The Dollar Stretcher recently posted a piece that should help you take a closer look at your home security, or lack thereof. “A burglar reveals 15 trade secrets” is written from the point of view of Bob, your friendly neighborhood burglar. Some of it might surprise you.
For example, Bob says he sometimes dresses up as the cable, electric or phone guy. This reminds me of the Kinsey Millhone mystery series. Kinsey wears a coverall-ish getup when she’s breaking into a suspect’s home to look for clues. No one notices the cable guy or the meter reader, right?
At other times, Bob might be carrying a rake and posting fliers between the hours of 8 and 11 a.m. “I want to avoid any kind of confrontation,” he says. While posting the flier, he’ll take a peek inside your home. And if anyone answers his knock at the door? He’ll make up some excuse.
(A couple years back I was home by myself and there weren’t any cars in the driveway. Someone knocked, and when I answered the guy looked startled. He mumbled something about offering driveway paving; however, he didn’t have a flier, a business card or even a truck. Although I don’t know for sure that he was casing the joint, I certainly couldn’t rule it out.)
Bob loves high fences, because no one can see what he’s doing. He knows where most people stash spare keys, and also where most people “hide” money and jewelry. Bob knows a lot.
That’s why I think you you should check out the piece: So you can learn a little bit more about Bob, and how to keep him away from your stuff.
Should you name a trusted contact?
Speaking of theft: My former MSN Money colleague Liz Weston recently wrote a column about naming a trusted contact. Initially she stashed the idea in a mental file called “things to do when I get older.” Then one of Weston’s friends – a younger friend – was diagnosed with early onset dementia. Suddenly the idea gained traction.
“Anyone’s financial accounts could be vulnerable if they’re displaced by natural disaster, wind up in the hospital, suffer a brain injury or are traveling and hard to reach,” Weston writes in “Why you (and I) should name a trusted contact.”
“Helping your brokerage, bank or insurer connect with someone who knows what’s going on in your life could and prevent financial catastrophe.”
A trusted contact can’t get into and change your accounts, or even see their balances. The idea is to have someone to help get in touch with you, or to put the financial services company into contact with someone else who might help. For example, if you became very ill and a company couldn’t reach you, then your trusted contact could get in touch with your spouse/partner, legal guardian or the person who holds power of attorney over your affairs.
To be clear: This is entirely voluntary. No law says you must have a trusted contact on file. But Weston points out that financial service companies recommend it, especially since technology makes fraud so easy. However, you should not respond to e-mails or texts suggesting you name a trusted contact. They might be legit, but could also be scams trying to trick you into revealing your info. Contact the institution directly.
(Story time again: Last week I got a text from my credit union, warning me that my account had been compromised. All I needed to do was click on the link and correct the info. Riiiiight.)
Quitting your job? Read this first
Again speaking of theft: A delightful website called Bitches Get Riches recently posted an incredibly useful piece called “The resignation checklist: 25 ways to bleed your employer dry before quitting.”
It’s not only about stealing office supplies (Tip No. 23), however. The author, Kitty, lists some very strategic tactics. For example:
- Quit in the first couple days of the month, to extend your medical insurance through the end of that month. (“It saves you money and buys you time.”)
- Quit in January, if you get paid leave and live in a state that requires vacation time to be paid out as wages. (They include a chart so that you can look up the laws in your state.)
- Front-load your 401(k) contributions, if at all possible. (Especially if your company offers “true-up” matching.)
- Quit after you have gotten top use of your benefits. (Kitty gets an annual bonus every March. She plans to leave her job soon – but not before the bonus hits her account.)
- Get an independent log-in to your employer-sponsored financial accounts. (If you currently use an intranet setup, that is.)
Not every company operates the same way, but the examples used in the resignation checklist are fairly common ones. More to the point, they’re things that not everyone will think of on their way out the door.
I had the good fortune to meet the Bitches (Kitty and her co-author, Piggy) a few years back at the Financial Blogger Conference. Their writing is trenchant, often profane, and always entertaining as well as useful. It’s the “profane” part I’d like to point out; if that sort of thing bothers you, probably best to give their site a miss.
Readers: Do you have a trusted contact? Any tips on avoiding burglary that Bob didn’t cover? And are you planning your own great resignation?
Not surprised you’re also a Kinsey Milhone fan *grin* I miss Sue Grafton’s writings so much!
I had the good fortune to meet her at a mystery conference, and to give her an Alaska Sisters in Crime shirt.
Thanks for sharing us, Donna!
I think your tips could be of serious use to those who are planning their great resignations.
You’ve touched on a lot of issues here that are live ones for me. Briefly, re: Bob the Burglar, I have a burglar alarm, alert neighbors, and an excellent relationship with my police department (since I’m the local Neighborhood Watch chair).
And re: the trusted contact, a neighbor I’ve known for over 35 years is my health care proxy, backup POA, and backup executor (in case DH’s brother, who sadly appears to be going down DH’s dementia road, can’t come through). But I will make absolutely sure that she knows where to find things in case I get taken out by the proverbial speeding beer truck.
