Amusement Parks No Place for Complacency

Summer is here and kids both young and young at heart love amusement parks.  One doesn’t need to drive too far to find one of many scattered across the country.

Before you go, keep in mind these three important tips to ensure your personal safety.

1.    Use lockers to store valuables or keep your necessities with you at all times. Today’s amusement parks now have some fantastic water rides.  Nothing says cool off better than a trip up the Lazy River or down the Adventure Falls.  Signage warns, “You will get soaked”.   Most parks now have barrels or shelving where you can place your belongings before boarding the water ride.  Anyone with a backpack, cell phone or wallet certainly would not want to have those items drenched; therefore they set their items in a staging area to ensure they stay dry.  However signage also warns, ‘Not responsible for lost or stolen items’.  The staging location is not manned or monitored.  Anyone could walk over to the shelves and grab any backpack or tote bag that looked interesting.  Unknowing ride passengers have just made their wallet, cell phone, keys and personal information available to a complete stranger.  Next time, opt for a zip lock bag to store your valuables, place them inside a backpack and take everything with you on the water ride.  So what if your tote gets wet; your personal information will remain secure at your side. Read the rest of this entry »

On old 1940’s TV show called You Bet Your Life, hosted by Grocho Marx, one of the segments revolved around whether a contestant would say the “secret word”, a common word revealed to the audience at the show’s outset. If a contestant said the word, a toy duck resembling Groucho with a mustache and eyeglasses, and with a cigar in its bill, descended from the ceiling to bring a $100 bill.

More recently, on the Ellen Degeneres talk show, she too likes to play a version of Guess the Secret Word. It’s pretty hilarious as she baits her celebrity guests in the most unusual way to get them to say her secret word.

While having a secret word can certainly be entertaining it, it can also be a serious subject and can potentially save lives and prevent child abductions. The information below is relevant whether you have a preschooler or a high schooler.

From the time your child is old enough to understand verbal communication he or she should know the family secret word. It’s not to be shared with others but only used in the event that you need someone else, someone different, to pick up your child from school, daycare, practice or wherever your child may be that you are not.

If you are normally the one to pick up your child and you become detained for whatever reason, you likely have a backup – friend, neighbor or relative who will retrieve your child. Likely your child will know this person and have no problems getting into a vehicle with the substitute taxi driver. Read the rest of this entry »

You can learn a great deal about the occupants of a home by what items are offered at garage and yard sales.  With the summer upon us and spring clean-up in full swing, many home residents elect to earn a few extra dollars by clearing out unwanted wares.  For those bent on gawking—and there are many—this is a long awaited ritual among the treasure seekers.  However, there are some genuine security concerns that should be taken into consideration before advertising and hosting such an event.

It is important to recognize that garage and yard sales attract attention.  Who among us has not made a U-turn or circled the block after seeing a makeshift sign offering direction to a ‘Good Junk’ or have highlighted a listing found in the local newspaper?

These forms of advertising are relatively inexpensive and usually serve their intended purpose, which is to attract buyers.  What they also accomplish is invite strangers to your home.  So, here are a few points to keep in mind when planning to make a few extra bucks this summer by selling items you no longer use or need.

1.  Consider partnering with neighbors and friends to host your sale during the same period of time. Multi-family sales attract larger numbers of seekers and enhance security for the sellers. You’ll have to select a large enough location that is suitable for everyone’s goods to be placed on display, but it also negates telegraphing to strangers who lives in a specific home.

This is especially important when infant ware and items used by children are sold. Read the rest of this entry »