UKC

Scared off two NEDS casing the back of my house this morning, and neighbours camera picked them up at the w/e trying to break into their shed and van.

So having paid no attention to technology developments in home security, what do people recommend?

Apart from keeping a couple of geese in the garden, and Newfoundland hound that could drown invited guests in saliva with one lick….

A motion activated slurry sprayer

I was burgled in 2008. Thieves, who I know, took all manner of things. We were home and it was very traumatising.

Now, Ring doorbell, Ring floodlight/camera on gable end _ both linked to mobile app.. Security motion lights everywhere else. Motion camera trap for wildlife/scroats.

Locked gate and very careful with closing windows when out. Also,check your windows; if they are older are they externally or internally beaded. The thieves gently tapped out the single older external beaded window to get in.

It's mainly for deterrence -make it all very obvious.

Expensive grainy footage of people in hoodies taking your stuff is not very satisfying.

We went with the Ring doorbell option. It worked well, we had good quality footage of known 'gentlemen of the road' coming into our garden, helping themselves and walking out with arms full and clear pics of face. However, the police could not give one toss, despite being given the day/time stamped footage. SY police doing their thing.

We have a Ring doorbell and a Ring camera with floodlight covering the entrance to the garage and the back gate.

We bought it more as a deterrent to put people off trying to take my partner's motorbike. However, we have had police coming door to door asking if anyone had any footage after a break in at a house further up the street last year, so although police usage of doorbell camera footage is patchy, it appears that in some places they will actively search it out. On that occasion, we were unable to offer anything because our camera is set such that someone must enter the driveway before it triggers.

The other bonus is that I have some nice footage of roe deer in the garden - I would never have known that they visit without the camera!

I don't have an alarm at the moment. My brother-in-law, who is a policeman, rates ERA alarm systems.

Deterrence? About >35 KG of canine and you should be fine.

A couple of the sentry guns from Aliens.

Christ, he's been in your place too!

We installed a ring doorbell and couple of cameras with floodlight a couple of years ago.

One recent Saturday morning, our neighbours phoned to say their car had been nicked. We looked at our footage and he’d had a go at our car as well

Phoned the police, they took details. A few hours later they sent me a link to upload the footage.

On Sunday, once I’d worked out how to get it off Ring, I uploaded the video to the police.

On Monday, they called to get more info as they thought they recognised him

On Tuesday they called to say they had arrested someone and he would be in front of the magistrate the next day, on several charges

On Wednesday he went down for 20 weeks

I was stunned. The only thing I can see that the police got wrong was a press release that made use of stills from our video footage, which they removed as soon as I asked them to.

Can he put fires out?

Sorry, it's an old but good one where I live. 

How dare you misgender my little Princess!

After a run of burglaries in the village there was a meeting with the police in the village hall (well attended as, like most rural dwellers, we'd all forgotten what a PC looked like). The Community Support Officer (of course...) delivered it pretty straight. "If someone wants to break in to your house they will. You have to make it as unnatractive option as possible. This means you are in an arms race [interesting choice of words] with your neighbours to make your house less inviting than theirs". Apparently, when questioned, they don't have the resources to follow up on burglary so we were on our own.

Most people went down the video/ floodlight options but it's worth noting that more than half of break-ins were during the day. Locking gates, barking dogs, leaving a car on the driveway and even leaving the radio on are all useful too.

That's very true. In my first house there was a ginnel leading to 4 back gardens. Had my back door kicked in twice (albeit 20 years apart). A good burglar alarm doesn't stop them but does make them hurry (the second guys were known the police and a neighbour picked them out of a line up - got sent down for a few months).

The insurance company paid for the door frame to be repaired - by letting in a bit of softwood pine into the frame which was completely useless. I got my own guy out to replace the frame and put a piece of metal behind the frame - which stops it being kicked out. As he said - you'd break your ankle first.

It is very upsetting though - much more so than the monetary loss.

This^

I had forgotten about my burglary until this thread and how it made me feel. 

It was about 9-9.30 on 22rd November 2008. Me, my wife, and my two daughters went to bed as usual. Pretty average Saturday night, early to bed after a couple of beers.

