Home security systems

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broken glass alert (device is tuned to the frequency of broken glass and will alarm upon 'hearing it). Motion detectors inside going up/down stairs (if you have more than 1 story). Signs of security around home (brinks, ADT, etc..), don't leave ladders/tools around outside of home, clear brush around windows or plant roses around windows. Dog is good. Gun safe bolted down is good. Concealed is better. Lamp(s) on timers. Paint your car like a patrol car and leave in driveway :)
 
sticky bushes or thorny flowering bushes around windows...infrared/motion sensors aimed at shoulder height....get a garage door opener and wire in some remote power on/off switches and program the openor to the switches. kinda handy pulling up in a car or near a nightstand.


another idea is get a motion activate camera and connect it to your computer. these will record movements in front of the camera, log onto a remote computer and check in from time to time.Some phones have a feature that lets you dial in and turn the handset on and listen to whats going on. a couple great ideas if you can safeguard your password.

shock sensors and pressure pads...have the alarm in the attick where it cant be disabled from outside.
 
A less expensive option would be to put motion sensors INSIDE the house. Have the system monitered and install earsplitting alarms in the soffits. Doesn't work well (or works too well) if you have pets that roam the house while you're gone.
 
Well, as I peruse self defense forums, I see lots of suggestions. Alarms, guns, complicated things. Best thing you can do, bar none, is the dog. People don't like dogs when they are loud. They just don't. Criminals are people. Looking at that wolfy, hungry looking fellow barking at them in your window is much better at detering theft than 90000 home alarms, reinforced with concealed claymore mines and pungi pits.

As far as guns go, I'm ambivalent. My self defense is size thirteen and comes with a steel toe, but if you aren't the physically imposing, firearms may be helpful (but don't hesitate to just take Aikido classes and never have to worry about ammo :))
 
Monitored alarms can take a LOOOOOONG time to get a response. Make sure you have a local siren or bell that will scare the burglars away.

MHO,

Larry
 
Thanks for the advise so far. I've had someone illegally enter my house also, very aggravating. They didn't take anything though, the only way I knew they were there was that the window in my room was open when I got home.
Click to expand...

If they didn't take anything, then maybe they left something. :uhoh:
 
new motion sensors are excellent, impossible to trick and very false alarm proof. You definately need cell phone back up. Top of the line wireless systems make perimeter protection affordable, and very reliable. You need to have the system set-up with two levels of protection, one for unoccupied and one for occupied. The unoccupied is easiest, 3-6 motion detectors inside will cover almost any residence. For occupied you need complete perimeter protection. This is very expensive to do right. Contacts on all the doors and glassbreaks on or in all areas that have expanses of glass big enough to admit an intruder. If your monitoring service doesn't respond fast enough get another one. If your really serious spend the money to have local law enforcement do the monitoring. Dogs are great especially those little annoying yappy ones that drive you crazy. Their only function is to alert you. Use an LCD keypad and have an ambush code set up. Have another one in your bedroom so that you will instantly know where the breach is in the system. Have wireless panic alarms, the ones you wear around your neck, for you and your wife. Have fire protection integrated into your alarm system. Also low temp if appropriate for your climate. Security is a pain in the a$$ and real security is a real painin theA$$. The wireless panics are so usefull you could almost use them alone. They are effective even if your out inthe yard or just pulling into the garage. And many people have survived serious medical emergencies because they had one.
 
my security setup

My security setup was stolen by a popular movie :p

mg42-01-large.jpg


If things get too out of hand, like a robber gets in...I just lock myself downstairs in the saferoom and let the 88 blow the house to shreds.

88-1.gif


Cmon, you guys mean to tell me you don't have 88's? *loud sigh*
 
Your dog doesn't have to be big to strike fear into a burglar.

Local pounds are usually full of bully breed dogs. Usually I'm a huge anti-lie person, but the media hype about pits being vicious may actually work for you in this case.

