13 ways you might save your valuables – or life – at home

When you buy or rent a house in a new neighborhood, it might be worth considering adding a few safety features that could save your family from injury or death. While most of Las Vegas is fairly safe, there are plenty of criminals, thieves and bad characters who could do you harm or break in and steal your valuables when you are away. Here are 13 prevention ideas:

1. Be a hard target with multiple door and window locks and window braces. And don't forget to lock them.

2. Closed-circuit television — some that you can view or control remotely by phone — is much less expensive these days and let you see what's going on before you walk in.

3. Most builders in new-home communities in Las Vegas offer prewiring for motion detector systems. You may be able to add extra keypads, glass-breaking sensors and multiple sirens.

4. Good outdoor lighting can make it hard for bad guys to hide. You can pair that with motion detectors so they're not on all the time.

5. When you leave for days, put the newspaper on vacation and have a friend or neighbor pick up any fliers or other debris. Put a hold on the mail and set lights on timers.

6. But don't broadcast your trip all over social media and elsewhere. That's just inviting trouble at the house.

7. Keep a record — perhaps a room-by-room video — of what you own for insurance purposes.

8. Hire an alarm company, and let them know there when you're leaving town. If you can't do that, at least get a sticker or sign that says you have one.

9. Don't plant big bushes close to the house where bad guys can hide — unless they're thorny bushes that keep people out.

10. Keep your front windows and window coverings closed at night so people can't see in when you can't see out.

11. Join (or start) and neighborhood Block Watch program.

12. If when you come home it looks like someone has been inside, don't go in. Call the police.

13. Have a family plan to escape danger, including a meeting place outside the home so you don't wonder whether someone is still in danger.