Moorhead Police Wants To Ease People’s Minds When They’re Leaving For Vacation

The program is free and offered all year round. 

MOORHEAD, Minn.- They have been providing the “Vacation House Check” service since the program started almost two decades ago.

They want to make sure people get to fully enjoy their vacations without having to worry about someone breaking into their home.

“They go there and they’re going to park in the driveway and go up to the garage door, the front door, make sure that they’re locked. If there’s a lot of snow, you know there not going to through the snow, but they’re going to look for, are there any tracks, if they would be footprints in the snow. Then they’re going to investigate that further,” says Leann Wallin, the Community Policing Coordinator at Moorhead Police.

Annette Graves has been a volunteer for the program for a decade, she says she loves being able to help the community in any way she can.

“I think it brings a sense of community that you’re pulling together and protecting everybody’s house for them, but it also gives those people that are gone for the winter or vacation a sense. I know my house is safe,” says Annette Graves, a volunteer for the Moorhead Police.

She has also participated in the program.

“I knew that if something did happen, somebody would call me rather than me getting home at the end of my vacation and finding out that my home had been broken into,” Graves says.

Here are some safety tips to keep in mind while you’re away on vacation.

“Definitely cleaning the sidewalks and the driveway. Stopping the mail. If you want somebody else to have the key, a neighbor, a family member, that’s great. But, I think that the Police Department is a nice choice too. It’s just another person, another family checking on the house,” she says.