Through the City of Woodbury’s free vacation check program residents who are going out of town can request extra patrols of their home. iStock/Liliboas
The holiday vacation check program is a free service offered to Woodbury residents.
The holiday season is here. Your bags are packed, the gifts are wrapped and you’re ready for a weekend away to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. But what isn’t wonderful is the feeling of uncertainty that comes with leaving your home unattended for several days.
That’s where the Woodbury Police Department comes in. Delivering peace of mind, the department offers a vacation program that checks on residents’ homes while they’re away. “It’s an extremely popular program,” says Tom Ehrenberg, Woodbury patrol commander, noting it’s available year-round, not just during the holidays.
The vacation check program is a free service that allows residents to register online for extra patrols when they’re out of town. The online form requests the following information: What dates the homeowner will be gone, if they have an alarm system and who to contact if something happens.
Woodbury Community Service Officers (CSOs) play a key role in the program, offering peace of mind to homeowners but also gaining a lay of the land while training to become a police officer.
“The CSO will go around the house, make sure doors are intact, windows aren’t broken and that there are no major water leaks,” Ehrenberg says. “We make sure the house is in order, which 99.9 percent of the time, it is.”
If a door is open, which is often due to not properly latching, the officer will enter the house to check things out to ensure order inside. “Our city is very safe,” Ehrenberg says. “We rarely see break-ins to someone’s home.”
Many break-in type crimes are those of opportunity, he says. These types of crimes are often committed without pre-planning and occur when a situation presents itself, like an open garage door or an unattended item. A few things to do to avoid creating situations of opportunity crimes include: close your garage door; install motion-activated lights and security cameras; keep car doors locked; lock the service door between the attached garage and the house; and make sure valuables and computers are out of sight.
Ehrenberg encourages local residents to take advantage of the program if they’re unable to find someone to watch their home for them while they’re away.
How to Prevent Holiday Package Theft
While break-ins are rare, there is an uptick in retail and porch thefts during the holidays, Tom Ehrenberg, Woodbury patrol commander, says.
The City of Woodbury encourages residents to take the following proactive steps to guard their packages, so they make it off the porch and under the tree:
- Bring your packages in immediately after delivery.
- Consider exterior home security cameras.
- Have a neighbor who is home during the delivery window secure the package.
- Have your packages shipped to your workplace.
- Ship to designated secure pickup locations or to the management office if you live in an apartment.
- Use ship-to-store options when ordering.
- Utilize an in-home delivery service.
Ehrenberg and the City of Woodbury’s website encourage residents to report any suspicious activity, such as vehicles following delivery trucks or unfamiliar cars lurking in neighborhoods, especially if occupants of such cars are approaching homes. “Security cameras can help if there are a string of package thefts in the area,” he says. “While we can’t always catch someone from camera footage, it can help us notice any patterns.”
Heading out of town? Sign up for the vacation check program at woodburymn.gov.
