Home Break-ins

[Deleted]

I know of three families that have had their front doors kicked in and a bunch of stuff stolen in the last three weeks. Is this happening everywhere or just here? It is scary.
I am definitely looking in to an alarm system for the new house.
Anyone have any recs for an alarm?

[thewop]

Wow. I haven't heard of any break-ins in my area. Scary. My particular street has a lot of retirees and SAHM's, so if anyone is kicking my door in hopefully my neighbors will see and call 911 ASAP! A burglar would be pretty disapointed if they did break in though, we don't have a lot of good stuff to steal. :-p

[kellikans]

we've had a few break-ins in my neighborhood recently as well. we live in a nice area, but right next to us is a not-so-nice area (one of the weird things about L.A. - you have affluent neighborhoods right next to not-so-great neighborhoods). we had an alarm system (ADT) already installed on our house when we bought it, we just never activated it. last month we decided to activate it. so far no issues.

a few things to check... see if an alarm permit is required for your area. we weren't aware of it and were never told about it from the installation company and we were hit with a fine the first time the alarm went off (false alarm). luckily we spoke with the installation company and they reimbursed us the fine amount.

also, check to see what your city charges for having someone to come out when the alarm does go off. we have glass breaks that one of our dogs set off by barking (they weren't installed yet and were sitting on a table). ADT called me and I told them to send someone out to see if anything was going on (didn't know it was the glass break at the time). the city of L.A. charged us $150 to send authorities out. and they charge you every time (at least here). I'm pretty sure that it varies depending on where you live. someone I work with who doesn't live in L.A. proper said that they start charging after the third time, and it was only $75 per incident.

[Deleted]

How scary! I do think it goes in streaks though. I live in a safe secluded area but there are sprees where kids break in looking for booze, cash, RX drugs, and whatever other stupid things. Then all is calm again for awhile.

I have no recs on alarms but I'd maybe just find out what the norm/most popular system is in your area and go from there. I have nothing good to steal either. I have less than $1.00 in cash to my name, a 5 year old laptop, I don't have more than Tylenol and I drink cheap beer. If they want my checkbook they better the overdraft fee on the way out or they won't get too far.

[sjh722]

It seems like there's an increase in break-ins here around the holidays every year.

My parents had an attempted break-in a few weeks ago (they live about 2.5 hours from me); my dad came home for lunch and literally walked into someone leaving their house, with one of their duffle bags full of stuff. The guy dropped the bag and ran. I'm glad it ended that way, could have been much worse!

[mrsemilys]

We use Vivint and love it. Their customer service is great and its all wireless so you can do everything from your phone. If you're interested let me know and I bet I can get you some $ off as a referral.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2012 14:07:12 GMT -5 kellikans said:

we've had a few break-ins in my neighborhood recently as well. we live in a nice area, but right next to us is a not-so-nice area (one of the weird things about L.A. - you have affluent neighborhoods right next to not-so-great neighborhoods). we had an alarm system (ADT) already installed on our house when we bought it, we just never activated it. last month we decided to activate it. so far no issues.

a few things to check... see if an alarm permit is required for your area. we weren't aware of it and were never told about it from the installation company and we were hit with a fine the first time the alarm went off (false alarm). luckily we spoke with the installation company and they reimbursed us the fine amount.

also, check to see what your city charges for having someone to come out when the alarm does go off. we have glass breaks that one of our dogs set off by barking (they weren't installed yet and were sitting on a table). ADT called me and I told them to send someone out to see if anything was going on (didn't know it was the glass break at the time). the city of L.A. charged us $150 to send authorities out. and they charge you every time (at least here). I'm pretty sure that it varies depending on where you live. someone I work with who doesn't live in L.A. proper said that they start charging after the third time, and it was only $75 per incident.

Thanks for the info. I will have to look into this because it appears that there is more to it than just having an alarm.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2012 14:19:12 GMT -5 mrsemilys said:

We use Vivint and love it. Their customer service is great and its all wireless so you can do everything from your phone. If you're interested let me know and I bet I can get you some $ off as a referral.