Im an early riser so woke up the next morning to find a chill in the kitchen. Half asleep I noticed the kitchen door was open; weird, I could swear I closed it. Shut and locked the door again but then it struck. The kitchen window was out.

Ran upstairs to tell my wife and for her not to touch anything and then came down to survey the situation. They had taken my Playstation, watch, wallet and some other random low value stuff. Also my wife's handbag. Then I saw that my new company car was gone. A brand new Volvo V70 D5 R-Design, fully loaded. I was lucky in that the company at the time had a deal on nice cars.

Then the real horror struck - we had been upstairs. I'm a light sleeper but for some reason I hadnt noticed any knocking but my wife had, half asleep. She said she remembered a tapping sound in the night but didnt think anything of it. If only I had heard it, what would I have done? As a cruel twist, the burglars had broken into my shed and used my own tools to rob me but getting access though the only externally beaded window in the house (which was weeks away from being replaced) tools which may have been put to other use had they been challenged. I consider myself reasonably handy when it comes to looking out for myself and would not have shied away from the fight but it could have ended pretty badly as there were two of the,.

The wallet was emptied and thrown up the street, as was the purse. The cards had been sliced up. The car, a pretty quick vehicle, was found burned out at the junction of a very straight road about a mile away - they had over played the speed and ended up across the road in the hedge bottom, then set fire to the 2 month old £45k wheels, 5 minutes after stealing it. What a waste.

Officers came two days later, couldnt find any prints or evidence and they remain unpunished for my incident. A police friend however, heard through his channels that the two local well known men had been bragging about the fact they  turned over a house and torched a car, plus other specific details which could have only been me. They had apparently run out of fuel in another stolen car in front of my house, and fancied the look of mine. The watch etc was a bonus.

They were eventually caught for another job and were sent down, having dropped a mobile phone in the victims house. I know their names. One of them still lives around the corner and I see him every now and then. He has no idea who I am but I know him. He has kids now and I believe his partner died of cancer recently which made the local rag. I anonymously stalked him on Facebook for a couple of years afterwards and was desperate to go meter some overdue justice but my wife made me promise I never would - very sensible - although I still have fantasises about seeing him on my terms.

I dont see the other burglar.

In addition to the measures I mentioned above I also have an alarm although my large dog died in March. I also keep a long, heavy metal bar under the bed for good measure.

My understanding is that unless you have a 'legitimate' reason for the metal bar that would be an offense to keep as a weapon. Maybe keep your winter climbing gear (axes on the top) there instead, obviously totally innocent then if they are the first thing that comes to hand should you hear noises in the night.

Yes the fear and intimidation is far more damaging than the monetary loss. I had a similar experience of not quite understanding what had happened when I came home late to find the house cold and things not as I left them. 

Years and years ago I disturbed a bloke trying to break into the flat me and the now Mrs Sticht first rented together. It prompted me to have a think:

I’d ditch the iron bar, if you actually end up in a physical confrontation it’s my understanding that the courts look less favorably on those that have been preparing for one. That doesn’t mean you should venture downstairs empty handed to investigate bumps in the night. It means picking up the first plausible implement that comes to hand. Not many plausible excuses for an iron bar under the bed.

Also think about what the best outcome would look like if you actually disturbed burglars. Personally I don’t want a fight, I want them to drop everything, run away and never come back.

Most of my climbing gear lives in a drawer under the bed. This includes a long redundant pair of vipers. I also (stop reading if at all sensitive/eating your tea) sleep naked. 
 

I figure very few people want a fight with a naked middle aged man. Now imagine you’re burglarizing a strangers house and one suddenly appears, not just naked, but swinging an ice axe and with a fixed grin plastered across their face (I think the fixed grin is important).

In the unlikely event that the burglars don’t immediately shit themselves and leg it, I imagine that I probably would.

edit: oops, I see Jenny beat me to it

But your reply was so much more enjoyable to read....  I wonder if a frizzy haired overweight middle-aged naked women running downstairs would have the same effect on any intruders -probably mentally scar them for life, which I'm struggling to see as a bad thing.

