We Are Your Eyes and Ears When You’re Away

During home checks the first thing we do, before we enter a home, is a perimeter check to ensure there are no signs of forced entry. We want to make sure there are not broken windows or doors. If we ever encounter any sign of intruders we call the police to enter the home before us.

While recently doing the perimeter check on a home we are watching I noticed that both side doors had thin twigs jammed into the door frame. This looked a little irregular to me, so I quickly snapped a picture and removed the twigs. When I got to the front door I saw a twig stuck there, too. This seemed like more than just a coincidence. It seemed to me that someone had stuck the twigs into the door frames in order to monitor whether people are entering and exiting the home. They probably planned to check if the twigs stilled remained in a few days.

After completing the rest of the home check my first stop was the local police precinct. I reported the suspicious findings. There wasn’t much they could do when there was no actual incident, but they said they would keep an eye on that neighborhood for any sign of suspicious activity.

A helpful neighbor probably wouldn’t have done a perimeter check, probably wouldn’t have noted the twig, and almost certainly wouldn’t have reported the suspicious finding to the local police. A professional home watch company know what to look for and is trained to notice issues and irregularities in a home.