All is a challenge in the Elliebud family. What we cannot have control over…brain bleeds, heart surgery.and a few other medical issues but home safety. A gang started daylight breakins. (none of this is urban legends)) Police say that IF our alarm goes off they thieves have 10 seconds to get in and out. If you are going to an event and gp tp the ball tp pick something out you can and will be followed. One of my friends went to the bank took out a special piece…left the bank…and a gun was put to her head. We Ellebuds were sleeping. Dog upstairs Mr. Ellebud was sleeping in the den. A woman entered the den and grabbed a purse, a wallet, and my daughters’ car keys. No one knew anything until the morning.
a few tips from the police: if you have an alarm USE it. (we didn’t use it at night ). Our dog is smallish sweet dog. If the dog goes after strangers…teach the dog NOT to jump.Dogs will be killed or thrown out to run. In this neighborhood everyone has a safe. Doesn’t that sound great? 15 minutes and the safe will be out of the wall…
My advice would be to have motion sensing lights on the exterior of the house (front and back) as well as motion sensing cameras. Also make sure you leave exteriors lights on and prune back shrubbery that intruders could use to hide themselves. Definitely use your alarm. Have signs on windows and near doors that you have said alarm. Beware of dog signs also can be a deterrent (even if it’s a little ball of love). Basically make your house less of a target than others on your street.
My 77 year old neighbor was broken into this week while she slept. Her dog sleeps in the bed with her and the intruder went into her refrigerator and put a plate of leftovers on the bed to keep the dog quiet and occupied. She woke up and saw a man in her room. She pretended to stay asleep and texted a neighbor to call the police as soon as she thought he was out of the room. Nothing was taken so it’s puzzling why he broke in. I’ve always felt safe here but this incident really has me shaken up.
We have a floor safe that is embedded into the foundation. It would take a jackhammer to get it out.
I am so sorry this happened. It is such a violation to be robbed. My only advice is to use that alarm. It won’t prevent really determined people, but it will cause the random burglars to flee.
You have an alarm system so I guess you need to sleep with a little remote next to your bed so you can send them an alert if you wake up to anything.
Also, keep a landline phone. A woman in my city was robbed by an intruder. Her alarm system was off, he took her gun, purse, cell phone, etc., and then he was out in the driveway trying to figure out how to open her gate and get her car out for the next hour. She was so scared that she waited until the next day to go out and find someone with a phone so she could all the police. You don’t want to be left with no way to call the police if your cell phone, laptop, etc., are all taken.
The ladies came in a door that was installed in 1936. We have opened the door once in 25 years. And we are fine.
they were both smokers and used female advertised cigarets.As for moving…we may if our kids move to the valley. That being said we have a VERY good police and fire department.This really isn’t about me. I hope that people can come up with other suggestions.
Is your home alarm system monitored? If not, that’s the first thing I would do. Some insurance companies will give homeowners a small discount for a monitored system.
Last year during Black Friday, lots of places had Arlo Pro wireless security systems on sale. Since the cameras are wireless, you can place them anywhere. They will send an alert to your phone if motion is detected, and if somebody rings the doorbell, you can see and speak to them from your phone https://www.amazon.com/Arlo-NETGEAR-Security-System-Siren/dp/B01LR8PG52
My mother’s house was broken into while she was at a party. They turned the house upside down, but didn’t take much, just some valuable coins. We think the robbers were people who knew my mother (maybe her new cleaning person). They were looking for jewelry and cash. They assumed my mother would have a lot of it in the house, fortunately my mother kept most of jewelry in her bank safe. They didn’t break stuff, just took a lot of time going through everything.
After it happened we installed alarm and motion sensor in her house, but she never felt safe again. We just sold her house and moved her to an apartment building with security.
Sorry it happened to you. You must felt very violated.
It’s the worst feeling to have intruders in your home. I am relieved to read you and your loved ones were not hurt @bevhills
We switched from motion detection lights to lights on all the time when dark (set on timers).
We found the motion detection lights were set off too often and we became insensitive to the fact that the lights were activated.
Our neighborhood has had a rash of day time break-ins. An affluent suburb about 10 miles away has had a big problem with car thefts (fobs left inside unlocked very expensive cars).
Someone busted out one of the glass panels in our lamp post at the end of the driveway AND we then noticed the glass busted out of one of our flood lights (“accent lights”) in front of the house. It totally creeps me out because I don’t know if it was done with malice & intent or done with stupidity & bravado.
We have ADT (with visible signs and the stickers), and knock-on-wood, have not had anyone bust in. We have cameras at the front door and back door, but again, not sure if that works as a deterrent or not. A hoodie and baseball cap + head down would do the trick, y’know?
We have a neighborhood watch newsletter that is distributed 2-3x a year, but I don’t find it every useful or comforting. You read that an elderly woman was knocked down in her driveway and her purse was stolen at 8 o’clock in the morning. Great. 3 blocks away. What am I supposed to do with that information?
If someone wanted to hide in my backyard and jump me when I’m getting out of my car —day or evening–I’d be in deep trouble. You try not be “be a target” but there is only so much one can do!
Thieves came into my parents’ house in broad daylight. They stole all the jewelry from my mother’s bedroom bureau while she was gardening outside and my dad was paying bills at the other end of the house. They didn’t know anyone had been in the house until my dad asked my mother why she had taken everything out of her drawers. The thieves were part of a band that committed multiple brazen robberies in their town. I’m not sure what they could have done differently.
In the past few years, we’ve been more careful about closing the garage door, or at least locking the door from the garage to the house, when one of us is working in the yard. Those doors were frequently kept unlocked/open when my kids were younger and playing outside - wouldn’t do that anymore.
@chercheur, The garage doesn’t enter into the house. They have an alarm, but of course because they were both at home they didn’t set it. My parents had a chime too. If my dad heard it he ignored it thinking it was my mother. Sadly the burglars took all the good family jewelry.
I have always hoped our chime would unsettle a burglar but perhaps not. I know our dog would be useless. She’d bark at a funny sound but fetch the jewelry for a human if she could.