[ricola_pak]

I live in my uncle's house which is relatively big, and we have these wooden doors with lots of small windows on them on our backyard side, well this guy used one of the shovels we left outside our house (sigh) and broke the doors and got inside.

Luckily I armed the alarm before I left the house so I suppose that's good. My brother got contacted by the police a few hours ago but I have yet to go home as I am still at work so I don't know the exact details. They are checking the fingerprints and stuff now.

My brother is telling me though that it doesn't seem like the guy stole anything at all, but it is evident he checked out every corner of the house.

Anything from you guys' experience that I need to make sure of? I am hoping the police will make sure my brother knows everything we should do.

 

[450]

Wow. It seems like the guy is planning what to take and how to do it.

At least nobody got hurt by the guy, and hopefully nobody will. If I were you I'd want some guards or something right about now.

 

[sebastian589]

My friends house was broken into once, and while all the valuables remained untouched, he stole credit/debit cards, bank account info, etc etc. Seemed he was trying to pull off some sort of identity theft. Just be wary of that

 

[puiah11]

Not much you can do unless you live in a lead box.

Make sure to defend yourself better. Burglars sometimes strike the same site multiple times.

Your neighbors will probably get hit too.

Best burglar movie I've seen.

Motion sensors are good.

 

[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricola_pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif I live in my uncle's house which is relatively big, and we have these wooden doors with lots of small windows on them on our backyard side, well this guy used one of the shovels we left outside our house (sigh) and broke the doors and got inside. Luckily I armed the alarm before I left the house so I suppose that's good. My brother got contacted by the police a few hours ago but I have yet to go home as I am still at work so I don't know the exact details. They are checking the fingerprints and stuff now. My brother is telling me though that it doesn't seem like the guy stole anything at all, but it is evident he checked out every corner of the house. Anything from you guys' experience that I need to make sure of? I am hoping the police will make sure my brother knows everything we should do.

Man they check for fingerprints? When I had a break-in and lost $2K worth of stuff I got a drive-by officer take a statement and a picture and that was it. The guy didn't even ask who lived with me.

 

[kramer5150]

re-program your garage door openers.
Leave porch lights on.

I have motion sensing flood-lights all around the house, From what I understand thieves are much less likely to break into a well lit building.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Get a dog. If you've thought about one, this would be a good time to hit the shelter and pick one up. You don't have to get a giant and/or threatening one, most any dog will make a burglar wary. And dogs make pretty good pets, anyway.

Also, it'd be a good idea to secure your valuables better. Your place may have been cased for a future hit. Be careful.

 

[stevesurf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricola_pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif Anything from you guys' experience that I need to make sure of?

I am so sorry to hear about this. Here are a couple of threads/prevous posts, one of which also includes a set of Network cams:

Head-Fi Home Security Thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Be sure to go the low-tech route first. Put poles in all windows that would prevent them from being opened. Upgrade all your locks, get solid-core doors, and be sure to have blinds/drapes over all the windows so you can't see inside. And once you do that, be sure to actually lock all the doors and windows. Invest in some light timers. Be sure the bathroom light turns on and off. And don't forget the appliances. It's good to have a TV or radio that turns on and off, too. If there's moderately loud music playing, that's a pretty strong indication someone is in there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevesurf /img/forum/go_quote.gif LOL at your service. Home security is actually, in many ways, more difficult than industrial security since you are dealing with a very slim budget and you have to use technology sparingly to get the desired effect. And there's the question: what is the desired effect - what are you protecting yourself against? Is is a burglary? Do you just want to monitor people coming into your home (like a superintendent)? Uncle Erik said it best - take a low tech approach first - replacing locks - I prefer Medeco or Kaba deadbolts myself. COntinuing on the "low tech upgrade," simply put burglar alarm and CCTV monitoring stickers in all your windows and on your front door/lawn, even if you do not have a service. Get a set of dimmer switches that are under a timed, random control. Make everyone believe you are Edwood the insomniac, dining at 2AM on White Castles. Ok, and now for what you originally asked for, a residential video system: Keep in mind that residential IP Cameras require more light than their industrial counterparts. One of the downsides to deploying a video system in your home is that you may need more lighting and now you have a higher recurring cost. The alternative is to spend more up front for camera technology that is light sensitive and switches from a "Day" mode (color) to a "Night" mode (black & white). Being objective, there are three companies that have the best IP cameras in the residential industry: Panasonic, Axis and Sony. Let's build a sample Panasonic System, together with a Milestone Recording software package: Entry level Indoor Network Camera BL-C10A Indoor Network Camera w/ 2-way Audio and limited Pan Tilt BB-HCM311A Outdoor/Indoor Network Camera w/ 2-way Audio and limited Pan Tilt BB-HCM331A Outdoor (requires separate housing)/Indoor Network Camera w/ 2-way Audio and 350 degree 21X Pan-Tilt-Zoom BB-HCM381A A Wired Router Milestone Basis Recording Software Choose your camera, based on whether you want just one camera in a large room to spin around and look almost everywhere, or one that is mounted in the corner (less expensive) and has a fixed view primarily. Here's a deployment list: 1.Wire each camera to the switch/router 2.Each camera has its own power supply. Power over ethernet cameras are available, but they take away other features for the same price level. I can recommend power injection by PowerDsine or another POE camera like the Model WV-NP244, which has POE. 3.Check your upstream bandwidth for an expectation of the remote viewing rate 4.You can use an outside DDNS like Viewnetcam.com to register your cameras 5.Run your ethernet (pref. CAT6C stranded) - use a wired system, not wireless if possible 6.Install the Milestone Recording Server Appl. on your PC, registering each of the MACs from your cameras 7.Recording can take a huge amount of HDD space, so you'll definitely have to upgrade/install a HDD array - see the sample calculation below, taken from Milestone's Server Estimator: For 4 Cameras, at a Frame Rate of 2fps, at 320x240, 7 Days, 12 hours each day, 25% motion, you'll need 8.7GB storage and the following PC: XProtect: XProtect Basis, Basis+, Professional and Enterprise1 Processor: Intel Pentium 2.4 GHz2 RAM: 512 MBytes Graphics: AGP with 32 MB RAM - Video color: True 24 bit NIC: 10 Mbit/s Hard disk: IDE drive3 OS: Microsoft Windows XP Pro For 4 Cameras, at a Frame Rate of 4fps, at 640x480, 7 Days, 12 hours each day, 25% motion, you'll need 58GB storage Good luck with your selections!

