Recent Neighborhood Burglaries

[goatsareus]

Is anyone else experiencing an increase of robberies in your area?

We have had 3 break-ins of immediate neighbors the past several months. The last one bears re-telling. This is a new house built by the owner, a small time local contractor. He has an old and new work truck for his business. As usual, he had his new truck with him at work. On the day of the break in, his back door was broken in, house gone through, keyes found to old truck parked outside, garage door lifted, old truck and burglars vehicle pulled into the garage, where the robbers proceeded to clean out the garage of tools, equipment and household goods. Got away with $51,000 of goods. The truck was found two days later in a ravine, wrecked. Nobody has been charged.

Dh is devising a do it your self burglar system for our house. It is partially installed. It has sirens that will go off if the system is armed and if (1) either of the two intrance doors are opened, or (2), if the motion dectectors inside detect motion. We have identifed and removed anything of interest to robbers...and we hope to create the element of surprise, when the sirens go off. There will be nothing easily visible to identify this house as being protected by a burglar system.

Whew. I really do feel better knowing we have this system partially in place. Only the indoor sirens are in place..we are testing the system. When we are in the garden, our house is out of sight and sound of us.

Anybody else doing anything like this?

[Lauren62]

We have had such a big increase in home invasion style robberies and also the regular home thefts that when I came home from work the other day I found a notice from the Sheriff tacked on our gate post, warning the folks in the neighborhood about being vigilant about strange vehicles in the area and also to keep our doors locked. One problem we have in this area is marijuana growers and the money that crop brings in but we have noticed an increase in thefts of stuff that can be sold for easy cash. Not a fun way to live in a rural area, I moved away from the big city for peace and quiet.

[soulsurvivor]

We don't have much a buglar would want and we have an indoor guard dog that will attack. As for the outside garage, it stays locked unless we're in there. All the vehicles stay locked.

Not one new house where I live and all the neighbors are like us. There's usually at least one of us at home all the time. And we do notice unusual activity and share info. We had a few burglaries some years ago, rather burglar attempts. There's at least one or two burglars out there somewhere walking with a limp.

[Lauren62]

Good point Rose, we are well armed at our home and my son is around, just back from 5 years as a Gunner in the Navy so the training here is above average. Our neighbor was sitting on his couch with his family watching tv one night when 6 men kicked in his door and held them hostage while robbing them blind. Thankfully they were relatively unharmed but it is hard to be prepared for that sort of thing. They did arrest 3 of the men involved because in this area there is only one highway running through so easy anough to block ingress and egress.

[goatsareus]

Originally Posted by rose2005

Are you also armed? Are you prepared in case someone breaks in in the middle of the night? Is your weapon loaded....because thiers probably is.

I hope you dont have any problem. But a securuty system is only half the battle. All it will do is either scare away an inexperienced person or buy you time.

Rose

currently I am not armed. Both dh and I have CCW permits. But the big item being stolen here are guns. So all but one gun is securely hidden. DH packs 24/7 right now. So we are armed at night with dh's gun.

[Tracy Rimmer]

Locks only keep honest people out, but an ear-drum splitting siren keeps them from coming back

We had an X10 system in our last house -- motion detectors and an unbelievably loud siren that would go off if the alarm was tripped. It did make me feel a little more secure, but then we were in a much more densely populated area then with a lot of transient types.

[goatsareus]

actually, I am not even locking the doors, don't want the doors busted like the neighbors..and if they open the doors, then they are immediately blasted with the sirens

what's an x10 system? we are in a rural setting, no neighbors in sight

[Pony]

Wow, Goatsareus, that sounds so scary.

Glad that you have a good 2-point security system: Alarm and weapons.

We've not had an horrendous increase in crime, but then, we actually have true law enforcement for the first time in years. The former sheriff did absolutely nothing. When the new guy came on board, he had a terrible backlog to clear. Fortunately, he hired on deputies with experience and dedication.

So far, they've busted a local meth-house, potential meth cookers (foolish enough to go one after the other into a local pharmacy to buy sudephedrine), and they've actually been running patrols to make sure things are safe.

Had we not voted in a sheriff who actually does the job, I'm sure we'd be sitting in a similar situation as yours.

[Windy_jem]

A robber wouldn't dare come into my house......
This is my protection

Great Pyr/ Lab

German Sheps

Rott/Lab

Rottweiler

And my alarm system...lol

[Wolf mom]

We have local newspaper articles advising us of the increase in crime here and what to do. The sheriff is 20 minutes away from a call from me. People don't seem to use alarm systems around here as no one is close enough to hear & help.

Dogs & guns, then call your gun toting neighbor.

Advocating guns, I need to add they don't do you any good unless you decide you can and will use it, practice a lot and have a plan before hand of what/how you're going execute it.

[goatsareus]

Windy jem...LOVE your guard dogs.

The first neighbor robbed has 3 scary dogs, don't know how the robbers got past the dogs. At present we do not have dogs, mainly because I believe dogs and goats are not a good mix, so as long as we have goats, I don't want dogs again.

Wolf mom, point well taken...I USED to be an excellent aim, but I now have arthritis in my hands and a very weak grip. I don't want to use a gun. In Ohio, I would go to jail if I could not prove my life was in danger if I shot a burglar, not worth it.

