Burglar alarm advice

[Julia9054]

Today, I got home from work to find that I have been burgled.
They bashed in the back door, went through my bedroom looking for jewellery, didn't take any because I don't have any and made off with the telly (and my son's empty wallet) instead. Fortunately, they didn't think to break into the garage where all the bikes are!
I need to improve my home security. Does anyone have any advice on what sort of burglar alarm I should get, never having had one before? Also, how much should I be looking to spend?
I don't want to buy something useless, but equally, don't want to be taken in by some salesman preying on the fact that I am, understandably, feeling a bit vulnerable right now.
Any advice welcome.

 

[classic33]

Have a word with your local police, they may still have crime prevention officers who can offer advice.

You have to consider the fact that would having an alarm fitted prevented what happened. Most people don't seem bothered when they hear an alarm going off..
You can get sensors that will alert you either by text message or other means when movement has been detected. You can then decide to act on the information received. You'll know where the sensors are placed after all. Some can even be set up to call the police for you.

Sorry to hear about it, and I hope you get over the invasive nature of what happened as quick as possible.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm very sorry to hear of your problem. It must be horrible. Do you live in a residential area with lots of neighbours, or in a quite isolated position? We live in a densely populated area of London, without an alarm. Nobody round here takes much notice when one does off. My personal policy is to spend the money on decent external doors and locks, rather than an alarm, but plenty of people don't follow suit.

EDIT: @classic33 beat me to it!

 

[slowmotion]

[QUOTE 3962128, member: 45"]If a burglar has a choice between two similar houses and one has an alarm fitted, he's likely to go for the unalarmed one.[/QUOTE]
You don't happen to sell burglar alarms for a living, do you?

 

[Katherine]

Oh no, how horrible for you. You definitely want to get a door that's harder to break as well as the deterrent of an alarm.

 

[Brains]

Sorry to hear about the burglary, but it sounds like you got of lightly, this time.
From experience, they often wait a few weeks for you to replace the items they stole, and then come back again.
So you need to do something now.

You know the old joke ?
Two Yanks camping in the woods, as they go to bed one of the guys starts putting on his trainers,
"why are you putting on your trainers?" says the other,
"So I can outrun a bear" he replies,
"You can't outrun a bear" says the other,
"No" he replies , "but I'll outrun you....."

Burglar alarms/home security work on the same basis, yours needs to be better than your neighbours, and to an extent you get what you pay for.

I would not bother with the cheap DIY alarms, it may be tempting at a couple of hundred quid and a weekend to fit, but from my experience they are not much good.
You are better off finding a local high street security company, someone that has been around a few years, and is a member of all the various societies, and get them to fit you an alarm, You will pay around £1,500 for something that works and is secure,

Unless you live in a high crime area, or yours is the last house in the street with an alarm, I'd just go and external alarm front and back, contacts on the external doors, a few PIR's covering the main access points downstairs, and a key fob controlled alarm with a connection to your mobile phone, so you get an automated call if it goes off.
(And make sure the garage/shed etc is covered if anything of value stored there)
I would not bother with expensive site monitoring, which is what they all try to sell you, as it's a annual fee.

£1,500 system will last you a decade, you will have to replace batteries every two years, but it should reduce your insurance bill and give you a lot of peace of mind.
Bottom line is you are not trying to make your home Fort Knox, a professional burglar will always get in if they want to, you just need to be wearing the trainers.

 

[classic33]

[QUOTE 3962128, member: 45"]If a burglar has a choice between two similar houses and one has an alarm fitted, he's likely to go for the unalarmed one.[/QUOTE]
Neighbours house is visibly alarmed, but they still tried getting in. Human intervention stopped them. They weren't bothered about the alarm going off.

Recently stood for twenty minutes, watching two people loading wheelie bins, from the garage. I know they'd seen me, it didn't stop them. Only the arrival of the police did that.

 

[slowmotion]

When we renew our household contents insurance, the fact that we don't have an alarm makes very little difference to the premiums quoted. That may depend on the area where you live, of course.

 

[classic33]

An example of the sensors that work via your mobile phone
D-Link DCS-5222L/B

 

[classic33]

Are the doors and frames capable of taking hinge bolts? If the door itself see's little use from you during normal use, then what about a contact alarm. Too much hammering on the door will set it off.

Any alarm system is only as good as the response to it. Beef up the entry points, making any further entry unlikely. Just make certain that with any security system fitted, you can get out/disable it if the need arises.

Advice that used to be given years ago was, "How would you get back into your house, with no keys". It made you see that small window in a whole new light.

As much as this will be distressing to you, remember this much. The chances of it happening are actually low, the chances of it happening whilst you are at home are lower still. We had a dog poisoned when the house was broken into years ago. For two weeks it was touch and go whether it would survive. We were in the house at the time.

One thing that needs to be considered is a knee jerk reaction to what happened. Don't go buying or be persauded that you need something you may later find out you have no need off.
Decide when you've had time to think.

The earlier darker nights, consider a fake tv? http://faketv.com/products/ftv-10/

 

[steve50]

i got a good tip from a police officer many years ago, burglars do not like being seen, fit cctv cameras (even dummys) they are a damn good deterent and lights, i have infra red triggered lights all the way around my house, there is literally no way anyone can get near my house without triggering one of the lights and burglars do not like being seen.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

At my last house I had a maintained alarm installed by someone with good reputation and loads of referrals. The system was a Veritas.
We've been installing CCTV at work which can easily defeated by wearing a hoodie, so I'd say if you go the CCTV route have a nice visible one and something smaller at face height.
With the police cutbacks these days the scumbags probably know that the alarm won't bring a response, but a pic of their face will get their door knocked on.

 

[swee'pea99]

That's really horrible. My sympathies, and let's hope the scumbags get their come-uppance soon.

Don't take this the wrong way, but when I questioned my friend once about why he never locked his rag-top car, he said 'If they want to get in, they will. The only difference this way is that they get in and find there's nothing in the glove compartment without slashing the roof.'

Now obviously I'm not saying you should go out of your way to let scroats in your house, but there's a case for saying that you'd have to spend a lot of money to make a significant difference to their chances. Do you actually have anything nickable that's worth spending that kind of money to protect? You can replace a telly and an empty wallet on ebay for a hundred quid.

I don't know. Maybe I'm talking crap. But like you say, you're felling understandably shaken and upset at the moment...maybe not the best state to make clear-headed decisions. Give it a few days. And as you say, be very wary of people with a vested interest trying to take a lot of money off you for something that may not be worth it to you.

Sorry again to hear your news. It is crap when it happens (it's happened to me). But no-one got hurt, and hopefully that's your bad luck done with for a good long while.

 

[summerdays]

Where I used to live the neighbours alarm was always going off, I never bothered doing anything it was so regularly set off - by her cat she would say.

I was burgled once, maybe 25 years ago, it does take a little while to get over the feeling. I can't remember exactly what advice was given but I'm sure the police sent round a crime prevention person. We didn't fit an alarm, but did put in lights on a timer, and outside lights triggered by movement. We still do this now all these years later.

In our case they got in through a vulnerability in our double glazed door locking mechanism, so we up graded that when we replaced it.

I hope that you can soon put the worries behind you, and that you manage to get a good nights sleep (remembering that feeling isn't nice even now).

 

[Markymark]

We have a monitored alarm. Still got burgled twice with it. They just don't care.

Smartwater signs from the police helped when we wiped everything.