During the summer season, a lot of residents go on vacations and leave their homes unattended. This is also popular season for break-ins. An “obviously” empty home is an easy target for a burglar. Here are some simple ways to avoid becoming a target:

Complete a “vacation watch” by registering your home with the Orange Police Department

Always install new locks in a home when moving in, even if it is a newly built home. Never use locks someone else has had a key to. This means back, side and front doors.

Install a small "peephole" in the front and back door and use it to look before you open a door for someone, whether it is nighttime or daytime.

When answering the door, ask to see proper identification; if the person is a salesman, solicitor, repairman or utility company representative, he or she will have proper identification.

Never leave an extra key to the house in the mailbox, under doormats, over door frames or anywhere else-they are easily found.

Outside: light up the side of the house, back and front and garage area with floodlights. Inside: leave a light on. Using a timer that turns on and off the lights is recommended

• Use dead-bolt locks (especially the ones that require a key); or use sliding barrel locks; use crossbars and hasp locks on garage and other such doors.

• Check your door hinges . . . if the pins are on the outside, change them to the inside (or to non-removable ones) to prevent a burglar from removing them to open the door and get in.

• Make sure locks are away from windows (to prevent the window from being smashed and the burglar reaching in to unlock it).

• Use chain locks as an added precaution on all entries.

*When not at home: don't leave a note saying when you will return and make sure you close the garage door when leaving (lock it too).

not only should every window have a lock on it (the best is a key lock), but it should have an additional lock that prevents it from being lifted higher than four inches.

*Strong door frames and window frames: it does little good to attach good locks to door frames or window frames when the frames are weak, rotted or defective. Make sure your frames are solid and as strong as the locks and hinges.

• Do not leave ladders outside the house; they are perfect devices for entry.

• Keep the shrubbery trimmed away from windows and keep it trimmed to a low height; they are excellent places for someone to hide and not be seen when burglarizing.

• Sliding doors are used frequently by burglars to enter. There should be two locks on such doors . . . plus put a sliding board or broom handle braced inside the track to prevent the door from opening from the outside.

• Check your locks (especially ones at doors and windows you do not use often); if any have been tampered with, replace immediately and report it to the police.

• Consider having a dog in the house; they are excellent noise makers and burglars avoid them for many reasons.

• Do not keep stocks, bonds, coin collections and such in your home; put them in a safe deposit box at the local bank.

• Use an engraver to engrave your initials on all valuables (silver, TV, radio, stereo, clocks, guns, cameras, projectors, watches, typewriters, small and large appliances, paintings and other items) to aid in their recovery if stolen and help police trace the items to the burglar.

• For items that cannot be engraved, write down their descriptions and keep in a safe place. Use this to identify stolen items and it will allow you to recover them if stolen. (If you cannot prove an item is yours, you cannot receive it even if police have recovered it).

• Aside from locking the garage, never leave the key to the car or anything else in the car or garage.

• Glass: use break-resistant glass at every window possible, especially in doors; remember also to nail or screw shut any unused windows and check around the house at all heights to make sure rarely used windows or possible points of entry (such as a skylight, ventilator, air conditioner, window, etc.) are also secured with nail, screw or lock. Burglars do not like to "work" to get into a place-they like the easy places.

• Do not install a "doggie door" in any of your doors leading to the outside or into the garage; they can become "burglar doors" too.

• Report too many "wrong number" calls you receive from telephone callers to the Orange Police Department and the telephone company; it could be a burglar trying to determine if anyone is at home.