There are many holiday cottages for sale in the Central Bohemian Region, it is an area where people have relatively higher incomes, sell flats and old abandoned cottages and solve their housing problems by buying a family house with a garden. This leaves many holiday properties abandoned and, especially in cottage colonies, they are then targeted by thieves who can easily take possession of other people\’s property by forced entry. This crime is also very difficult to clarify and, unless fingerprints are preserved, it is virtually impossible to catch the burglars, who are not disturbed in their activities.
Among the uninvited guests there are also homeless people, foreigners, and it happens that they spend several days in the cottage during the off-season, where they even stay overnight. If there is only old furniture and no valuables inside, the owners are more bothered by the fact that a stranger with questionable hygiene habits slept in their bed and used their bed linen. Several fires have been reported recently, some of them caused by carelessness, but fires started deliberately to cover their tracks by uninvited guests are no exception.
What to do when winterizing a cottage
– Do not leave any valuable items in the hut.
– If possible, also take away any tools and ladders or steel pipes, crowbars and things that may be better used to commit crimes.
– It\’s also worth fitting battery-operated \’online\’ security cameras that sense movement and send a signal via a web interface. Security locks, window bars and similar security features are also useful.
– Do not forget to turn off the electricity supply and close the water main.
– Also take away all food, including non-perishable food (milk, flour, etc.), as this will make it difficult for uninvited guests to stay longer.
– You can also secure cellars and sheds with security locks.
– Take photos of the outside and inside of the building and write down what is left inside, this may be useful in a burglary investigation.
– There are various alarm-based electronic security features on the market today that warn the owner with a GPS locator, operate silently, thus not alerting burglars, and you can notify the police in the meantime. Combined with a camera system that transmits online data, this can be a powerful weapon.