It happened to me...
- Thread starter DeLicious
- Start date
Delicious,
And be very careful !
I had friends not far from me who had a breakin with the stolen electronics just like yours.
One week later to the day they came back and did it again with the brand new TV etc that the insurance company had just replaced.
Familiarity is your biggest enemy !
I think a lot of times people experience break-ins because someone saw what was in the house (sometimes buddies of teenagers) and figured it was worth going after.
Good luck......and my condolences....glad no one was harmed !
Neil
And be very careful !
I had friends not far from me who had a breakin with the stolen electronics just like yours.
One week later to the day they came back and did it again with the brand new TV etc that the insurance company had just replaced.
Familiarity is your biggest enemy !
I think a lot of times people experience break-ins because someone saw what was in the house (sometimes buddies of teenagers) and figured it was worth going after.
Good luck......and my condolences....glad no one was harmed !
Neil
Delicious,
If I could come up with some used alarm equipment (low end not an ELK) would you be interested in it for just the price of shipping (probably about $30 tops). It could give you some basic protection until you could plan and budget for something better.
Let me know and I will see what I can do. Will probably take me about a week or so to go through some stuff that would be compatible. basically a control unit, keypad or two, siren, some detectors etc. Again nothing fancy.
If I could come up with some used alarm equipment (low end not an ELK) would you be interested in it for just the price of shipping (probably about $30 tops). It could give you some basic protection until you could plan and budget for something better.
Let me know and I will see what I can do. Will probably take me about a week or so to go through some stuff that would be compatible. basically a control unit, keypad or two, siren, some detectors etc. Again nothing fancy.
DeLicious, make sure and take a good inventory of exactly whats missing.
Often people find this to be bad but in reality the tip of the iceburg.
Can you locate all your spare keys? Watch your cars... garage openers... RF IDs...
If you cannot locate them assume they are in the theifs hands.
What information about you and your family was on the laptop?
DynDNS client by chance?
Run a credit report on yourself and any other adult that had documents in the house.
Watch for your stuff on eBay, it's a fence's dream...
Scuitinize the people you know, when this happened to my father's house it was someone I knew. Think about ex GFs and ~buddies~, think about EVERY service technician that has been in your home. It is quite often that you have at least some knowledge of the offender. That guy knocked over my dads house and then came to mine and stole my truck with it's spare keys. It wound up being an older son of an ex GF.
Lastly I'm very sorry it happened to you, learn as much from it as possible.
Also teem up with other victims in your area, this is how we caught mine. Once we realized we had a common concern he was toasted and got caught red handed.
Often people find this to be bad but in reality the tip of the iceburg.
Can you locate all your spare keys? Watch your cars... garage openers... RF IDs...
If you cannot locate them assume they are in the theifs hands.
What information about you and your family was on the laptop?
DynDNS client by chance?
Run a credit report on yourself and any other adult that had documents in the house.
Watch for your stuff on eBay, it's a fence's dream...
Scuitinize the people you know, when this happened to my father's house it was someone I knew. Think about ex GFs and ~buddies~, think about EVERY service technician that has been in your home. It is quite often that you have at least some knowledge of the offender. That guy knocked over my dads house and then came to mine and stole my truck with it's spare keys. It wound up being an older son of an ex GF.
Lastly I'm very sorry it happened to you, learn as much from it as possible.
Also teem up with other victims in your area, this is how we caught mine. Once we realized we had a common concern he was toasted and got caught red handed.
hey, everyone. thanks again for the continuing support. i'll address some posts first, then give an update towards the end.
Collin, I think we have a pretty good idea of what is missing. There are no spare keys missing, we don't have any extra garage door openers, and I can only dream of the day where we use RFID in my house. There was no DynDNS on the laptop, but I have already changed my passwords just in case they are able to access something. Running a credit report is a good idea... I'll look into it. And as for ebay, I already have daily notifications on some of the items that I'm missing. As for who could have done it, I really have no idea. We haven't had that many repairmen at the house, and those that were surely didn't know that my wife had extensive jewelry and handbag collections. I can't think of any other strangers that have been around.
Digger, thanks for the kind offer, but I don't think I'll be needing it. I still have my existing HomeSeer system in place with motion sensors and door sensors (albeit, not the back door one, but the back door is bolted shut for the moment anyways). Plus, (and I was planning to expand on this below), I am adding cameras this weekend so I will never have to put anyone in the situation I put my wife in again. Also, I am planning my new security system with Martin at AO.
