Opinions on getting burglar alarms

[Kai1977]

We live in an OK neighbourhood in crime terms, in the middle of a row of Victorian. terraces. No one around here seems to have burglar alarms.

We have tried to take precautions including internal CCTV but haven't felt the need for anything more.

But some close family in another area were recently burgaled (they had motion sensor outdoor lights and a good alarm system). There were four burglars, they watched the house until the family left, tried to break the front and back doors before finally getting in through a window. The alarm stopped them getting anything and they left the house after a quick runaround -they also ignored the ipad nearby.

We are all Asian and I understand that we are more likely to be targeted as people think we keep more jewellery in the house (we don't).

My questions are: would you get an alarm under our circimstances (terraces are also less likely to be robbed I think)?

Will a single alarmed house in a street without them actually highlight our house as somewhere with valuables?

Thanks

Are you sure you will remember to reset it every single time you pop to the garage, or next door or anything like that?

Because if an opportunistic burglar nips in after having seen you knock next door, then it's highly likely your insurance won't cover you.

TBH, the only thing you need to do is make your house less appealing a prospect than next door. So given alarms are easily left un-set (and when they do go off, ignored), I'd err towards more obvious measures like window locks, gravel, prickly plants and trellis on fencing, neighborhood watch, lights on timers etc. You can always get very realistic dummy boxes to hang on the wall if you want too.

More ideas here: www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-3862000/How-protect-home-burglars-Tips-reformed-thief.html

We also live in a fairly low crime area.

We got a monitored alarm after we were woken up one night by someone trying to break in (they didn't manage to get past our locks that time, though).

We were told that if we had a visible alarm, that it should act as a deterrent, especially if it is clearly a monitored alarm that will alert you or another key holder to a break in. Certainly as far as we know we were the only house targeted near us - and when we looked from outside , the only one without an alarm on the front...

I have more peace of mind when we go away now we have one fitted, and for me it is worth it just for that.

Of course, if a burglar is determined to get in, they will, alarm or not, but it can't hurt.

I think you can still phone up your local police station and get a crime prevention person round to give you specific advice. They certainly used to.....

I live in a development of terraces and were burgled a couple of years ago. Notably we were the only one in our row without an alarm.

I would definitely get one, we went out and bought ours 2 days later.

Thank you all.

Yep peace of mind is important.

I would definitely want one that calls us up etc (any recommendations).

ShotsFired Yes we do a lot of that as well. You're right they are often ignored but with our family that got burgled, we think the burglars left a lot quicker because they knew people outside could hear (I actually think the burglars thought it was a dummy alarm when they saw it).

We were burgled while we all slept s at night last year. Car stolen. I couldn't sleep for months.
We now have alarm by ADT (the best turn off for burglars around), motion detection spot/flash light on drive and CCTV.

Paying a bit towards security is totally worth it for peace of mind and hopefully never having to go through that horrid experience.

Forgot to say- we didn't have any of this before we were burgled! So we were a clear target.

Thanks sundowners.

I suppose if I think about it, if we are the only house in the street with an alarm surely the burglars will try those without first (not that I hope anyone here gets burgled of course).

I've heard some horror stories about people's front doors getting barged in the middle of the day and they were robbed whilst in the house. This in apparently 'nice neighbourhoods' too.

It comes back to peace of mind again.