I've thought about the implications many times. It's a heavy bar from and old kids bunk bed so I'd rationalised that it was to be taken to the tip but  'forgotten'.  

faced with the possibility of confrontation again, I'd rather have something useful to hand and seek forgiveness with mitigation but in the spirit of the thread I'd rather the deterrent factor be even more useful. 

Or, put differently,  be the piggies in the brick house.

Look, can we all put some clothes on please.

One of the very few advantages of getting ravaged by time is gaining an impressive ability to frighten the horses

I can’t remember who said it but the one absolutely undeniable benefit to getting older is that it beats the Hell out of the only other alternative.

When I was young, my Mum used to go for solo bike rides with a large skewer in her handbag, in case of unwanted attention.  When I mentioned the need for a "legitimate" reason to have them, she carried salt and pepper cellars too - said she'd claim she was riding to help at a barbecue.

I was burgled in similar circumstances to you a couple of months ago - they entered while I slept, and stole my car and some watches.  I didn't notice for a while - as they left my prominently on display wallet, laptop, and mobile.  In fact, they were caught before I knew of the crime - 13 year olds don't really convince as 3am drivers of a Skoda Octavia Estate! The funny thing to me was how keen the Police were to push the notion I felt violated, scared etc in a victim impact statement.  Really I was just annoyed at the inconvenience (I've still not got my car back - being repaired - and have some uninsured costs).  They also seemed almost put out that I didn't want counselling or assistance from Victim Support - which seemed a bit unwarranted it was just damage to "stuff" (my Mum's view, "do they come round and talk earnestly and make you feel worse?").

Buddy outside of town got a bunch of ring cameras from amazon after catching someone in his back garden "lost" looking for nearby town (apparently buddy must have a reeeeaaly big shed.....).

Pricey, esp as they push a lot of functionality into subscription options, but depends on what you need.

Good option to look for one that has a speaker - great deterrent if you can get an alert to your phone and shout at them from a few hundred miles away and say police called and enroute etc.

A Police buddy also suggested basic stuff is a good deterant (PIR lights etc) but also lights on timers in various rooms at different times to make it look like you're in the house.  As folk above said, its about making your house slightly less easy / risky / appealing than those around you....

Cheers, 

Stu

My wife, woke me around 5am  one winter's night, and said there was a man in small lorry wandering about outside going up people's paths with a torch and was putting something in the back of his truck.    We live in a small village out of town.  Fearing the worse I peaked out of the window, just in time to see the small truck/lorry turn right and head up the hill.   I was dressed in a shot, picked up my phone and jumped in the car which had my billhooks in (honestly!) and raced off to catch him.   I overtook him  ready to stop him, and as I did so, I could see the flat bed truck was carrying crates of milk............ Damn!!!  LOL...... It was some guy that had just started doing a milk round in the village !! 

We didn't know because we don't drink milk.

It took me ages to get back to sleep.   

I've got a Eufy Wall Light Cam as I didn't want to bother with a subscription. Works very well indeed. 

We have a Pyronix alarm the previous owner fitted. He worked for an alarm company and went a bit overboard with the sensors (we have about 20 I think). This is useful because when it goes off due to a faulty sensor (which happens 1-2 times per year) if it's only one sensor you can be fairly sure it's a false alarm. It has an app you can remotely set/unset it with and it notifies you if it goes off, the major flaw though is you need to have internet access at the moment it goes off, it won't push the notification later. I don't know how much of a deterrent it really is. If someone broke in it might get the neighbours attention (luckily their alarm is similarly unreliable so they can't really complain) but it's also quite good for peace of mind if you're away (unless it does go off of course!). We can also set just the door sensors at night which is quite good as our bedroom is on the second floor.

We also have a Ring doorbell plus a couple of cameras at the back. These are mainly useful if you get a notification that the alarm has gone off to be able to quickly see if there's a problem or not. Initially I didn't bother with the paid subscription but a couple of years ago I got woken by something crashing around in the garden and a notification the ring camera had detected some movement. I suspect it was just a clumsy cat climbing over the fence but being able to review the footage would have helped me get back to sleep.