I live in a remote area and as a result I purchased an alarm system for my house. When they came out to install the system they placed some stickers on my windows and a few signs out by the driveway. The idea being, I suppose, that someone who might be thinking of breaking into my house would move on and look for a house that didn’t have an alarm.
After a few weeks I realized that whether the alarm was turned on or not the signs and stickers would continue to deter would-be criminals, so in fact I could have saved the $25 a month and simply put up some signs and stickers around my property and achieved the same end. Assuming that someone would sell them to me.
But is that really true? Has it been shown that alarm signs by themselves deter criminals from burglarizing a home, or are criminals smart enough to know that a sign is just a sign and they need to verify that there really is an alarm installed? I’m not really sure how a criminal could tell since there is very little evidence of the alarm system visible outside of the house.
Do some people put signs up around their house in order to deter criminals from breaking in?
I do.
I bought a few ADT signs on ebay (expensive!) and posted them around the house.
Does it work? Who knows, but I haven’t been broken into yet…
[Sound of knuckles hitting wood]
I guess that’s the problem. There is really no way to tell if your house hasn’t been broken in because of the signs or just because you haven’t been targeted yet.
If I’m on vacation, someone could break into my house setting off the alarm, and steal whatever they want long before the Sheriff shows up. Of course if I am home they would be shot dead soon after they entered my house :).
I have an alarm system, but do not use the signs/stickers. I figure, I don’t want to give a potential burglar/home invader an edge up. If they know about an alarm, they can maybe defeat it. If they don’t know it’s there, they might be surprised.
OTOH, I took the signs and decals and installed them at my mother’s house (who does not have an alarm). That should (hopefully) help to keep out random grab and go burglars, and she’s not in a neighborhood to attract sophisticated cat burglars.
My neighborhood has had theft of stuff left in the open (porch, garage) but does not seem to have had any break ins, so there isn’t enough evidence to tell if my theory works.
I have an alarm system and was still broken into. They know they have about 7-8 minutes before the police show up. They can grab a lot of expensive little shit and leave in that amount of time.
My neighbor was burglarized and I spoke with the cop who came to take the report and he said the majority of neighborhood break-ins are not in fact done by professional burglars, but by teenagers and they are the ones you’re trying to deter with signs and noise alarms.
If a real pro is after you, then they’re not going to go in blind. They will know your schedule and your level of protection and deal with it, or not, as the case may be.
Pehaps not in the case of a specific home, but studies have been conducted on this very question:
I find it interesting that a site hosted by the Electronic Security Association would mention that signs alone are almost as effective at redirecting criminals as actual systems.
I’m guessing the 15% difference is made up of criminals who take the extra step to look for other signs of an alarm system in addition to signs and stickers.
You typically wouldn’t waste a contact/magnetic type sensor on a window because it’s easy enough to just clear out the glass without opening the frame, and of course there are usually a lot of windows, so the approach when I had an ADT install done many years ago was sensors on the doors and then motion detectors for blanket coverage.
A few years back, I saw a place where you could get a flashing LED light installed on your car’s dashboard, intended to make car thieves think your car has an alarm. (This was before the time that practically all cars worth stealing came with an alarm system.) Same concept, I suppose.
The problem with stickers or an alarm at a remote location is that thieves (especially pros) know that the police will fine you for too many false alarms. If they intentionally trigger the alarm several times (assuming that you leave goodies at a remote home to steal) they know that the police response times will decrease for each false alarm. After a while, especially if they have other higher priority calls,the police or sheriff’s department simply won’t come out or will only come out after several hours.
OP, if you are talking about living in a place more than 10-15 miles from the nearest sizable community, it would be advisable for you to employ the services of a property management company to watch over your property. They can drive out to your property at random times and check things out for a price that is only slightly more expensive than installing a professional alarm system.
I would also suggest buying the least expensive electronics and keeping them in the home. Or failing that, renting a storage facility in town and removing your more valuable items from it when you visit the house.
Alarm stickers on a remote house are simply ridiculous,IMO.
Yes, some people just put up signs and have no alarm. I have seen the signs for sale.
Some stores install fake video cameras for much the same reason.
Do they deter criminals?
It depends on what you mean by “criminal”. Decades ago I saw a former car thief (on 60 Minutes, I think) talking about his former business, and he said that car alarms are to deter joyriders: that for a professional car thief, it won’t even slow him down.
So those signs saying you have a Company X Alarm System installed may not deter a determined professional thief, but there is hope that a junkie looking to hock a TV to buy his next fix will move along, figuring there are easier targets.
I have heard people suggest that those signs actually work backwards for the professionals: not only did you warn them they need to bypass the alarm (they probably figured you have one), but you conveniently told them the brand name of the system you have. I don’t know how real that is, but I know the high-end homes where I have seen alarm signs don’t mention the type of the alarm on the signs, just something generic like “these premises protected by an alarm”.
I have seen how professionals can quickly disarm a car with a standard factory-installed alarm system and be able to steal a car ‘in 60 seconds’, but in order to disable my home alarm system you have to know where the alarm speaker is hidden, cut our underground phone line or get into my basement utility room, none of which would be easy for even a professional. Maybe the signs are fake, maybe they aren’t, but why would a thief bother since there is a chance I do have an alarm and there’s even a better chance I have a loaded gun by my bed. If the burglar knows I am gone for a week then they can take as much time as they want to break in… but it would be hard to tell if I was home or not and parking their car in front of my house to learn my habits would be a little obvious to the few neighbors I have. BTW, I work from home so I rarely leave the house during the week…
There are home security systems that do not utilize phone lines, so cutting them would be futile.
I’d wonder if potential burglars would take generic “warning - premises protected by alarm system” signs all that seriously. I haven’t heard that ADT or other companies protest the sale of company signs on Amazon or Ebay, so it’s possible that these firms either are OK with the use of such signs (free advertising!) or are even involved in selling them through third parties.
One interesting option is installing a DIY alarm system and putting out signs for another, established commercial vendor (potential burglars who think they know how to defeat the company would get a little surprise when they start breaking in).
Of course, there are also dummy security cams that look like the real thing.
Any of this stuff makes you a less appealing target, especially if you also utilize common sense anti-burglary precautions (good outdoor lighting, not leaving valuables accessible to exterior view, having a loud dog, vigilant neighbors etc.).
Professional burglars expect to make a good return on their time, effort, and the risk. For that reason they will target houses and commercial premises that have high value and easily disposed of goods inside.
There was a TV program here where they employed an ex burglar turned security advisor (I kid you not) to actually break into peoples’ houses. It showed how they could force a door or window, search the house, and get out in less than five minutes - long before anyone reacted. Some of the ‘victims’ had hidden their valuables which gave the crim a good laugh. Jewelry in the bottom of the cornflakes, cash under a rug or a mattress, any small gadgets like tablets, or laptops (don’t forget the chargers), and of course credit cards and any useful ID paperwork. This explains why, when you are burgled, the cereals are emptied on the kitchen table, all the drawers are tipped out on the bed and the rugs pulled up.
Heavier stuff like computers, the PS3 and all those games, ornaments etc, would be left unless they found the car keys on a hook in the kitchen, and a handy getaway car outside. They, of course, arrived on foot. They really don’t care a damn that the wedding ring in a box on the dressing table was your dear old mum’s - to them it’s just 10 grams of gold.
When they were casing the premises they avoided bright lights, CCTV, dogs (specially small yappy ones) and anywhere with an alarm. There were always easier places to go to.