Home Security System: Help

I keep my stuff out of sight too.I dont have either but I believe that window-door alarms and the metal sign might be a good idea

How about security systems sold by Best Buy, Circuit City or similar electronics stores? Those systems have a camera or two (or more if you want to add on) feeding into a computer and you have ability to check from a remote computer via wireless connection.

Let me say again.....Do not get the "wireless wonder" kits....They are trash. They work on a test bench under perfect conditions and look real flashy to please the "techno eye". If you are concerned about protecting your family and valuables, let a professional do his job.

Signs are not advertising that you have stuff to steal but are proven deterants...Statistically, your home is 333% less likely to be burglarized when you advertise that you have a security system. Think of it this way, if you are looking for a home to hit, are you going to hit the home that says its protected or the neighbor's home which has no visible signs of protection?

The biggest issue with units like the example given in an above post about the self-contained wonder unit that plugs into a wall outlet and sits on a counter....You walk in, snatch the unit out of the power and phone jack and the system is beat. If they enter the home through the entry/exit door and the unit never even made any attempt to alert you or the monitoring station before it was disabled.

Again, take my advice or leave it....I have more experience in this field than I care to detail but lets just say that I have installed systems that protected anything from a construction trailer to artifacts from the Museum of Natural History in NY. I know a little bit about security. Find you a local dealer who is not affiliated with a national chain, check their credentials like state low voltage licenses, UL listed monitoring and referrals from customers that have been with them for more than 2 years. You find that local guy who cares about his customer base, you will get a quality system, quality equipment, quality installation and quality service.....I can tell you some major stories about national chains that aren't too flattering. As a matter of fact, thats why years ago, I went into business for myself.

Great points and information. Keep it coming!

One thing I just thought of is that if you have a camera system feeding to your computer, the computer would have to be well-hidden, because if that's stolen, you have no evidence- it's on the hard drive. The other thing is power outages- would have to reset the system with every power outage. Do any of them have battery backups in case of a brief power outage.

Just carl.You've got some good points and maybe putting the sign in the yard would tell the would be robbers you have something to steal.We live out in the country "small farm" and when we were robbed the neighbor down the road said the guys that broke in our house waved at him as he drove by..Can you imagine that. I noticed that on the"Where are you from" topic most of the people told the state not the town...

People may not want to give out to much info here either. Are you aware of "people search" on the web. For free or a few dollars, with a minimum of info you can find out so much about someone it shocks the average person. They did that on TV not long ago. With only a name, state and town they were able to find the age, address, phone number, marital status, quantity of childred and their ages and lots, lots more. Then further with a search of the areas assessors offices they were able to find out the houses square footages, layouts, amount of rooms, attic, and lots, lots more. Now you can find out more about someone than they know about themselves.
So if a person in a coin forum constantly allows you to know what he has and you can find out his name and approximate location, usually through a PM, guess what is next.
So the crooks waved. Shows you they are friendly people, those crooks. One of my neighbors went on vacation. Moving van pulled up, enptied his house. Neighbors ask them what was going on. Movers said the people liked where they were at so much they decided to move there. Neighbors came back from vacation and no one could remember anything about the movers. OH, yeah. They had a home security system. Movers took that too. And they too were friendly.

Yea, I've used People search and White Pages.com to locate old Marine buddies that I had lost track of.

Home security systems are really that great. A cut of the incoming phone line at the box outside will disable the system from ringing the alarm company/fire/police. If you are going to use cameras, you need to hide the equipment that will be recording. Alot of the times the crooks will steal the VCR,DVR or computer that is doing the recording. Also the cameras would have to be set up on a pre-alarm system.

Not only that but a hammer hit on the electric meter disables the entire house from electrical so VCR's, TV's, Monitors, etc. unless they are equipped with a UPS, they too will be useless. If the system is like a cellular, through the air type, those too can be jammed. A well educated criminal, and many are, can and do these things all the time. Example: One sort of friend of mine took many classes for auto repair and burglar alarm systems in cars. He over did the theft stuff a little so got caught but they do teach you how to disable alarm systems in places that teach you how to install them.

I like statistics being in my favor, that's for sure. I had my house burglarized two years ago and lost about half of my coin collection, including the entire safe and all its contents (see my welcome page for more). We have a dog- that's step one. Now I'm trying to see about a security system. I have to agree with some of you that if you have a sign it should be a deterrent, not a "I have lots of goodies to steal" sign. For the average crook, I believe they would move on because their knowledge isn't likely to be high enough to know which system call the police, which ones don't etc. The ones that burglarized my house were below the average crook- left footprint on the door, and a fingerprint at the scene, leading to their conviction.

However, if you have a truly intelligent crook (which I think are few and far between), they will know about the systems, etc. Still they would have to know the contents of the house for it to be worth their while to take the high risk of going into a house with a security system. Without knowing what is inside the house (could be a button or doll collection for all they know), I'd have to think the intelligent crook would also prefer not to draw attention to the house that has a security system. I'll have to dig around for some statistics on this.