The purpose of the sirens is to scare the buglars off, hopefully.

We have been studying this for about 2 months and just this week had a huge DUH. You would have to understand the layout of our house, but we had not considered burglars trying to enter through the basement windows, an 8 foot drop to concrete, but now dh installed a motion dectector to watch those windows......see any more flaws in our plans??

[salmonslayer]

Windy Jem, that last dog of yours looks like a real killer!

[whodunit]

It seems the most popular point of entry for a burglar is a door, so that's where I would beef up security.

Most doors (even dead bolted ones) have nothing but maybe 1/2" of wood between your property and a burglar. I'm not a construction-type of guy but it seems someone could simply make a steel plate that is screwed into the door frame with very long screws in which the dead-bolt would go into. That way the poor burglar could kick away and do nothing but scuff the door.

Also, if the door has a window, replace it with one that does not. It's very easy (and not really that noisy) to break the glass, then reach in and unlock the door.

Most of the burglaries around here are of the very small variety and usually involve UNLOCKED doors and windows.

[Lauren62]

We have had to shoo off our property a couple of creepy guys that were looking for scrap metal. Funny thing is that they were poking around the barn first before knocking on our door to 'ask' if we had any scrap metal that we 'needed to be hauled off'. Now my son says howdy while armed with a gun and a smile.

[54BelAir]

There's also a possibility that it could actually be someone in the neighborhood doing the break-ins. They would know what you have, when you're gone, and if they're friendly with you, the dogs might let them past.

Well, maybe it isn't. But maybe it is. Better to NOT let anyone know about your security system.

[Windy_jem]

Originally Posted by salmonslayer

Windy Jem, that last dog of yours looks like a real killer!

He may only be a tiny 10 pound mutt but he sure makes a lot of noise!! Then when the big dogs run to his side to see what's going on, the little guy backs off and lets the big guys and gals do the real work! lol

[Elsbet]

About 3 years ago we were living in an apartment complex in the city. There was an outbreak of robberies in our neighborhood. Our apartment and one below us had NO problems. We had 2 VERY LARGE retired greyhounds at the time, and the people beneath us had a rottie. The other apartments in our building were broken in to. One poor guy at the back of our building came home while the thief was writing a rude letter to them about how crappy their stuff was. Eventually the thief was caught.

I think dogs are one of the best deterrent of crime there are. My poor daughter is so allergic, though, we can't have them anymore, although we are considering possibly getting one that we could keep outside with the animals.

I hope your alarm system will do the job! But mostly I hope it never HAS to do its job!

[timfromohio]

We live in NEOhio and yes there has been an increase. There was a string of them late last year in our immediate area and, like one other poster noted, the last attempted robbery is a story that bears telling. The target house is an average house but on a main road (i.e. - quicky getaway, not like having to navigate a bunch of neighborhood streets to get back to a main one). The house had multiple cars parked outside (good sign people are home, right?) and a growling dog inside. Three guys tried to get in - two at a front entrance, one at a back entrace. They all had ski masks on and, this is to me the really scary part, they cut the power to the house prior to attempting to gain entry. Unfortunately for them, the guy living there is really into both ultimate fighting and firearms (guy's brother is a combat handgun instructor). The guy put his wife and dog in the bathroom with a .45 and went after the guy trying to get in the back door with another .45. Shot the guy, but only winged him as he was holding the meter for the power to the house in front of him - knocked the intruder off the second story deck - all three took off running at that point. Personally, I think that the homeowner was an idiot for going outside after 3 guys, but apparently he was really ticked off and his adrenal gland did a core dump.

What really scared me about this one was the fact that (1) it was very evident there were people home, (2) the intruders (assuming there weren't deaf) knew there was a dog inside, and (3) they cut the power.

What to learn from this - multiple, redundant systems. Have a dog, lock all doors, use door braces to make it harder to just kick in the front door, security system, be armed (with training to back it up), and practice drills as a family.

[whiterock]

My house is a little 1500 sq ft n a gravel drive, the neighbors are 3000 + sq ft, brick, highly visible, paved drives. EMS has trouble finding me. I figure the big houses will be the targets around here. Still I try to keep an eye out for my neighbors. The paved road is heavily traveled now. I have let my fence row grow up in trees and brush so the house is hard to see. It is painted a tan color with brown roof and blends in well eventhough it is on the crest of the hill.

[cc-rider]

We had a cabin in southern Ohio, which is about 3 hours away from where we live. 112 acres, fairly remote. We had it about one year before they started breaking in. First time, they kicked in the door and stole the big stuff....generator, tools, gasoline, etc. We fixed the door and really beefed up the locks. Next time they broke out an upstairs window, loaded our farm wagon with everything else in the house....I mean EVERYTHING! Porta-potty, toilet paper, everything down to the walls!.... and took off. (We followed the trail through the woods and to a neighboring house. Of course, sheriff's office said nothing could be done. No evidence). After boarding up the windows, doors, and skylight, the NEXT time they pulled the exterior sheathing off the wall and just went through the studs. Nothing in there, of course. Maybe they won't come back??? I'm not holding my breath.

We don't even go there any more. Too scary. Sigh.