Guess country life isn't safe either...

[bowserb]

Our kids are grown. The grandchildren have never seen a gun in our house. When they ask about what is in the safe, I tell them it's just papers about the house and cars and stuff. I still wear a concealed handgun when they're here, and I keep it in a GunVault on the nightstand overnight. Young children are the biggest braggarts there are...at school, especially, and everyone including bad guys, has kids in school.

 

[Halal Pork]

I just try to pay attention and not look like a soft target. Now, not looking like a soft target when you get down to it might sound like some folks' joking suggestion of how to survive a bear attack: Just be sure you can run faster than one of your friends. I mean my house can certainly be broken into, but it looks like a more hardened target than any of my neighbors' houses; so thieves will likely choose the path of least resistance and pass on my home.

When I moved into my neighborhood in a town too small to have a post office, I got a bit too lax. If you pay attention, some incident will slap some sense back into you. The first incident for me was a Halloween night. Being in a semi-rural area, parents truly out in the sticks will put their kids in the car and drive them to a tiny residential neighborhood such as mine to go trick or treating. I saw two sets of parents that first Halloween who were very likely meth addicts. While I didn't have any particular concern about the individuals, it did remind me that if you're out in the country meth is likely a problem and that even though I think my little neighborhood might be virtually crime free internally there are people with meth addictions within a short drive. Back to reality.

 

[Warp]

OP: Small point...it wasn't a robbery.

Living in the country absolutely does not make you safe from other people. Anywhere you can go other people can go, and anywhere other people can go you are at some risk of attack or theft or vandalism or whatever from other people.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Arkansas has a couple of laws that are pretty effective in curbing this sort of thing. the first, of course is liberalized concealed carry. When you force your way into a house, you can't be sure the people have taken their guns off.

The second law says any force used by a homeowner against an intruder or arsonist is presumed reasonable. And if charges arise, the judge must read the law to the jury in giving them their final instructions.

I live in a rural county of 11,000 or so, and we've had one murder in the 13 years I've been here.

 

[gym]

Just to add a thought, my wifes nephew 53 yrs old, called yesterday to ask me which shotgun he should buy. This is trully a big deal since he was not the least bit interested in guns, even up to 6 months ago when he was staying in Vero beach FL. It has dawned on him, "even being a Budist" and a "Holy man", that he now requires a weapon in the house he moved into in Idaho. We spoke for a time, as he is an interesting guy, always into some new venture, and he said that he just realized that I was right in what I had been advising him about what may lie ahead and wht is happening now.
Now that's a major turnaround, from an intelligent enough guy who sees what is happening to society and is likelly to continue in a downward spiral.
We settled on an auto shotgun, him not being a shooter, he wants something he can load 8 rounds in, and not have to think about pumping or any other manual control, other than racking it once and releasing the safety. The largest selling gun from "Buds" last few months, was the Interstate 12 Gauge shotgun. People are looking for an inexpensive 12 gauge for home defense. Wallmart had the auto version for three hundred dollars last week, here in town. Anyone have any experience with the auto version, and is the an extension tube available?
These home invasion type robberies are going to continue until we get the economy back on track. It's going to get worse before it gets better, I had devoted my facebook page to pointing out crime stats and letting folks know what is going on that these politicians are covering up. I went as far as pulling everything out of the Stock Market, for the first time ever. I feel we are headed for a nosedive, and tonight a new survey came out showing home purchasing trends are at an all time low, the worse in history, expect this to be reflected in coming days in the market, like today.
We must be on high alert at all times, as you never know who overhears what from someone who may be speaking in generalities about friends who own guns, safes, etc.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Now that's a major turnaround, from an intelligent enough guy who sees what is happening to society and is likelly to continue in a downward spiral

Old saying, "A man who doesn't have a gun when he needs one will be buried as a fool."

 

[Malamute]

Another thought in the safety mindset, city or country. There are decent quality security camera systems that can do some interesting things. They can be set up to react to movement in specific areas of the camera image, and do several things when activated. Some of what they can do is, call certain phone numbers (like your cell), and either give a recorded anouncement or notice of activation. They can also start videoing or taking still pics, and can transmit the images to an e-mail address or your smart phone, so you can see in real time what's happening at home when the system activates. It can transmit the images or video to an offsite host also to keep it secure. It can activate an onsite alarm or lights. Most also will work in darkness (night vision). Price varies with quality, but even fairly inexpensive ones can do a lot today, tho with less video quality.