Quote:

Originally Posted by puiah11 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Burglars sometimes strike the same site multiple times.

Yes, sometimes three or four times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have motion sensing flood-lights all around the house, From what I understand thieves are much less likely to break into a well lit building.

Great advice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif Get a dog. If you've thought about one, this would be a good time to hit the shelter and pick one up.

Also great advice, but you can trigger a dog bark or even just post beware of dog signs.

 

[barqy]

wow that's disturbing...

where abouts in Vancouver are you?

Vancouver is getting pretty sketchy these days.

Just in yesterday's Vancouver Sun, there was an article about a man beaten into a coma for no reason (he was at the ATM at 3am in the morning getting money to buy 'breakfast' for his coworkers)

 

[ricola_pak]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I lied, the burglar(s) did steal something, they stole my penny jar

Seriously, so far that's the only thing that I find missing, and I probably only had about $10 in that jar.

The burglar(s) ripped out 2 of my house alarm's keypads and also ripped out the siren, I suppose they really hated the loud alarm ringing.

Got it fixed now, just need to fixup the door too. I do have floodlights and what not, I just hope they learned their lesson, that although my house is nice and big, there's actually no cash in it at all

 

[akwok]

My (Richmond, BC) house got broken into two months ago. We live in a 'rich neighbourhood', and everybody drives Lexuses and Mercedes -- so I guess the thief expected us to have a lot of goodies in the house.

He broke in through the window, crawled in, knocked over all of our ceramic cups (we keep them on the windowsill). Then he proceeded to ransack every nook and cranny of the house.

What did he get for all his troubles? Around 10 $2 bills, and around $50 in unopened Chinese New Year's red envelopes. He must've been expecting to haul away at least a few thousand in jewelery.. fortunately my parents don't care for it. Plus we don't have many valuables in the house -- a big TV, but obviously they can't haul that away. Good job robbing the house the only house in the area with cheap cars (a '91 Ford Aerostar and a '92 Jeep)..

I wasn't in BC though, so my gear wasn't there. Thank goodness!

However, my parents don't feel safe in the house anymore.. sucks.

 

[squall2072]

When I was younger our appartment on holiday was broken into... wasn't exactly a nice feeling but I'm just glad none of us were there, could have turned ugly because my sister and I were pretty young.

For some reason they stole my Southampton FC kit!! Who the hell would want that!? Or my boxers!?

 

[Chops]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricola_pak /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thanks everyone for the advice! The burglar(s) ripped out 2 of my house alarm's keypads and also ripped out the siren, I suppose they really hated the loud alarm ringing.

I'm thinking of getting an alarm system for my house.

A couple of tips that I have thought of before getting one... These would/could be custom jobbies that you could add on yourself or ask to be done at the time of installation.

1) Use two (2) equally loud but different sounding sirens on the outside of the house, but well hidden out of site, such as behind attic vents or soffits on each end of the house.

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to place one above each major entry point of the house either (front and back door), again inside the soffit so it's impossible to see. 100-110dB SPL sirens can be quite painfull when sounding off inches above one's head!

This way it will be highly unlikely the theif will be able to disable one of them, let alone both or more of them. Plus, your house will get a lot more attention from your neighbors with the noise of 2 or more highly mismatched sirens blasting away.

2) Install the alarm keypad(s) in an unlikely place such as in a closet or adjacent room or (my favorite), behind a picture frame on the wall somewhere. You can also have a dummie keypad in the "typical" location to trick the burglar as well.

What burglar is going to think to look in a closet or behind a picture for a keypad?!

3) Make sure that the system is capable of *FULL* battery backup (keypad(s), brain and siren(s)!

4) Think about possibly installing a couple of high-intensity strobe lights on the outside of the house. Again, find a spot that is impossible to reach by foot or by using a shovel, broom stick, etc, etc, but make sure they are clearly visable from the road and your neighbors' houses.

5) Make it well known that you have an alarm by post warning stickers on the windows and those little signs on a stick that you put in the ground.

Overkill? Yes!

James Bond-ish? Absolutely!

But in this day and age, one can not be too careful, especially when you have a family to protect, let alone the house and everything else in it.

 

[Kirosia]

Some guy broke into my cousin's car and stole $2 in change.

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 /img/forum/go_quote.gif From what I understand thieves are much less likely to break into a well lit building.

If I were a thief I think I'd rather steal from a well lit building, at least I'd be able to actually see what it was I was stealing