A reminder that home security companies use a business model that involves offering you cut-rate prices for equipment purchase and setup. They make back this money, in spades, on long-term monitoring contracts and add-ons. The other trick to watch out for is selling you equipment that is proprietary - in other words, it is not usable by other companies should the original one turn out to offer bad service.
Another problem is companies whose monitoring employees work out of an office far away (or in another country) and have no knowledge of or relationship with your local law enforcement.
I have given up on the idea of using a home security company in favor of installing my own system. Plus my big dog, Bloodfang.
I bought a security camera system last weekend because some idiot kids are vandalizing my property after I turned them in for vandalizing community property. It’s a wireless, 2 camera system from Sams and it was only $300. I spent $5500 on the system at my old house but this is much simplier and I can move them around if need be. 3 bones ain’t bad for peace of mind.
The windows and doors are protected with infrared barriers on the outside and there are PIR detectors on the rooms inside. I’ve also installed a ridiculously loud siren.
I’ve connected it to a local signal monitoring company. If a typical intrusion alarm is sounded they first call you and ask for the password. If they can’t reach you they send the police, but the police does not respond very quickly for burglaries. That’s why you need a very loud siren to scare the burglars away.
However in case of a panic (silent) alarm they don’t call you, they call the police directly. In that case, the police sends the motorcycle units and they respond really quickly. I have accidentally activated the silent alarm in my office and another time my wife did too at our house. The police were there in seven and nine minutes respectively
Another vote for a dog. It doesn’t have actually be large, it just has to sound large. I think a motion activated recording of Blackjack barking would keep away any intruders.
I still miss my grandmother’s charm bracelet. We ended up with a nice, local company. We’ve had one false alarm and the police did come promptly (we were at home but happened to miss the phone calls).
As much as I like dogs, they just don’t fit our lifestyle right now. We aren’t home enough to be good dog parents.
Another vote for “get a dog”. It may or may not actually stop a determined burglar, but it will bark at an unknown person on it’s turf, and that alone will deter 99 out of every 100 would-be thieves. They’ll bypass your ‘noisy’ house and go next door where it’s nice and quiet.
The 100th guy…the one who set out specifically steal ***your ***TV/stereo/jewelry…he’ll get around whatever security system you put in place anyway, so you might as well leave the door wide open for him.
See kids…this is why you should always read all the way to the end of the thread, and then preview before hitting ‘Submit’.
Don’t be the idiot that recommends a solution in the very next post after the OP tells you why he can’t go with the solution you’re about to recommend.
I’ve had ADT for about 10 years. I’ve had three break-ins, and each time the alarm scared the burglars off.
Eventually, though, I can imagine myself switching to Comcast so that I can monitor from away more. I guess ADT does this now, but I already have Comcast everything else…they have me by the short hairs.
