Home Checks: Free for the Asking

While you’re on vacation or visiting friends and relatives over the holidays, the Coronado Senior Volunteer Patrol will drive by your house once a day to make sure all is well.

And it's not just for the holidays: The service is available all year and it’s free.

“It’s hard to know how many people take advantage of the vacation house check service. We only wish more people would,” said Lea Corbin, community relations coordinator for the . 

The caveats: Vacant properties, homes under construction, and vacation homes do not quality for the service, which has been available countywide since 1995.

But for those who are eligible, the service pays off.

“Every couple of months one of the senior volunteers doing a house check reports that they found a door unlocked, a window left open, or a car parked in the driveway that is not supposed to be there,” Corbin said.

Signing up is simple: Just go to the Orange Avenue station and fill out a request, with some basic questions.

• When do you plan to leave and return? 
• Do you have any broken windows or screens?
• Who might be coming on the property while you’re gone, such as a pet sitter or gardener?  

People most often neglect to answer a couple of the questions, according to Doug Crane, 83, of the patrol. 

“Sometimes people come back early and forget to tell us,” he said. “We open the door, and often find people not quite dressed for company.” 

Occasionally people also forget to suspend their newspaper or mail service. The patrol helps with that too.

“When that happens, we put the mail or papers out of sight, in a safe place,” said another volunteer, Ken Garrigan, age 89.