Kevin, thanks for your kindness. I know people on this board are only trying to help, and I take no offense at your criticism of my methods as I know they are constructive rather than mean-spirited.
As for the update, I fortunately live within driving distance of our friends at Automated Outlet and went to have a long discussion with Martin today. He gave me some indication of what I would be needing with an Elk system, but having shown him plans to my house, I need to better work out where to put everything. In the mean time, I bought 2 of the panasonic IP cameras that he has advertised in his forum to monitor the living room and kitchen area so that when motion sensors go off in there again, I can simply pull up the cameras. Also, I put a UPB module on my garage door opener so that it must be turned on (by X10-RF keychain remotes to the W800) before the door can be opened by a remote. With keychain remotes for both me and my wife, I hope this works out well.
I'm still open to all suggestions and welcome all help and support from this community. Thanks to everyone who is concerned, whether posting or not.
Collin, I think we have a pretty good idea of what is missing. There are no spare keys missing, we don't have any extra garage door openers, and I can only dream of the day where we use RFID in my house. There was no DynDNS on the laptop, but I have already changed my passwords just in case they are able to access something. Running a credit report is a good idea... I'll look into it. And as for ebay, I already have daily notifications on some of the items that I'm missing. As for who could have done it, I really have no idea. We haven't had that many repairmen at the house, and those that were surely didn't know that my wife had extensive jewelry and handbag collections. I can't think of any other strangers that have been around.
Digger, thanks for the kind offer, but I don't think I'll be needing it. I still have my existing HomeSeer system in place with motion sensors and door sensors (albeit, not the back door one, but the back door is bolted shut for the moment anyways). Plus, (and I was planning to expand on this below), I am adding cameras this weekend so I will never have to put anyone in the situation I put my wife in again. Also, I am planning my new security system with Martin at AO.
Kevin, thanks for your kindness. I know people on this board are only trying to help, and I take no offense at your criticism of my methods as I know they are constructive rather than mean-spirited.
As for the update, I fortunately live within driving distance of our friends at Automated Outlet and went to have a long discussion with Martin today. He gave me some indication of what I would be needing with an Elk system, but having shown him plans to my house, I need to better work out where to put everything. In the mean time, I bought 2 of the panasonic IP cameras that he has advertised in his forum to monitor the living room and kitchen area so that when motion sensors go off in there again, I can simply pull up the cameras. Also, I put a UPB module on my garage door opener so that it must be turned on (by X10-RF keychain remotes to the W800) before the door can be opened by a remote. With keychain remotes for both me and my wife, I hope this works out well.
I'm still open to all suggestions and welcome all help and support from this community. Thanks to everyone who is concerned, whether posting or not.
AutomatedOutlet
Senior Member
Yes, I think it truely must be a gut wrenching experience. I didn't hear about this until Adam came into the store today (still getting caught up from my long trip).
I think he has some great ideas about how to secure his house and is making good steps towards that. I also suggested that he take advantage of the fact the the North Texas Home Automation Users Group is probably due for a new project - hint hint Harleydude!
After reviewing his house plans, it looks like the house has been wiring for security before (perhaps 2 times). I think with some minimal wire pulls, it could all come into place pretty easily.
Harleydude, let's bring this up at our next meeting (next weekend) to see about going out there and helping him.
I think he has some great ideas about how to secure his house and is making good steps towards that. I also suggested that he take advantage of the fact the the North Texas Home Automation Users Group is probably due for a new project - hint hint Harleydude!
After reviewing his house plans, it looks like the house has been wiring for security before (perhaps 2 times). I think with some minimal wire pulls, it could all come into place pretty easily.
Harleydude, let's bring this up at our next meeting (next weekend) to see about going out there and helping him.
DL: first, sorry to hear about your unfortunate mishap. Thanks for sharing.
I'm curious to know, did they simply brute force the back door? What type of door was it? I myself am in a pretty similar situation: young, just bought my first house, and am new to the HA/security arena. Has anyone suggested physcially securing that entry point? I keep hearing about these StrikeMaster door jam re-enforcements, and I think that [if they work as well as them seem] they're a great bang for the buck. With all of the cool and nifty electronic devices out there (a bit overwhelming!), it's easy to overlook the simple things. Perhaps that sprained foot or sore shoulder would have made the thieves move on (?).
