Anyone have any opinions on the best way to keep a home secure? I’m talking more about security while no one is away, so a gun won’t help in this situation. I’ve tossed around ideas like alarm monitoring companies, a do-it-yourself camera/motion sensor setup with vcr(s), a few digital PC cameras around the house… Of course a BIG dog may be good too but I don’t think that’s feasible for various familial reasons.
Any Dopers do anything like this that’s worked out well…or not so well?
Damn gruven, the “while I’m not home” part shoots down my suggestions, which include a very large dog (mine’s about 170 lbs), a shotgun, an aluminium baseball bat (untraditional, I know, but you’ve got much faster bat speed and that neat BOING sound), and a driver or wood from hubby’s golf bag.
I don’t personally know anyone with an alarm system that they turn on, so I can’t help there. We’ve never felt the need to have one, regardless of the areas we lived in, which if the truth be told are all pretty nice.
As long as I’m not home, I don’t care what they take. The only things that are important to me, no thief would touch, like my photos, the babies’ albums, that kind of thing. Want my TV? Take it, it’s great. Stereo? It’s yours, enjoy. I have insurance for that kind of thing, or I’ll just replace it.
It is my most fervent hope that my house is robbed while we’re not in it, as opposed to when we’re home.
My parents have lived in the same house in the same neighborhood for 25+ years with security bars on the windows, and never had any problems. A bit ugly for my tastes, but they’re relatively cheap and low-maintenance.
As for myself, I recently moved into a new house last month, and promptly subscribed to a home security monitoring service. It’s relatively cheap ($30 a month plus a one-time installation fee), and I’m content with it so far. The only hassles are remembering to turn off the system first when I get home, and to close all the windows and doors before I leave, but those are minor quirks and nothing one can’t quickly get used to. I had considered a do-it-myself security system (cameras, VCR, etc.), but figured that any burgular who broke into the house could then find the system and thrash it so I couldn’t identify them. The home monitoring gives me the security without the iron bars, and that’s fine by me.
Ooh, “security” bars. Those scare me. What if there’s a fire?
i THOUGHT you could open them from the inside eh:shrug:
- trim any shrubs that may be in front,or around the house. so as to get rid of any hiding spots.
- i would install motion sensor lights around the sides and behind the house. and generally keep the perimiter well lit.
98 more and you’ll have a buck…
We just deadbolt the doors at night. True, someone could get in, but not without making enough noise to wake me up. Violation of my property and privacy makes me extremely angry, said intruder would very soon have to deal with a 6’5" 300 lb. man in a homicidal rage coming after him.
As to when nobody is home - we have renters insurance.
The best defense against home theft is to not own anything worth stealing 
Better than security bars on the windows is a retractable metal covering. (I think they’re made of aluminum, but I am not certain.) They’re motorized, so with the turn of a key, they can be retracted into the walls or extended to cover any openings. You can even put them over the doors.
It depends on how much money you want to spend.
I forgot about the motion sensor-activated lights. We have those, they are very sensitive and turn on bright lights with very little movement. They’re not attached to an alarm or anything, though.
Still, why deter the criminal? The dog is hungry!
This is my feeling pretty much, along with the “don’t have anything worth stealing.” But you always have the chance someone just breaks in to make a mess and be a jerk. We use light timers when we’re gone, and our TV has a timer as well which we can set for different days and times. You can see the TV from most of our ground-floor windows, so I’m guessing it’s a pretty good deterrent. (Who would want to risk breaking into someplace while someone’s right there watching TV, supposedly?) If we’re going to be gone more than a couple days, we have a service that comes in and feeds/cleans up after the cat. A bonus of this service is that they also take in the mail, any newspapers, put out the trash and bring the can back in etc. I think as long as there’s no evidence that you’re gone, people assume you’re home. If your trash is out 3 days before trash day, or the flyers are building up on your doorknob, or there are several days worth of papers in your driveway is when shady types are most likely to take notice.
bond?..is that you?
We have the home monitoring type of alarm system, and we’ve been very happy with it. I like that there’s a panic button for police and fire, and we had the option of wiring our smoke detector into it, too. It doesn’t go out when the power does, which is neat. We can also set ours for when we are home, which is very reassuring when the hubby is out of town and I’m home with my daughter alone listening to spooky noises.
We’ve never had an alarm, and our dogs are too idiotic to be much protection. We have light timers, a dead bolt lock, and a neighbor who seems to know what’s going on all over the neighborhood. There’s also the street light right at the corner of our property. I’m guessing the fact that we live on a cul-de-sac with only one path of escape is probably a deterrent too.