One of my coworkers and her husband decided she would not quit until after the baby came, and she’d used up all her maternity leave. She’d planned all along to be a stay at home mom, but why tell the boss when he will pay the maternity/hospitalization costs? She waited and then told the company she “changed her mind” once the maternity leave and all her vacation days and insurance benefits were spent. I’m grinning at this bc the skinflint-y boss and his company were noted for doing people wrong….my coworker gave ’em a dose of their own medicine!
The organization I worked for almost 40 years ago had a policy and process for pregnant people: if they knew you were not coming back after the birth of the baby, you would not be paid for any unused leave, and the health insurance would not cover the birth, nor be extended after the birth even if you requested and paid for it. It was legal at the time, but the information was not widely known,
Apparently my coworker and her hubby made sure that the company thought she was intending to be a working mother throughout her pregnancy and maternity leave. She even discussed with her bosses the projects she’d be working on after her return to work….and then “suddenly” changed her mind. Or so they thought; she played her role very well. The fact that she had intended to be a SAHM all along was a well-guarded secret — until long after ( a year or more after) she’d resigned.
I grew up in a two story single family home and I live in one now. In the warm weather I love to have my windows open and only use A/C at night in my bedroom (so I can sleep). Whenever I leave my house or when I go upstairs at bedtime or to house clean, I shut and lock the downstairs windows. Knock on wood no one has ever broken in. My Mom was a single mother with two daughters so safety and being aware of our surroundings was always impressed upon us.
I can relate to the great resignation part of your post. I worked for a company for 20 years and stayed until retirement. However, 2 years before my retirement date an internal transfer opportunity became available in my ultimate retirement destination across the country.
My husband and I jumped at the chance, and were able to have our final move paid for by my company including 30 days in a hotel while we got our dream home set up.
The minute my 2 year contract at the new location was up (contractually obligated) I applied for retirement.
I really enjoyed my new coworkers (and still attend the monthly luncheons) but am much happier as a retiree moved, at company expense, to our retirement location.
The company never treated me all that well, and the scuttlebutt is that my position (almost 3 years later) has never adequately been filled (at great expense to my former employer).
And I smile when I get my retirement check each month!
I’m sad I never got to read “Z.” I discovered them 2 years ago and read them in order. RIP, Sue Grafton.
PS – The guy that knocked on your door was most definitely casing it!
My favorite story about a Bob type was the time I answered the door to a very insistent salesman who kept saying if I would let him in, he would be able to tell me if I qualified for a free roofing job (?!). I started to shut the door and he actually put his foot in the frame to stop me and said, “I am not done talking.” At that point I must have communicated some distress because my beloved Irish wolfhound, who was just lounging around near my feet, reared up and, at over 6 feet tall, barked right in the guy’s face. I never saw anyone move that fast. He was a very mild mannered dog but looked quite fierce so it would be easy to think he would bite your face off.
That would definitely have gotten MY attention, all right.
The fact that the guy put his foot in the door did not bode well. I’m glad your dog scared him away.
Lindsey, I hope you gave your Irish wolfhound a steak dinner that night! Good dog!
HA! HA! I actually did!!
Bob the Burglar’s article has been repeated in Dollar Stretcher and many other sites for the last several years. But one thing he did not mention: many local police departments will have a crime prevention officer come to your home, look around and point out any lapses in safety that may help burglars or home invaders enter your residence. One biggie: make sure you lock the door to your garage, the door that goes from attached garage to inside your home. Many people neglect this, thinking that the remote control sufficiently locks the garage door and will keep the bad guys out. Many times, burglars have remote controls set to universal codes and they will go down the street pressing their control and looking for garage doors opening. Also, along the same lines: change your code from the factory-set sequence to your own set of numbers. Good idea would be to do this fairly often.
Our extended neighborhood has had an astonishing number of car thefts and car break-ins in the past few months, yet people are still doing that thing where they leave the car running in the driveway to warm up for a few minutes in the morning, or leave belongings visible in the car parked outside overnight. It’s like they rolled out a welcome mat for thieves.
Back in the early 1980s, one of my cousins was a “guest of the state” for a few years when his artist skills led him to counterfeiting certified bank checks until he got caught. One of his cell mates over the years as a burglar, who said that a dog who makes a fuss a stranger on the property was always enough to keep him from breaking into a house.
I have a friend who lives in a declining neighborhood. She has three dogs who are kept indoors. They are not large, but little “yappers.” Any time someone goes down the public sidewalk (the one parallel to the street, not the one going up to her door), those small dogs go hysterical, bark like crazy, and put up a loud fuss that would wake the dead. They keep on barking for several minutes after the passer-by has already gone. A policeman told my friend that often such little dogs are even better deterrents to burglars than the larger breeds. He said that many times, their shrill “soprano” barking sounds a lot lower when the sound goes through the wooden doors and walls. At any rate, no one could sneak upon my friend’s house when her “four-legged burglar alarms” are sounding off!