The local sheriff told us about a very sophisticated group of thieves this year who were subscribing to all the latest environmental newsletters to see who had installed new solar energy systems. It was basic market research, because within weeks the thieves would then visit the new installation and cart the whole thing away. Not nice, and happily that group was arrested and put out of business.

That's a good reason not to announce exactly when and where you are taking your next backpacking trip. (We're happy to tell you all about ours once we have returned, but the Internet is just a bit too public a place for us to announce that our house is going to be uninhabited for certain dates. We've had people ask us the question, and we always demur.)

And yeah, we have neighbors who check on things. but even so. These days you can't be too careful.

Always good to be cautious, but it seems unlikely the forum here would present much risk. Someone would have to know where you live of course... then again BPL does show real names so an intelligent enough thief might be able to track you down, although it seems a little unlikely.

Strangely enough I recently heard about people being victimized by their "friends" on social media. One story, someone decided to "check in" where ever they were on vacation and one of their friends then broke into their house and robbed them. They were caught due to security cameras.