Here are a few Ideas for home security, from someone who worked security for a number of years
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[li]Alarm Systems: In most cities these are worthless. The police get so many false alarms, that they consider them a very low priority. In Dallas, they take several hours to respond, and there have been cases of the silent hostage alarm being tripped, and the police just dropping by to stick a ticket on the door for a false alarm without checking. By the time anybody gets there, its too late, unless its a really slow night. Check with your police dept(dont trust what the alarm company tells you). in your area, and ask them how long the response time is.[/li][li]Burgler Bars: These help, but they must be made to come off easily for saftey reasons, so they arent that much of a deterant.[/li][li]deadbolt locks: A must, but they need to be double key deadbolts(a key on both sides). If they break in, they will probably go through the windows, but moving a tv out, they will wanna go through the door. Having a double key deadbolt makes it harder to get the big stuff out.[/li][li]Big Dog: probably the biggest detterant. Burglers dont wanna get bit.[/li][li]Outside deterants: Motion sensitive lights, and cutting back the bushes is probably the best thing you could do.[/li][li]Old People. Nosey retired people living next door are possibly the best protection you can have.[/li][li]Apartment Security: This is really my area of expertise, as I did a lot of apartment securtiy. I worked security in an apartment complex in a really bad area. I investigated probably 50 or so burglaries and out of all of those, only one was on a 2nd floor apartment. The rest were all ground floor. The thing to look for, when chosing your apartment, is a 2nd floor or higher apartment, with no windows opening onto the landing. The only way to get to any of the windows that way is by ladder, and that attracts too much attention. The one apartment we had that was on the second floor was a vacant apartment that matenance had removed the locks and forgot to put them back(this complex was a dump). A local gang started using it as a hang out, until I found it and got matenance to secure it. Also, when looking for an apartment, check the place out after dark. When I took over security at this complex, over half the lights were burned out. Look for large dark areas, and groups of people hanging out in the parking lot late at night. If you wouldnt feel safe walking through the parking lot at 2 A.M., then maybe you don’t wanna live there.[/li][li]**Security Patrol:**I hate to say this, because I still have friends who work security, but these are usually worthless. The profit margin is so low that they just drive by as fast as they can, because they have to work in as many hits as they possibly can. This means they are unlikely to notice anything, and they usually hit the same house at the same time of day every day. The bad guy will just wait until after they leave.[/li][li]**Video Cameras:**First of all, you have to make sure they dont steal the VCR, so you have to have a recorder dedicated(and hidden). Then you gotta figure, what are the chances of anyone recognizing the bad guy, if you do have a break in. Its not like they are gonna put the tape on tv unless someone is killed or something…Unless its someone you know, or someone the cops happen to know it will only do good if they catch someone, and thats really not that likely. Deterant is the name of the game.[/li][li]**Back Yard:**Try to make your back yard less accessable. Keep gates padlocked. Sure they can climb the fence, but that attracts attention. Most of the time the bad guy will wanna break in from the privacy of your back yard, rather than through the front, where he is visable from the street. Stockade fences are harder to climb, and more obvious than chain link, even though they do give the bad guy more privacy while he does his thing. Beware of dogs signs on a stockade fence are good even if you dont have a dog[/li]
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voguevixen, if people can see the TV from several windows, can they also see your couch? Or that fact that no-one’s in the room? Or do you have good vision blocks from furniture, curtains, etc?
I have to agree with the nosy neighbor thing. Overly curious retirees are very handy. My sister-in-law lives alone with her dog 2000 miles away, and her neighbor is a godsend. There is nothing this guy doesn’t know about!
Hey, are you casing my joint? 
If you’re looking in the diningroom window you can see the TV in the livingroom but there’s a cafe curtain covering the bottom part of the window and there’s the upright piano between the two rooms that blocks the couch. If you’re looking through the back door window it has a full-length semi-opaque sheer that you could tell if the TV was on, but not if anyone was watching it. If you’re looking through the small, high window next to the front door you can see a giant plant, the back of the piano and maybe the top half of the TV. As for the living-room window the couch is right under it, but because there are copious amounts of prickly daisy plants beneath them I don’t think you could get close enough to look down and see if anyone was on the couch. (Slouching or lying down.) You can’t see the bathroom from any of the windows though, and I don’t know how long a thief would want to risk standing outside the window waiting to see if someone was actually watching TV and just went to the bathroom or not. (I know it’s not a foolproof tactic, but I don’t guess anything is 100% effective.)
I do like the previously mentioned motion detector lights, especially for the backyard.
(Thanks for the info bdgr.)