As the Summer Season Begins, ADT Urges Consumers to Think about Home Safety
This summer, an estimated 136 million1 Americans are planning to take at least one vacation and should consider taking necessary safety and security precautions to help protect what matters most while at home or away. To mark National Safety Month and the official start of the summer travel season, ADT is providing homeowners tips to help keep their families and homes safe from fire, carbon monoxide and the threat of burglary.
According to the FBI, summer is the season with the most burglaries,2 signaling a time when homeowners should be extra vigilant. As an expert in the business of safety and security for nearly 140 years, ADT employs more than 2,000 emergency dispatch operators in six customer monitoring centers across the United States and Canada. Their number one priority is giving peace of mind to customers by providing monitoring and notifying local first responders 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
ADT offers consumers a wide variety of monitored home security and automation solutions, including ADT Pulse®, which enables users to remotely arm and disarm their security systems; access real time video of their premises; manage their energy consumption by controlling thermostats, small appliances and lights from any web-enabled device; and receive notifications and alerts via phone, email or text.
Thanks to ADT, first responders were at our home in minutes, said Lisa Martin*, who experienced a burglary in her Memphis, Tennessee home earlier this year. The burglars may have kicked in the back door and stolen some of our belongings, but because I know ADT is always protecting my home, the criminals did not steal my peace of mind.
ADTs safety tips for homeowners during the summer season include:
- Be careful about the vacation details you share via social media. Burglars can use posts on Twitter or Facebook to determine when youll be away. More than one third (35%) of Americans polled in ADTs 2013 Safety Data Index survey said they believed their home is too ordinary and would not
interest a burglar.3 However, a vacant home could be enough to attract unwanted attention, so be careful about broadcasting your travel plans.
- Lock your doors even when youre gone for a brief amount of time. Two thirds (67%) of Americans surveyed for the Safety Data Index agree they do more to protect their homes when they are going away for a night than when they are just leaving for a few hours.4 But, more than half (53%)5 of home burglaries happen during the day, so homeowners should secure doors and windows every time they leave their home.
- Check your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors every month. Summer marks the beginning of hurricane season, and if a generator needs to be used in a power outage, a quick test of your monitored life safety devices can help keep your family safe from potentially dangerous fumes.
- Keep hedges and bushes around your home trimmed, so burglars dont have places to hide.
National Safety Month serves as an important reminder that we should all take proactive measures to ensure the safety of our loved ones and our homes, said Alan D. Ferber, ADTs chief customer officer. With ADT Pulse, customers can truly relax on vacation, knowing that their home is protected and can be controlled from any smartphone or web-enabled device.
To learn more about ADT and the ADT Pulse system, please visit: www.adt.com.
About ADT
The ADT Corporation (NYSE: ADT) is a leading provider of electronic security, interactive home and business automation and monitoring services for residences and small businesses in the United States and Canada. ADT’s broad and pioneering set of products and services, including ADT Pulse interactive home and business solutions, and home health services, meet a range of customer needs for todays active and increasingly mobile lifestyles. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, ADT helps provide peace of mind to more than six million customers, and it employs approximately 16,000 people at 200 locations. More information is available at www.adt.com.
About the Survey
The ADT Safety Data Index was conducted by Edelman Berland among 2,032 general population consumers representative of the U.S. population; 5,119 residents of the top 10 Designated Market Areas in the US; and 497 Small Business Owners. The survey was fielded online from February 8-18, 2013.
The margin of error for consumers (n=2032) at the 95% confidence level is +/-2.2 percentage points. The margin of error for top 10 DMAs (n=5119) is +/- 4.3 to 4.4 percentage points (varying slightly per market). The margin of error for Small Business Owners (n=497) is +/- 4.4 percentage points.
*ADT compensated Lisa Martin for participating in promotional engagements with ADT.
1 MMGYs March 2013 The Traveler Sentiment Index:
http://www.mmgyglobal.com/news/news-article/?id=116434
2 FBI and BBB: http://boston.bbb.org/article/summer-months-bring-highest-rates-of-burglaries–is-your-home-secure-28182
3 Question B10
4 Questions B10
5 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/table-7
