Best way to keep house safe?

mose_2

What are the best ways to keep a house safe from the scumbags that want to take your stuff?

Alarm?
Window locks?

What else?

Also if you have an alarm and have cats how do you stop it going off?

Wherryman

mose wrote: »

What are the best ways to keep a house safe from the scumbags that want to take your stuff?

Buy a big Alsation, no buy two.

Also if you have an alarm and have cats how do you stop it going off?

Use this type of PIR dectors:
http://www.securitywarehouse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=271&currency=GBP

ormus

no good around here. they steal the alsations too.

lisal0u

Weve got an alarm as most people on the street do, didnt want to be the target house without one! Even a dummy box will help!

Also security lights are a good deterrant - just make sure they are out of reach otherwise they just turn the sensor the other way!

Also might be worth marking all your stuff with smartwater (http://www.smartwater.com/Home.aspx). We got ours free from the local police. I rang them up to see what we could do to protect our home and they sent us that and a load of useful leaflets.

vaio

ormus wrote: »

no good around here. they steal the Alsatians too.

Reminds me of a story set on a local dodgy council estate, a building surveyor parked up to go look at a job, local youth crowd round offering to watch his van for a fiver.

“Nah” says he “my Doberman in the back will keep the van safe”

“Oh” say the kids “he can put fires out can he?”

Igol

Dusk til dawn security lights rather than PIRs and dont bother with dummy alarm boxes.
Your average scrote is just as able as you are of wandering into B&Q and seeing which ones the dummys are.
NHW schemes offer a deterant but just how motivated are your nieghbours??

At the end of the day it depends on how much you want to spend ?

Monitored alarm systems with 2 way communication, laminated double glazing and so on.

allan673

dusk till dawn lights i agree with, burglar alarm with shock sensors on accessible windows and doors.
locks on internal doors, so if they break in other rooms cant be accessed easily, something like an internal security bolt.

shandypants5

I some ways a dummy alarm box is better than a working alarm.
and I would AVOID shock sensors on windows too.

A method lots of theives use is to knock your door to see if you are in, if you answer, then they make an excuse about it being the wrong house and leave.

If you dont answer then they will deliberately try to set off you alarm by thumping windows or flicking stuff through the letterbox to attempt to trigger PIR sensors,
again if anyone aproaches them and askes what are you doing, they just say does TOM/!!!!!! or HARRY live here.

Up to this point they are not breaking any laws but are casing out both your house and the watchfullness of the neighbours.

If they CAN set off the alarm then thats good news, as then they go and sit nearby and watch if anyone pays any notice to it.

When no one shows after about 20 min then they just go round back and smash a window and help themselves, they Know no one is monitoring the alarm and neighbours dont care.

BUT.... if they CANT set off the alarm, then it is aBIG unknown and they really dont know who or what is going to happen once the alarm is triggered, so they go next door start again.

If I were a theif, I would avoid houses with
1) a dog
2) an alarm I cant set off
3)Locks that cannot be opened without a key even once I am in the house.

(hoiking a TV out the window always looks a bit sus.:rolleyes: much easier to walk calmy out the front door with the alarm ringing loudly behind you while you wave cheerily at the neighbours.)

mose_2

shandypants5 wrote: »

I some ways a dummy alarm box is better than a working alarm.
and I would AVOID shock sensors on windows too.

A method lots of theives use is to knock your door to see if you are in, if you answer, then they make an excuse about it being the wrong house and leave.

If you dont answer then they will deliberately try to set off you alarm by thumping windows or flicking stuff through the letterbox to attempt to trigger PIR sensors,
again if anyone aproaches them and askes what are you doing, they just say does TOM/!!!!!! or HARRY live here.

Up to this point they are not breaking any laws but are casing out both your house and the watchfullness of the neighbours.

If they CAN set off the alarm then thats good news, as then they go and sit nearby and watch if anyone pays any notice to it.

When no one shows after about 20 min then they just go round back and smash a window and help themselves, they Know no one is monitoring the alarm and neighbours dont care.

BUT.... if they CANT set off the alarm, then it is aBIG unknown and they really dont know who or what is going to happen once the alarm is triggered, so they go next door start again.

If I were a theif, I would avoid houses with
1) a dog
2) an alarm I cant set off
3)Locks that cannot be opened without a key even once I am in the house.

(hoiking a TV out the window always looks a bit sus.:rolleyes: much easier to walk calmy out the front door with the alarm ringing loudly behind you while you wave cheerily at the neighbours.)

This is some great advide thanks, I remember seeing a TV programme ages ago with an ex burglar from liverpool I think that would break into peoples houses to show them what was wrong but i cant for the life of me remember what it was called. Anyone remember this????

melb

beat the burglars I think. when we moved into our house we were comforted by the nearby Neighbourhood Watch Area sign until we saw the bullet hole in it!

Shambler

I fitted extra window/door locks and even fitted a lock to the dining room door so that they would have to break that door down too in order to get at anything expensive!

Call me paranoid...no don't bother I already know