Home security help? (1 Viewer)

[Elliott Willschick]

I found out today that my street has been having an unusual amount of break-ins over the past while. There is someone home at my house 90% of the time. I also have a monitored alarm. I was wondering what else I could do for when someone isn't home? I have timers for some lights but I'm wondering what else I could get? I recall someone telling me once there is a computer program you can get to use for the lights making it more random as to which ones are on...
These guys seem to watch the houses because they break in when you go out, not just when people are on vacation. I think my old Lab use to scare people away, she had one of the loudest most ferocious barks ever My new lab is a little too young to do that yet.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Carl Johnson]

If someone is home 90% of the time, you have a monitored alarm, a dog, and the home is well lit at night then there isn't much more that you can do to deter a thief. Maybe you can get in contact with your neighbors and start up a neighborhood watch program to look for suspicious activity.

 

[Elliott Willschick]

I would love a neighborhood watch but my neighbors aren't that friendly. All of these break-ins have been happening and I only found out this week.

I should also add that some of the people broken into are in very similar positions that I am. Someone home, monitored alarm etc. One even had their monitored alarm go off and the burglars still made off with a ton of stuff.

What I was concerned with is if there is a way to have a more complicated system for lighting instead of simple timers and any other advice.

 

[Ryan Wright]

For cheap: www.smarthome.com
With a good computer controller (such as the JDS Timecommander or Stargate) you can setup intelligent lighting sequences. They can be random within a specific window of time - for instance, turn the living room lights on at 8:00 pm +/- 30 minutes, so sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 they would come on. You can turn them on in response to any sensors (motion, vehicle, you name it). All sorts of good stuff.
Oh, and when I say "Cheap", I mean you'll be in it for $500-$2000. Depends on how many lights you want to automate, what type of lights they are, what type of controller you go for, etc.
If you want REAL home automation as opposed to X-10 (X-10 is really a glorified toy. It's nice, but it's not 100% reliable and can often be a pain in the ass) and want to spend $10k+, look into AMX (www.amx.com) or Crestron (www.crestron.com). I have an AMX touchscreen in my living room and have no idea how I ever lived without it. I'm dumping X-10 stuff as soon as I can afford to put AMX throughout the rest of my house.

 

[Carl Johnson]

Last week someone stole my checkbook out of my car while it was in the driveway and that has me paranoid about theft. I've already added dawn to dusk lighting, I'm looking into an alarm, and in addition I'm considering adding a fence to my yard.

 

[Eric Kahn]

the best home security system in the world will not stop the smash and grap, the thives know that they are going to have about 5 minutes before anyone shows up to respond to an alarm
the best way to protect yourself is with things like security bars over the windows, security doors and the like, if your housew is more of a hassle to break into, they will go elseware where it is easier (Like my house )
also you should photograph or video all your stuff and give a desciption and serial number and mark what you can with ID numbers to make it easier to recover and or prevent arguements with the insurance co, all the stuff I have yet to do

 

[Elliott Willschick]

I try to make my house difficult to break into but there are alot of rooms and I thought I could use something better than timers to fool thieves. I found a website with home automation in my area so I think I'll give them a call. It makes you paranoid when you have to look over your back all of the time.

Thanks