Thanks, that would be awesome. The house won't be ready for a few months but I will message you when we get closer to closing.

[tarheels]

We've had alarms at various houses over the years, and IMO, all the major alarm companies are the same. It's kinda like cable tv, ya know? How much difference is there really? None really, IMO.

Never pay full price for install. The big companies always run specials where you can get it for free or nearly so.

Ditto kelli on the fine for false alarms. When we lived in Nashville, they had that, and Nashville's not that big of a city.

And nope, no break-ins here. I live in Mayberry This is a doors unlocked kind of place. I once had a friend go out of town on business for 7 weeks and left his house unlocked accidentally and nothing was touched. The only crime we've had was in the summer of 2010, there was a panty thief. Yep, he'd break into single girls' houses and find their underwear drawer and steal their panties. Didn't take anything of value, just wanted the panties. He obviously had some mental issues (I mean that truly, he wasn't all there).

[emoflamingo]

So far, none here.

You may also qualify for a discount on your homeowner's insurance if you have an alarm so check with your company!

[bunnymendelbaum]

My sister in Indy has had some reports in her neighborhood. In one case, the people were home!

No issues here.

[Deleted]

We have a fair amount of property crime around here. One thing to look at is a door jamb reinforcer. If your jamb is harder to kick in than your neighbor's, they'll move on. There's a product called Door Armor or something like that that I really want to get, but it doesn't work with our old house.

The alarm is OK, but my mom set it off once, and it took the police between 30 and 40 mins. to get here. It does give burglars less time in your house and you get a phone call pretty much immediately (within a minute or two) if you aren't home. Not really something I want to count on in the middle of the night though. I like it more for waking me up than the monitoring in that situation. A burglar wouldn't know if it was monitored or not, so if you're really worried about costs/fines, you might get the same deterrent effect with an unmonitored alarm.

Talk to your ins. co. also. Ours (USAA) works with ADT and we got a hefty discount in the install and monthly monitoring and we get a pretty large discount on our HOI for having a monitored fire alarm.

[april37]

I've heard that break-ins are more common around the holidays. So scary.

[Deleted]

I just talked to one of the families. They were broken in to yesterday and in addition to the electronics that were stolen that stole a few guns as well. Yikes!

[aweilba]

Dec 5, 2012 14:19:12 GMT -5 mrsemilys said:

We use Vivint and love it. Their customer service is great and its all wireless so you can do everything from your phone. If you're interested let me know and I bet I can get you some $ off as a referral.

This is also what my parents have. They really like the service they've received so far. There were a few break-ins in their neighborhood over the summer, and they've had Vivint since September.

[statlerwaldorf]

We had our house broken into before we moved in. All they stole was the beer out of my refrigerator I had stocked for moving day. We hadn't moved anything of value in yet, but they didn't even open any of the taped boxes that were here. Break ins are pretty rare around here in occupied houses. Most break ins are either to vacant houses, barns, detached garages, etc. We ended up going with a local alarm company because most of the companies required a 2-3 year contract and I'm not sure we will live here that long.

[tarheels]

OMG, yall, I told you I lived in Mayberry! I came home yesterday at 11 pm and realized that I had left the front door cracked, the back fence gate open, and the back door unlocked all day! I'm completely spaced out with finals and deviated from my normal morning routine yesterday to take care of some things and didn't lock up the house in the usual order. Nothing was gone. The mailman had even been up to the porch to deliver a package! Mayberry, I tell you.

[RoxMonster]

We just got our HOA newsletter tonight and it said there have been some car break-ins and house burglaries as well. We live in a very safe area but like you say, I think crime goes up around the holidays always. Last year in December, at the apartment complex next to where we had lived (different than now), there were two armed muggings of young women walking to their cars between 630 and 700 AM. Yeah I leave at 645 in the morning. H walked me out to my car in the parking lot for the next month.

[McGavin]

Dec 5, 2012 16:24:21 GMT -5 april37 said:

I've heard that break-ins are more common around the holidays. So scary.

A few years ago my cousin's house was robbed. They stole the presents from under the tree!!!