Similar to other dogs, bully breeds are very friendly towards owners but tend to be very protective. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the unfriendly end of my latest addition.
Her name is Sara, she is a year old Pit/Bull Terrier mix. She is currently sporting a lampshade collar due to a small surgery she needed on her ear. In the next week, she'll be going in to get her tail docked because of happy tail syndrome.
Thus far she is friendly and downright silly around friends and family. She has already become quite protective of her house. I'm glad to have her around.
 
My lab/GSD mix goes 100lbs, tactical black, except the teeth which show up quite well in low light. In 9 yrs has never bitten anyone, but came through a lauan interior door, with "cat door" while no one was home for reasons unknown. Threatened to come through same door when friend brought a dog into 'her house'. No problem with other dogs out in public.

After finding "Watchtower" on back porch and scratches inside back door, suspect a couple Jehovah's Witnesses may have need to change clothes recently. No one home then, either.

Stay safe, and get a dog.
Bob
 
Some ideas

Some simple ideas:

You may want to substitute double french doors for the sliders, especially the ones with high and low latches that will keep them together even when somebody breaks a pane near the knob and reaches in and turns it. Window dressings on french doors are easier and more private, yet they are still easy on the eyes and let you enjoy your view when closed but un-blinded/curtained.

Change your hinges to the type (don't remember the name) that have indexed holes and matching catches that keep the doors from being taken off their hinges.

Any outside access door without a dead-bolt needs a dead-bolt, and it needs to be used.

Windows need to be lockable.

Leave a TV on with volume up when you leave the house, if there is no dog.

Motion sensor lighting at all entrances outside are mandatory.

If you can't afford a proper alarm system: find "choke points" where somebody is going to have to pass once just inside the garage or doors, and use cheap "plug-in" motion sensing alarms that are real piercing, Rat Shack has them.

Noise is what's going to keep them out, or drive them out. Forcing them to break glass or make a real noisy entry is half the battle, whether you are home or not. After that, if you're home, your armed and ready, if not then the alarm has to alert a third party while helping the burglar decide to bug out.

Where we live, the VAST majority of break-ins occur from noon-2pm, when people are out. Gear your protection accordingly.
 
You need to watch "It Takes a Thief" on the Discovery Channel and you will find out alot about what it takes to make your home safer. Two ex burglars actually break into peoples homes and record it to show them how easy it is! Very educational, it's on about 7:00 on Wednesday nites.

Also, I love dogs and have one but the average dog is about worthless. In at least one episode the guys break into a house with a pretty good sized pit bull and they end up playing with the dog! You need a trained (read @ss biting) dog, not a cutesy family pet.
 
Dogs are useless unless it s a trained guard dog. We had dogs both times our house was burglarized. We had an alrm system the second time our house was burglarized and the guy just cut the wires. If you run a security alarm system cover the wires with metal conduit to keep them from being cut (that includes your external phone wire outside the house).
 
All of the suggestions seem to focus on night-time breakins, when you are home. A lot happens during the day, when nobody's home. A dog may or may not be a threat to a burglar, then -- as there's nobody to wake up! If there's nobody home, only truly well-trained dogs are a danger to the burglar; the rest are just temporary irritations.

A good home security system should also help protect your property when you (and your dog) are out visiting family in another county, gone fishing, during the day, when the dog might be in the the back yard or kennel, etc.
 
All of the suggestions seem to focus on night-time breakins, when you are home. A lot happens during the day, when nobody's home.
Click to expand...

Well said. The vast majority of break in's are to empty homes.

A lot of my friends have a ready gun in every room, tac lights, cell phones, everything for the home invasion... except an alarm or a gun safe to protect their empty home..........
 
Evil Ed,

Same sort of thing happened to me. Phone line to my house is underground, but they cut it where is came out of the ground and went up the pole (could of just as easily cut it where it comes out of the ground and enters the house). Now I have a cell phone back up on the alarm. A lesson on the outside siren (if you have neighbors close enougth to hear one) is hide it or be sure its well out of reach. BG's smashed mine after they cut the phone line. My new siren box has a trip switch in it, if it gets smashed again the alarm goes off. So in the future even if the land line is cut and siren smashed the cell phone will be calling the monitoring service even before they start on braking into the house.
 