Ther is another type I'm interested in also. It has a hand held receiver/screen, and two cameras that operate wirelessly. It's meant for onsite use for shorter distances, as in, while you're home, but it allows instant checking of the video stream anywhere you are at that moment and are in range. I believe it also has settable ranges for alert, like narrowing the field of the screen for only certain areas to be alerting, and sensitivity to motion, like the other one mentioned. That adjustement allows you to tune the sensitivity to help screen out "normal" or background activity. This hand held type would be potentially useful away from home as well.

 

[Zoogster]

Yes malamute those systems can be useful, but half of the deterent they provide requires the criminal to know of the capabilities they have to be concerned about. If the criminal knows of the capabilities they can also work to try and disable them.
A system relying on internet, cell phone, or land line use could be disabled just by cutting the lines to the house and using a cell phone jammer (readily available in much of the world, extremely simple electronically, though illegal in the USA.) System readily disabled within less than the first minute of arriving at the home all before even making entrance.



It reminds me of the hidden cameras I put on a motorcycle to constantly record. Primarily to provide evidence in the event of a hit and run and assure conviction of whoever hit me.
That transformed into providing video while parked as well.
I thought about it and realized while useful they provided no deterent. It didn't reduce a hit and run because nobody would know they were on video until after the video led to their arrest. It didn't reduce damage while parked for the same reason.
The recorded video was stored on the vehicle. (I didn't want to pay to incorporate a cell phone and extra monthly plan into it.) So if the video system was known and targeted, the video did no good.
If I made the cameras known to deter it would deter more, but then it would also be targeted for destruction and so was a worthless feature.
So either it provided no deterent, or it would provide deterent but be easily targeted for destruction and so be worthless if someone still chose to do something.

Well the same is true of various security systems. If nobody knows what they do they won't provide the same level of deterent. But if they do know what they do, they can figure out ways to make them worthless because by knowing what they do they can figure out what can be destroyed or disabled to make them worthless.

 

[Halal Pork]

I have cameras up around the exterior of my house and they are in no way hidden. When they went up, it caused a minor furor in the neighborhood. I'm sure it provides some deterrent for anyone paying attention and it also keeps regular folks on good behavior when they come on my property. It also allows me to glance at a screen and see what is going on outside. Of course any preventive measure can be defeated, but in my case someone would need a ladder or shoot out the cameras which in either case would still show them on camera. Storing recordings online or onsite is another consideration anyone interested in cameras will have to consider. I feel better having cameras, particularly since living way out does not lend itself well to prompt police response times.

 

[gym]

If you are going to use Cameras, use hard wired ones. As mentioned the jammers sell from $50-$1,500, depending on range and power. They will also jam cell phone transmission.
I have been procrastinating for 3 years now about hard wiring 2-4 cameras myself. The only thing I can tell you from experience with a home invasion, is that masked men are impossible to identify. I was able to do it by comparing notes with other victims of similar robberies. But if they see cameras, a good theif will return in disguise. The amature I don't worry about as much, having dogs and alarms , along with carrying in the house. They will help with kids breaking into cars and such.

 

[Malamute]

Zoog, I think you're more interested in deterence than I am. I'm more interested in catching who did something, if anything ever did happen. I'd as soon they not know they (cameras) were there. If anyone is deterred, it would be when they happned to look right at the camera. Smile. (Too late, I see you.)

There really is very little happening around me, I just mostly like to know whos been there when I'm not, which is very rarely in any event.

Perhaps in other areas deterence is a higher priority. I want to be as discrete as possible that I even have anything.

Some people have used game cameras to catch images of people around their place, which can work ok, tho a couple have had the cameras taken when discovered. A couple of those using the game cams have caught images of neighbors/locals on their place. When asked, the neighbors denied it, then when handed copies of the pics, got quiet, but were enver seen around the place again. The best stories are when they had things taken, and were able to give pics of the people to law enforcement, which generally cleans up loose ends nicely.