're like, "Hey, how're you doing?"
And you're like, "Yeah, great!
"I'm packing for a trip to Mexico for two weeks."
That's telling a stranger that you're going to be gone,
you're house is vacant.
If you have a plumber come in or a repair guy
and they see that you're packing bags.
You tell them, "Oh yeah,
"I'll be gone from this day to this day.
"I'll be back on the 18th."
They're like, "Oh, okay.
"Interesting, this house will be completely empty
"until the 18th."
Don't tell people that you don't know
that you're leaving.
- [Narrator] Leave a car in the driveway.
- I did some research before this video
to look at what people who break into houses
are looking for.
What are key indications that a house
is going to be good to get into
and leave without a trace.
Often it's houses that are vacant,
when there's no car in the driveway,
when there's lights off, when mail's piling up,
when all this stuff is going on
that indicates nobody is home.
So, leaving a car in the driveway
is a key indication that somebody is home.
If you don't have a car to leave in the driveway,
if you left on a road trip,
ask a neighbor to leave their car in your driveway.
Tell them that they can park it there at the end of the day
and leave and take their car in the morning.
- [Narrator] Make it look occupied.
- So you can leave dirty shoes outside.
You can leave the blinds open on the second story.
That's a key indication that someone's upstairs
and they might be looking out of a window.
If everything is closed all the time
that might seem like it's obvious nobody's home.
But if some of the blinds are open on the top floor
where no one can can actually get and see through a window
that way it might deter someone
from coming into your house.
- [Narrator] Get the lawn mowed or shovel the driveway.
- Make sure your lown is being mowed
while you're away. (lawn mower revving)
If it's in winter and you're leaving
make sure someone is shoveling your driveway.
Pay the kid down the street in advance
to mow your lawn or shovel your driveway.
That way it's obvious that, you know,
the house is being maintained, someone's home.
- [Narrator] Have security cameras.
- We currently use the Ring system.
So it creates like a ring of security around our place.
We have cameras setup so we can always log into our phone.
We can make sure that everything's okay at home.
We can just check in on stuff,
which is really nice that, you know,
Ring's cameras are setup to be on our cellphones.
So I can check in right here
and I can see different rooms,
I can see the outside.
I can make sure that everything is okay
while we're away.
Ring also has a doorbell camera feature.
So if someone comes to your house with a package
or they ring your bell,
you actually get notified on your phone
and then you can check in and see who's there.
You can talk to them.
Sometimes people will try and see if anyone's home
and ring the bell.
If no one answers the door they know nobody's home.
But if you can answer remotely,
they don't if you're home or if you're in Thailand
or if you're in Chile or if you're in South Africa,
it's all the same thing.
You can pick up your phone, you can see their face,
you can even screen capture it if you really want,
but you can communicate with that person.
That is a huge, huge deterrent
from anyone thinking that nobody is home.
As a listener you have a special offer
on the Ring starter kit available right now.
The kit includes a Video Doorbell
and motion-activated Spotlight Cam,
which is actually everything you need
to start building a ring of security around your home.
To get this offer, you just have to go to ring.com/htg.
It's great that some of their cameras
are also battery-powered.
So you put it in a specific location that you want.
If you want it aimed out the window,
if you want it aimed at a door, a back door,
a basement door, whatever,
you can do that because it's battery-powered.
So if you're gone for the day or the weekend
it's easy to just move a camera
and you don't have to deal with any wires.
- [Narrator] Cancel deliveries and mail.
- So you can actually put your mail on hold.
If you call the post office and you just say like,
"Hey, can you hold on to my mail
"for the next like two weeks,"
That can be done really easily.
You can also, like if you have Amazon orders coming in,
you can just put them on hold
or make sure that nothing is being delivered
and left at your door when you're away.
That being said, with the Ring system,
if someone rings your doorbell
and you get a notification on your phone
and you're not there,
you can just tell them to take the package,
you're not going to be home for the next hour
even though you might be gone for a few weeks.
Remove the package so nothing's left at your door.
- [Narrator] Disable garage door opener.
- If you guys have
a remote garage door opener, (garage door opening)
did you know that there are universal garage door openers?
I know, I was just as shocked, I didn't know.
Someone could just drive around
with a universal remote opener
and try and open my door.
That's, that's scary.
A lot of people's garages have a lot of valuables in them.
And some of them actually lead into the house.
And how often do you lock that door?
- [Narrator] Keep valuables safe and out of sight.
- If you have a window without curtains in it,
well first of all get curtains
but if you have a window without curtains
don't have anything valuable
sitting on the other side of that window.
Someone can come in and see.
You could peek in, there's a fancy watch by the window,
or, you know, there's a phone sitting there.
You forgot your phone and you went traveling,
oh my god!
Don't leave your valuables sitting around.
- [Narrator] Label your luggage safely.
- When I'm traveling I put a luggage tag
on the outside of my luggage.
I put my address there, I put my name,
I put my phone number, I put my email address.
Everything, all my information, is sitting on this tag
on a piece of luggage that tells anyone
that sees that piece of luggage
no one is at this address.
I had never thought of this before.
But anyone who handles my luggage
knows that I'm not there.
What's recommended is that
instead of putting it on the outside,
you can put your name on the outside
but put your address on the inside.
Put it in on piece of paper or somewhere
so that if it gets lost and they open it up,
they see your address on the inside
and they can get it back to you.
If you're concerned about putting your home address
on this piece of paper at all,
then I recommend putting it somewhere else
where you regularly go.
Put it to a gym that you go to.
Put it to your work address.
Somewhere else that isn't your home.
- [Narrator] Don't announce you're leaving on social media.
- Because that opens it up to strangers
and friends of friends
and friends and friends and friends of friends
to know that you are away.
People like us,
we take pictures of us packing,
us at the airport, us leaving real-time.
Maybe I shouldn't have said that.
We have security cameras
and a dog. (dog barking)
- [Narrator] Move the spare key from outside.
- Yeah, a lot of people have their spare key under a mat,
on doorsill, in a windowsill,
under a plant, under a fake rock,
just people leave a key
within like five, 10 meters of their front door.
You know how easy it is to have like a little magnet
and find the key?
Or to look under stuff?
It's pretty easy.
So make sure not to do this.
Anyone who wants to break into your house
is going to see a plant and try and pick it up
and look for a key here and there.
And then easily just (door unlocking)
get in.
I hope that these tips really helped you guys out.
I want you to be safe when you travel.
And I want your home to be safe when you travel.
Home is a temple, is a safe place.
I want all your stuff inside to be safe.
And using some or all of these tips
can hopefully deter somebody from entering your house,
stop a dramatic situation from happening,
because the worst thing at the end of a trip
is to come and now you have to deal with a problem
at home.
So use these and prevent a possible situation
from happening.
If I missed anything,
if you guys do things that I didn't talk about
let me know.
I'm sure that there's way more out there in the world
to deter someone from coming in.
So, thank you guys very much for watching.
And I'll see you next video.
Bye.