Security
This week an apartment in my building was broken into. The good news is that the criminals were caught and found — part of a big ring the cops had been following. But now many of us are considering ugly window guards. Does anyone have experience with alarm system instead — good and bad.
This week an apartment in my building was broken into. The good news is that the criminals were caught and found — part of a big ring the cops had been following. But now many of us are considering ugly window guards. Does anyone have experience with alarm system instead — good and bad.
Haroldb – How much does this system cost per month??
Investing in one of the Durham alarm systems from http://www.bryantdurhamservices.com/pages/alarmssystems.html was one of the smartest homeowner decisions we have made. Home security is important on so many levels.
The problem is that an alarm does not prevent someone from getting inside. With an alarm, you’ll know about it, and maybe they will leave (or not), the bad news is you will have the same psychological issue of feeling violated and unsafe.
Get an alarm sticker as a deterrent, a great medeco deadbolt, and if you live outside a fire escape or at ground level upgrade the locking mechanism on your window and think about some kind of removable bar etc that can be used to prevent someone from opening the window from the outside or removing it off its track.
Also, get a safe for small things like jewelry, etc. It need not be a big one but bolt it to the floor.
‘instead’ is a mistake, both bars and alarms can be part of a multi-layered security system. In an apt, maybe an alarm would suffice as it would wake your neighbors. But it’s not either/or.
I do not know if this is true or not, but it was told to me by a customer whose alarmed house was broken into. she told me that the thieves tripped the alarm and that they knew that if they did not disturb the front of the house, ie, they removed goods through the rear, the police will pull up, check the front door and scan the front for forced entry and leave. In this case, they had gone through the roof hatch and left through the back and the alarm did not help her.
I’ve worked in commercial buildings in Manhattan and we always had alarms and would not think of leaving a building unarmed. On one occasion I got a call in the middle of the night that two zones had tripped (which sounded to me like someone moving through the building; usually when one goes off it is a zone, not two). when I arrived at the building I was grateful that the police sat there and even came into the building with me – but again – there was a back and side door that someone could have left through and the two cops out front would have been none the wiser. Fortunately, it was a malfunction. In residential, I bet they don’t even stick around.
The plus side to having an alarm, you can tie it in with a central station fire alarm; if these are properly maintained, they only go off when you really need the fire dept. Properly maintained is the key.
What we were always told about security in commercial was that a cctv system was the best preventive measure. I know it is not something people want inside their living space, but in common areas and outside, maybe?
Steve