Non-motoring > House alarm system. Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Old Navy Replies: 30
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:18 
 House alarm system. - Old Navy
I have a hard wired alarm system with a weather beaten tatty looking external box with two flashing LEDs that are so faint that Mrs ON did not know they were there. I am thinking of getting the box replaced with a backlit box (see link). Is this overkill, a thief deterrent or magnet, or just chav kit?

www.pyronix.com/deltabellx-grade3-external-sounder.php
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:24 
 House alarm system. - CGNorwich
Unless you live in some crime ridden ghetto house alarms are a waste of money. Some decent door and window locks will be a much better investment. All house alarms do is irritate the neighbours when they go off. Nobody takes any notice, least of all the police.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:51 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Bingo, CGN. From someone who used to sell the unconscionable tat.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:57 
 House alarm system. - Old Navy
My system came with the house, as it is there it might as well be at least a credible deterrent, regardless of if it is set or not.

Would you rather take on a house with a very obvious alarm system or the one up the road without one?
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:03 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
>> Would you rather take on a house with a very obvious alarm system or the
>> one up the road without one?
>>

That would depend entirely on the physical security attributes of the house up the road. If it's lame, but has an alarm, as per Rattle's house, I'd rather give that a go than Fort Knox without an alarm. As has been said, alarms are mostly ignored, so I'd be in and out quick, get what I can from the alarmed house, rather than risk being caught trying to get in somewhere with difficult entry/egress points.

They are, almost without exception, pointless. In fact they can be counter productive - false sense of security - as so ably illustrated by Rattle's example. The alarm at his house evidently was no deterrent to the potential invader.
Last edited by: Alanović on Wed 18 Dec 13 at 12:03
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:52 
 House alarm system. - CGNorwich
Most entries aren't break ins at all. Simply opportunist crimes where doors and windows left open. Actual forcible entry type crimes are comparatively rare. Just aren't worth the effort and the risk as far as the average house is concerned. Alarm salesmen pander to our worse fears rather than any real statistical appreciation of the problem.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:55 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Indeed, CGN. Which is why I got out of that business. Didn't sit well with me. As per my response to NF in the other thread, if you're uncomfortable in what you're being asked to do in a job, foxtrot oscar out of it.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:06 
 House alarm system. - Roger.
>> Bingo, CGN. From someone who used to sell the unconscionable tat.
>>

No social conscience then? Ho, Ho, Ho. ;-)
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:52 
 House alarm system. - RattleandSmoke
The main advantage for an alarm for me is that if somebody breaks into the house at night the alarm will warn us. I am sure also burglars tend to hurry more if there is a loud alarm going off.

Our alarm has stopped us being burgled in the night once, we woke up in the night due to an alarm, thought nothing of it. The next way we had discovered a window was prised open.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:55 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Then what you really needed was proper windows and locks.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:08 
 House alarm system. - Old Navy
>> Then what you really needed was proper windows and locks.
>>

What about the glass? I have windows big enough to walk through.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:13 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
There is only so much one can do. But double glazed, modern hardened glass is pretty resistant unless you have come with specialist equipment, and most burglaries are opportunistic, based on poor physical security of premises. And even with special equipment, breaking large glass areas is a messy, noisy business. Most crims will not favour the approach, unless they've got precise knowledge of something inside which is really worth it. The opportunistic brigade will not bother.

Also, most broken glass entries are effected using stuff the burglar finds lying around the property. Lesson - never leave anything lying around which can be used against you. Part of good physical security measures.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:22 
 House alarm system. - Fursty Ferret
>> but double glazed, modern hardened glass is pretty resistant unless
>> you have come with specialist equipment

Like a £2.99 spring loaded centre punch?
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:38 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Maybe. Still a messy, noisy business. If you've ever heard a pane of double glazing being broken, the noise is like a small explosion. Would certainly wake you just as well as an alarm. When one of mine went last summer I damn near soiled myself. I was outside, the children and wife were inside and the noise indoors was apparently catastrophic. It was a big enough bang outside.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 15:37 
 House alarm system. - RattleandSmoke
Window has since been replaced with a modern UPVC unit. While it you can still smash it to gain access it is a lot more secure than the old wooden one from 1964 which was secured to the brick work with newspaper.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 11:58 
 House alarm system. - madf
We have neighbours with an alarm - they live 50 meters away. It goes off about once a month: we can hear it as it is deafening.

