Protecting Our Personal Belongings

  As REALTORS® we are obviously in and out of a lot of properties through the course of our selling and listing duties.  When we book showings of seller's homes, it is not too uncommon to be provided with instructions wherein we are told the owner will just leave the door unlocked and personally I find this shocking.
 This past week my daughter and I were skiing and snowboarding at Blue Mountain one evening.  Having not had anything to eat since lunch, my daughter went to grab a quick bite in the Central Base Lodge and while doing so, had her snowboard stolen.  Needlesstosay it was a very upsetting experience.  It ruined our evening together and we had also planned to go out the next day.  She was upset for having worked hard on her homework all weekend so as to be able to snowboard on her day off from class and secondly because she found in unconscionable as to why anyone would take something that didn't belong to them.
  Living in a smaller community away from a large urban centre we tend to be lulled into a false sense of security.  This is a small town, everyone knows everyone else, there are no criminals here.  Wrong!  Police will tell you that crime is often more rampart in smaller places for that very reason, people lower their guard, are more trusting and consequently are more vulnerable.  My daughter knew she should have one and had planned during her drive up her to buy a lock for her snowboard.   Unfortunately she left it about an 1/2 an hour too late.
  Want another example of small town theft?  Two years ago I had a $1,000 bike stolen from the garage at my cottage on Manitoulin Island in broad daylight with somewone sleeping upstairs.  Now unless I am working outside I keep the door closed.  When I leave the propety ie: to go out in the boat the cottage is locked and so is my car.  Regardless of where you are and for how short a period to time you might be away, trust no one! This week's tragic event in Toronto where the police officer was killed by a stolen snowplow makes a snowboard theft seem inconsequential and it is.
  Three years ago the Georgian Triangle Real Estate Board invested over $100,000 for state-of-the-art lockboxes to use on seller's homes.  These lockboxes secure the keys, faciltate easy showings and also track who has been in your home.  Small town or not, the world has changed, no one and no place is immune to crime so take every precaution possible to make sure that your home, car and other personal property is secure at all times.