Have you ever forgotten to close your windows and pull the curtains when you’re in a hurry to leave home, or going on vacation? Let’s think, Home Alone style here people! It seems trivial, but when you are away from home for longer periods of time, the risk associated with unpleasant things like break-ins heightens greatly.

Every Christmas holiday, our family likes to go on vacation. We’re always usually in a hurry before going out (family trait, soz) and will forget a ton of things, including drawing curtains curtains. And I remember one specific time we’d come back, and our backdoor had been broken into, resulting in us losing over $1200 worth of personal items. Yeah, not so great.

Generally speaking, before committing crimes, thieves tend to pay close attention to whatever it is they’re looking to pounce on, especially houses. They usually love to observe through open windows and see what valuable items might be located inside for them to get their hands on. This also prompts the need to act on thoughts of theft. So they usually squat out an area of interest first.

Things thieves usually take note of are: if you’re an office worker, single women living alone, elderly people, etc. These people usually stay away from home for a long time because of work, business trips or vacations. Even houses far away in the countryside are not safe sometimes, and can usually also be empty for long periods of time.

They’ll also pay attention to your daily schedule. And may wander around your window in advance to check your house environment and make sure its empty. For example, they might caulculate your work and rest time, and know when you leave home and and what time you come back. Once they’re sure you’re out (and not coming back for a while), they’ll jump right in, and start getting up to mischeif.

Now that said theif has found your property, assesed taht you’re not home, ain’t coming back for a while, and has found a way to get in, they’ll start making a mess.

So let’s take some smart home security measures to reduce the possibility of thieves invading your home and making life miserable.

Make it look like someone is home!

SwitchBot Curtain + Color Bulb + Hub Mini

Pretending someone is home is actually a great theft prevention method. Through some simple smart home installation steps, thieves will end up thinking that there is someone in your house, creating an environment that is difficult to steal, especially seeing as thieves can’t differentiaite, and due to uncertainty, and more likely to retreat and find a new target. If your home uses old-fashioned curtains, SwitchBot Curtain can help make your curtain smart. Just hang it behind your curtains, connect it with a SwitchBot Color Bulb and Hub Mini, and you’re good to go.

When you go to work or go on vacation for a long time, if you forget to close your curtains accidentally, you can close them remotely using our app. And before going out, you can set up an automation scene in advance according to your normal daily work routine and let SwitchBot Curtain open and close your curtains regularly. At dinner time, use Color Bulb to light up your living room, and make it look like someone is still inside your home living their life.

Stay alert and record should someone come through the windows.

SwitchBot Contact Sensor + Motion Sensor + Pan Tilt/Cam + Hub Mini

Just like in the movies, thieves might enter a bank to steal jewelry and accidentally set off an alarm thanks to red lines. We can also use infrared smart home products to achieve a similar effect by detecting movement or when someone opens a specific window or door.

Install SwitchBot Contact Sensor on a window or door to sense its opening and closing state, and then place a Motion Sensor nearby somewhere not quite noticeable, think maybe along the lines of shoe cabinets and porches. Then, when no one is at home, should a closed window or door suddenly open, SwitchBot Motion Sensor will send a notification message through our app to you when it detects movement.

SwitchBot Pan Tilt/Cam 2K is also a great way to monitor your home and check to see if there are strangers inside, allowing you to alert authorities in time and get a clear picture to see who’s inside your home. Our infrared devices can also detect entry, offering more peace of mind no matter where you are.

To sum up, the most important thing to help prevent burglars from invading your home is not to let them know that you may be a target. People who are away from home for a long time can take some simple smart home precautions, and the results may be utterly astounding. If our home had these devices sooner, you never know, we may have been spared.