Why Burglars Wait for Funerals and Open Houses to Strike

A funeral notice tells a stranger four things at once. The family name. Often the neighborhood. The date. And the exact hour an entire household will be somewhere else, dressed in black, surrounded by everybody who would otherwise have noticed something. Nobody writing that notice is thinking about any of this. Here's what most people get wrong. Almost nobody is watching your house for a fortnight, because that's work. What actually happens is somebody looks for a house where the absence is already published — and a funeral is the clearest example there is. It also concentrates risk in a way nothing else does. The deceased's home is empty. The adult children's homes are empty. Every connected household is at the same building at the same hour. In this video: how to word the notice, why somebody should be in the house during the service, and the open house checklist — including the prescription theft that happens constantly and the window left unlatched during a viewing. And the section that matters most: after a death, the realistic risk isn't a break-in. It's obituary-targeted fraud, and flagging the credit file early is the single most effective thing a family can do. 📕 Off the List — three books at edbrannigan.com 💬 Did anyone ever mention any of this when you arranged a funeral? #homesecurity #funeral #openhouse #estatesale #fraudprevention #identitytheft #retiredcop #safetytips #griefsupport #protectyourhome