Fill the siren "cone" with expanding foam insulation in a can and nobody will hear it-just a thought. :neener:

You better make it pretty inaccessible-on the roof etc....

You have to decide what level of security you can realistically afford and what you need. What are realistic threats and means of dealing with them? It is a hard thing. Simple lights, harder door, dog, alarms etc...will make many amateurs move on to easier pickings. Some will see them as a challenge, some will think the harder the place is the greater the reward....

If you think you have a specific threat it becomes really hard, ie a stalker, political/religious/ethnic issues...someone who wants YOU because of what or who you are. Then you start talking about Columbian Drug Lord levels of security and it gets pretty complicated.
 
Theives around here are pretty inventive.. The latest rash of theiveries here involve look-alike lawn crews. 3-5 guys come during broad daylight. They start weed-whacking, when they get to a window they all rev-up the machines while one puts his weed whacker through the window, concealing the noise. They have reamed the baffles on the weedwackers to make a terrible racket, and that drowns out even the loudest alarms. The one goes in, loots (and in one case beats the elderly occupant), then they leave (and your lawn is a mess to boot). In/out fast, don't look out-of-place, allow your alarm to run, and get away clean. Sounds real hard to defend against.

A previous post laments most people are concerned with "HOT" break-ins (robbery vs. burglary). I think that's a VERY worthwhile point, and wouldn't pooh-pooh it.

Call me nuts, but my main "home-security concern" as a family man is that nobody be able to enter my home without the wife or I KNOWING about it. Getting caught flat-footed or asleep is death. Since there can be no stopping them, there is only being ready for them. I want enough time to be in position to visit swift/blinding AND permanent violence upon them. Burglars are mostly loners, robbers almost always come in numbers, another reason to not play around with robbers. Thats the advantage I think a good dog or alarm can provide, i.e. a "heads-up" before somebody is physically inside.

My only *real* concern about being burgled is coming home while one is in progress...

Don't lose sight of whats really important... I like my things, but I cherish people.

Also, I do not consider laying in bed, dreaming and minding my own business, surrounded by nice people and nice stuff "entrapment" for a burglar/robber/rapist. That kind of thinking is akin to "of course she got raped, she dresses for attention"... I don't care how pretty the women or shiny the fineries in the house are, that's no excuse, and anybody from a mistaken drunk to a pro-burglar will get the very best lead-facial and most graphic post-mortem-humiliation I can possibly muster. Keeping a low profile is one thing, but re-organizing my home according to what might be visible from what window? No thanks... man, that gets my goat...

This IS America, and I do, after all, still have a choice.
 
Good suggestions here. I'm a big believer in tactical dogs (which is really any dog) and motion lights.

One other suggestion. When you look at possible entry points for your house, think of rose bushes as well-camoulflaged barbed wire.
 
One thing to think about are garage door openers. At a park and ride lot a car was broken into and the only thing taken was the remote and registration (home address). Could have been the insurance card also.
 
Mike in Va., do you have any direct/personal experience with the shattergard product? Any ideas on cost? PM or email me unless you want to share info on this thread.
 
Besides making the worlds finest CCW holsters :p I design security systems for a living. Little places like the Federal Reserve, Nuke plants, airports and such.

On home security systems.
If you need one in your neighborhood MOVE Out.
Nothing you can afford will keep out a professional burgular or an $10 an hour security system tech. On a good note unless you are Bill Gate professional burgulars arn't going to rob you anyway.
By the time the dispatcher calls you and them the cops (a big maybe) the burgular will have left with all your stuff anyway.

A alarm company sign in your your yard will discourage 95% of robberys ( that is a fact) If you need a sign just drive through any sub-division at night there are lots to pick from.

If you really want to go all out go to Radio Shack and buy a stainless steel plate with a key switch and a couple of leds. Put it on hte outside of the house by the door where you can see it from the street and hook it up to some oll leftover cell phone plug in charger so the red light is on all the time.
Now you have a $7 home burgular system

Always have a gun handy (two are better) and learn how to use them well.

My rant

Mike
 
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