Kindly,
Jamie
I'm curious to know, did they simply brute force the back door? What type of door was it? I myself am in a pretty similar situation: young, just bought my first house, and am new to the HA/security arena. Has anyone suggested physcially securing that entry point? I keep hearing about these StrikeMaster door jam re-enforcements, and I think that [if they work as well as them seem] they're a great bang for the buck. With all of the cool and nifty electronic devices out there (a bit overwhelming!), it's easy to overlook the simple things. Perhaps that sprained foot or sore shoulder would have made the thieves move on (?).
Kindly,
Jamie
AutomatedOutlet
Senior Member
I think it's next Saturday.
It happened to me too, 1 year ago February, we were burglarized; I got the call at work from my 14 year old son came home to find the mess. In our case, we did have an alarm system on the house that was monitored 24x7 however I had compromised due to cost and did not install motion detectors. I rationalized (can you say rational lies) that with door sensors on all of the doors and glass break on the main floor that I was safe, plus I have pets (the nationally known security company that made their sale did not help here, they shall remain nameless, yes I know I made the final decision). The perps threw a retaining wall stone through the triple pane (they really had to work at it) slider in the basement to gain access. Fortunately in our case it was kids and they were looking for some specific things and left all of the “good stuff” behind. To date no one has been caught.
The sense of violation is hard to get over, even harder is the initial paranoia about loss of personal information (identity theft) and/or a revisit.
We now have high quality pet immune motion detectors and additional sensors on the house and a different monitoring service. Perhaps having been burglarized I was smarter about it, however, I know for certain that the company I brought in the second time was interested in keeping my business long term and thus was very open about they thought would be necessary to better secure my home.
Lessons learned, if you are going to spend the money to install a security system do it right, find a professional that is interested in keeping you as a customer for life not just in making a sale to get a 2 year contract, you will get much better advice. While it is true that you can go overboard don’t leave gaps in monitoring the perimeter that could allow someone to get in undetected.
Ben
The sense of violation is hard to get over, even harder is the initial paranoia about loss of personal information (identity theft) and/or a revisit.
We now have high quality pet immune motion detectors and additional sensors on the house and a different monitoring service. Perhaps having been burglarized I was smarter about it, however, I know for certain that the company I brought in the second time was interested in keeping my business long term and thus was very open about they thought would be necessary to better secure my home.
Lessons learned, if you are going to spend the money to install a security system do it right, find a professional that is interested in keeping you as a customer for life not just in making a sale to get a 2 year contract, you will get much better advice. While it is true that you can go overboard don’t leave gaps in monitoring the perimeter that could allow someone to get in undetected.
Ben
I think many good things were mentioned here, and I'm very sorry for anyone that has to go through this. Be here are my thoughts on this area.
First, get a UL listed, monitored alarm (ELK, HAI, etc.) at the heart of any home automation setup. Homeseer is great, and I use it as well, but it's not a security product. I've had a HAI system I installed with almost 48 zones, 7 motion detectors, glass breakage, smokes, etc. and in 5+ years, I've had ZERO false alarms. False alarms are not part of a correctly installed alarm.
Second, this hasn't been mentioned. With your alarm, ALWAYS install several LOUD inside sirens and strobes. You want to completely prevent any bad guy from seeing or hearing when the police arrive. If your inside is very unpleasent during an alarm, the bad guys will get out quickly.
Third, as mentioned, doors have to be physically strong. 95% of them out there aren't. If they can't get in in the first place, you can't get robbed, although this last point is hard to accomplish well.
First, get a UL listed, monitored alarm (ELK, HAI, etc.) at the heart of any home automation setup. Homeseer is great, and I use it as well, but it's not a security product. I've had a HAI system I installed with almost 48 zones, 7 motion detectors, glass breakage, smokes, etc. and in 5+ years, I've had ZERO false alarms. False alarms are not part of a correctly installed alarm.
Second, this hasn't been mentioned. With your alarm, ALWAYS install several LOUD inside sirens and strobes. You want to completely prevent any bad guy from seeing or hearing when the police arrive. If your inside is very unpleasent during an alarm, the bad guys will get out quickly.
Third, as mentioned, doors have to be physically strong. 95% of them out there aren't. If they can't get in in the first place, you can't get robbed, although this last point is hard to accomplish well.
