^^^When our home was robbed while we slept, I felt very violated, and my feeling of home being one’s sanctuary was harshly challenged.
We have motion detector floods outside- they came with the house and we replaced them with working ones. They stay on about ten minutes once triggered. We have caught raccoons and an opossum near our bird feeder sometimes- interesting to watch them. Most of the time a critter has come and gone within range before we can see them, however. Burglars do not want to be seen, this would help.
In our old house we set the alarm while we went on a road trip one summer. The alarm went off and my at home summers sister got the call. She went to our house, called us and we told her how to find the key hidden under the deck (we don’t live there anymore and no longer have a raised deck so not giving away any info). The police had come and it was a false alarm. We then had her leave the alarm system off. After our return we paid to have the system examined and a very minor back deck sliding door contact replaced. We figure the broken contact plus squirrels on the deck signaled a door opening.
When we first moved into our newly built house years ago and H routinely set the alarm we had the first false alarm. My in laws were visiting. It was morning, H hadn’t disabled the alarm while he took his shower, I was still asleep. M-in law opened a door and the alarm went off. The police came. They circled the house outside and my fairly deaf F-in law ignored them as his back was to the deck slider. Seemed like a comedy when I came downstairs in my robe, discovered how the door was opened (and M-in law didn’t understand the alarm noise and ignored it and the alarm company checkup phone call) and the police were ignored. And there was a bit of lack of English on the part of my in laws.
Leaving running cars is stupid- every so often you hear about a car theft. Most recently a sleeping boy was in a car while mom ran into a store briefly- someone stole it and left it a few blocks away. The sleeping six year old missed it all. Also a bad idea to leave keys in the car. Bored teens of any socioeconomic group are prone to ignore rules about not stealing/borrowing cars.
It is not your neighborhood you worry about, it is about that less fortunate person or bored teen who can easily drive into your area and leave again. That’s where even gated communities can have problems. I use up all of my digits counting the number of different tradespeople, lawn care, pool care, UPS/FedEx, pest control… and others needing access to our street. The life of the (sometimes) at home retirees.
I suspect most burglars, unless they absolutely know for certain that no one is in the home, will run as soon as an alarm goes off… that’s the protection. Having an alarm may not speed up the police (although they were at our house fairly quickly when we were burglarized), but the sound will call attention to the house by neighbors, etc. We also have motion detector lights on the side of the house, as well as the back patio door.
As far as what they take, again, what we learned from police and the security company was, burglars almost always head to the master bedroom as their first stop. Our burglar, when he came in the back door, passed and grabbed H’s wallet/watch/iPod and was heading for the stairs. That’s when H saw him, heading for the stairs. He passed by an iPhone, a laptop and my purse, which were all within three feet of the other stuff he took. They’re going for the small stuff that they can grab and run with.
Exactly. That’s the point of a car alarm too - the would-be thief will turn tail and run.
I’m surprised you all have such memories of false alarms. We’ve had them but they’re minor and utterly forgettable in the scheme of things!
Our neighborhood has gone through a rash of break-ins this fall/winter. It seems the trend is for the break ins to happen in the morning - like between 8 and 10 am - think time that people have headed to work and school. Most of the break ins have involved very small stolen items - but of value. Jewelry, cash - things that can fit in a backpack. Yep, it is actually suspected that the person breaking in is using a backpack according to descriptions of people seen around the neighborhood the mornings of the break ins.
We set our alarm every time we leave the house - during the day or night. About the only time we don’t is if we are just taking pup for a short walk. I have a fob on my keychain that I just have to click after I’ve locked the door to leave. Easy peasy.
I remember all two of them in 20 years- and there were others we got called by the security company but those weren’t memorable. Having police on your deck is unusual. Having the hassles of dealing with locating keys et al (my sister had a key she misplaced) was unusual and disrupted our vacation for a bit. I have tons of other memories that are of no interest to anyone…
I want to clarify that when I mentioned dogs as a protective measure, I only meant that if they are the barking type–and clearly not all dogs are–they would alert you to a stranger. And some burglars will pick another target if a dog starts making a racket. Unless they are trained protection dogs–the kind that cost something like $30K–they aren’t likely to try to harm anyone.
When we moved here, there was a small spate of burglaries at remote houses in a nearby town. One guy opened the door, and the other guy swung a baseball bat at the dog if it challenged them. 