When you are gone for a few days, how do you secure your house?

A local woman was staying with her mom for three days. Came back home and found that someone had changed her locks. She owns her own home.

She called the police. They came and kicked down her door. Turns out that squatters had moved in. And her whole house had been ransacked. Closets, drawers and shelves dumped out and emptied.

A woman with a kid was staying at her house. When questioned by the police, the woman said that she had been living there since February.

A neighbor saw the woman and her child get out of a Lyft. But saw the kid and assumed it was a friend or family.

Video footage caught a man walking up to the door at around 4am and knocked once before drilling.

They were there for three days. Moved furniture around. And even brought in some of their own belongings. No idea what their end game even was.

Really freaks me out just thinking about what if she had been home? Or was a really deep sleeper and didn’t hear a knock on their door?

I don’t know if I would even hear it. And I’m not sure what the best thing to do would be? Would the police get there in time if you called them?

Is there a way to prevent this somehow? A special lock? Encourage neighbors to be nosy? We have an alarm. Is that enough?

Weird and scary shit, man.