Everyone ignores it.

Which is the problem.

Security locks on all windows and doors...so far, touch wood , we have been lucky. The sawn off shotgun cricket bat is kept at readiness for any scrote. I am a light sleeper and can feel the air vibrations of a door opening anywhere in the house.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 12:44 
 House alarm system. - FocalPoint
I had a guy come to my house (by appointment) to conduct a crime/security survey a few weeks back. Something to do with Home Office statistics.

On the subject of having a burglar alarm - or not - he said that it was wise to do what the neighbours are doing. If you're in a street where everyone else has one and you don't, you might be seen by the casual housebreaker as an idiot who doesn't take security seriously. Even a dummy box might fit the bill.

On the other hand, if your street has hardly any alarms, but you do have one, the criminal might think you have something really worth stealing.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:07 
 House alarm system. - Roger.
Catch 22, sort of.
We have a safe - sole contents = two passports! No money/jewels to go in there!
Last edited by: Roger on Wed 18 Dec 13 at 13:09
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:24 
 House alarm system. - FocalPoint
A safe seems a good idea - but difficult to install so it can't be ripped out, taken away and opened at leisure.

Mine is bolted to the concrete floor, but I'm pretty sure that a determined attack with a crowbar or some such would get it up. On the other had, it is fairly well hidden.

I don't have much that's worth stealing, but it usually contains any foreign cash left over from the last holiday (usually a few euros), passport, driving licence and a few bits and pieces of not very valuable jewellery (my deceased mother's ear-rings etc), which I'd be sorry to lose.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:18 
 House alarm system. - madf
We have some valuable ## bits and pieces small enough to be hidden. Problem is my wife forgets where she hid them when she wants to wear them..

## nothing over £100k each. :-)
Last edited by: madf on Wed 18 Dec 13 at 14:18
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:16 
 House alarm system. - Mapmaker
An alarm linked to the telephone system so that it tells you that it has gone off is not a waste of time.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:24 
 House alarm system. - smokie
Reminded me of this story

www.mobypicture.com/user/rosamojo/view/10551521
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:25 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
>> An alarm linked to the telephone system so that it tells you that it has gone off is not a waste of time.

Yes it is. By definition you're not there, and by the time you know about it someone is in your house and away with your car keys/jewellery/mother-in-law/collection of Fulham matchday programmes from 1953 to the present day.

Or you phone the fuzz. Someone's in my house, hoccifer. How do you know, Sir? My alarm's gone off. How do you know it isn't a false alarm? I don't. Bzzzzzzzzz.

Or the system calls the Police immediately. The intruder has 8 minutes to be away with your car keys/jewellery/mother-in-law/collection of Fulham matchday programmes from 1953 to the present day. Or, it's a false alarm when PC Plod shows up. Three of them and they won't respond.
Last edited by: Alanović on Wed 18 Dec 13 at 13:26
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:31 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Mind you, having said all this, I do have an excellent alarm system in my house.

Woof woof, it goes.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 13:45 
 House alarm system. - Dog
>>Woof woof, it goes.

I'm with ^this^ Giza.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:19 
 House alarm system. - madf
Easily silenced with a drugged lump of meat.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:21 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Once it's woken me up barking, as soon as it hears footsteps outside. And the breaking glass.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:24 
 House alarm system. - No FM2R
>>Easily silenced with a drugged lump of meat.

Not so much - not as easy as it is in the films and not very quick.

Everybody here relies on dogs but pretty much everybody has worked out that its the noise that works, not the bite. So, what you really want is a noisy dog yourself and a neighbour about 100 yards up without a dog.

Drugging the animals is occasionally tried. The odd one dies but as a burglary strategy it doesn't really work.

Anyway, they don't really care about getting into one specific house sufficiently. They'll just walk along the street looking for someone who's been careless rather than target one house.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:27 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
My other favoured anti-burglary measure is to not own much of value. I can't say I feel particularly saddened by not have valuable jewellery or other items of a prestigious or valuable nature in my life.

It's also highly unlikely anyone's going to break in for my car keys.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:26 
 House alarm system. - Mapmaker
No it's not.
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New Wed 18 Dec 13 14:28 
 House alarm system. - Alanovich
Good argument. I'm convinced.
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