With the holidays here, people are hitting the roads, whether it's for vacation or a getaway to see the family.

But leaving your home for an extended period of time can be worrisome.

A lot of people will ask neighbors to keep an eye on their home while they're traveling for the holidays, and while Tampa Police encourage that, authorities say call them also and an officer will actually come and check on your house for you while you're away.

"It's nice to know that somebody's looking out for us," said Rodolfo Ofarrill, who lives in West Tampa. He said the neighborhood is typically quiet but he has concerns when he's out of town.

"We have the stadium down the street and we have a lot of people who come here that sometimes we don't know," he said.

It's the unknown that makes him uneasy and could put him in jeopardy of being burglarized.

"If you go out of town, your house is vulnerable," said Stephen Hegarty of the Tampa Police Department. "And if someone notices that there's no one at home, you're vulnerable to a burglar."

Hegarty said one option is the department's Vacation Watch Program.

"What you do is you let us know when you're going to be gone, and we send someone by who will walk around your house to make sure nothing is where it shouldn't be, there are no broken windows or anything like that," Hegarty said.

Rodolfo said having an officer check on his home while he's out of town would give him peace of mind, and it's something he plans on utilizing from now on.

"We don't want to just hear about it after you get home and you find that you've had a problem," Hegarty said. "That's a problem for you and for us. We want to cut down on those burglaries, so it's good for us and good for the neighborhood as well."

Police ask that you plan ahead and give them a few days notice if you would like an officer to check your home.