Officer Trabulsy's Tips for a Great Vacation

Millions of Americans will be heading somewhere this holiday season.

According to AAA, 91.9 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home during the 2011-12 year-end holiday travel season (from Friday-Jan. 2), a 1.4 percent increase from last year. These are the second-highest projected travel figures for the past decade and represent nearly 30 percent of the total U.S. population.

Don't leave town without some advice from Crime Prevention/Community Relations and Safety Specialist, Ofc. Rick Trabulsy of the West Bloomfield Police Department:

When you aren’t home, try to maintain the looks of the house as much as possible to appear how you are at home — get timers for electronics. If you’re normally home at 5 p.m. and it’s dark, you turn the light on, right? Mimic that with a timer. By 5:45, you’re in the living room watching television, right? Have the TV turn on.

Have a trusted friend pick up the mail and newspaper. Don’t tell the newspaper or post office that you’re leaving unless you’re going to be away for a long time, because you don’t know who they’re sharing that information with.

Make sure that someone shovels your snow. A sure sign you’re not at home is that the snow is not shoveled.

Ask a trusted friend or relative to park their car in the driveway, so it looks like someone is coming and going.

If you’ll be gone for a week or more, have a friend or neighbor put their garbage on your curb.

West Bloomfield residents can go online or go in can fill out a vacation request slip. We won't check their house, but if something does happen, it will indicate an emergency contact.

The road requires a cautious eye as well. Remember these safety tips while you're away:

Just take what you need, especially if you’re flying. If you have to take valuables, make sure it’s in your carry-on and not the checked luggage, because you can't lock those bags.

Just take credit cards you intend to use. If you're going out of town, contact your credit card companies and let them know you’re going out of town.

If traveling by car and you go to hotel or motel, take your valuables in the room with you because criminals will look for out-of-state plates.

If you rent a car at your destination, ask the rental car company not to put any indicators that that car is a rental, because thieves target tourists.

No matter what, always be aware of your surroundings. Criminals don’t take a vacation. If youre going to Toledo or Disneyworld, criminals work those areas. They figure that if something happens to you … you are most likely not going to come back to that state for prosecution.

Laura Houser contributed to this report.