I concurr with all, sorry to hear about the breakin ! We rented a house 7 years ago and suffered a loss thanks to a brick through the window. The insurance company covered the $10K loss however I wouldnt like to go through that again.
Since then I have been extremely security conscious and have since added an 8 channel DVR with external cameras. Only recently I had some plants stolen from out the front of the house and that finally kicked me into gear to install the CCTV stuff that had been laying about.
Now I have 3 fixed cameras (high visbility) and a PTZ dome camera sitting up high outside. In my view, this has been absolutely the best deterent.
I've added a perimiter beam across the front yard, about 90ft which feeds into my automation system. After dark and up to midnight, when the beam is tripped, it announces through the house speakers that there is someone outside and turns on the outside lights. After midnight, it turns on the **BIG GUN** halogen lights that turn the yard into a night time football match
I've worked out that making the security hidden inside is a good thing, making it VERY OBVIOUS outside is even better
Best Regards..Pete
Since then I have been extremely security conscious and have since added an 8 channel DVR with external cameras. Only recently I had some plants stolen from out the front of the house and that finally kicked me into gear to install the CCTV stuff that had been laying about.
Now I have 3 fixed cameras (high visbility) and a PTZ dome camera sitting up high outside. In my view, this has been absolutely the best deterent.
I've added a perimiter beam across the front yard, about 90ft which feeds into my automation system. After dark and up to midnight, when the beam is tripped, it announces through the house speakers that there is someone outside and turns on the outside lights. After midnight, it turns on the **BIG GUN** halogen lights that turn the yard into a night time football match
I've worked out that making the security hidden inside is a good thing, making it VERY OBVIOUS outside is even better
Best Regards..Pete
technerd
Member
Wow that's very cool. How much is the cost for all that stuff?sandman said:I concurr with all, sorry to hear about the breakin ! We rented a house 7 years ago and suffered a loss thanks to a brick through the window. The insurance company covered the $10K loss however I wouldnt like to go through that again.
Since then I have been extremely security conscious and have since added an 8 channel DVR with external cameras. Only recently I had some plants stolen from out the front of the house and that finally kicked me into gear to install the CCTV stuff that had been laying about.
Now I have 3 fixed cameras (high visbility) and a PTZ dome camera sitting up high outside. In my view, this has been absolutely the best deterent.
I've added a perimiter beam across the front yard, about 90ft which feeds into my automation system. After dark and up to midnight, when the beam is tripped, it announces through the house speakers that there is someone outside and turns on the outside lights. After midnight, it turns on the **BIG GUN** halogen lights that turn the yard into a night time football match
I've worked out that making the security hidden inside is a good thing, making it VERY OBVIOUS outside is even better
Best Regards..Pete
Hi Technerd.
The DVR is an AV-Tech 785, picked it up in HK for $900AUS. The cameras were picked up locally from a dealer, the DOME PTZ camera, I bought the camera and dome with RS485 (Pelco format) for $400AUS... The camera is a Chinese rip off, does ok but I will get something better in the future. As I said, the HIGH VISBILITY cameras seem to do the best job.
As for the outdoor beams, they cost me $150AUS for the 100ft version and its wired into an Ethernet 24 bit I/O card which hangs off Homeseer. I have speakers mounted in the ceiling upstairs and downstairs that are used for announcements and streaming audio. When the beam is tripped, the Text to Speach announces that someone is out the front. I have setup events in Homeseer to turn on lights outside.
In the first few days of installing, I had some idiots trip the beam at 4:30am trying to pull out my fountain lights and the 2x500W halogen lights freaked them out After this event, my wife thought accepted that it was good to have.
I was thinking of putting in a bunch of IR lights however I'll just let the Halogens light up the place. Seriously, there is only so much you can do before you start installing bollards and bars over the windows. I am going to put a few more perimeter beams out in the backyard so if someone jumps the fence, we start recording.
I setup an event on Homeseer yesterday where when someone comes to the front door, trips the outdoor Hawkeye movement sensor and if the ELK is in armed-away mode, it plays a dog bark wav file (nice growling doberman) thats EASILY heard from the front door Its never ending
Cheers..Pete
The DVR is an AV-Tech 785, picked it up in HK for $900AUS. The cameras were picked up locally from a dealer, the DOME PTZ camera, I bought the camera and dome with RS485 (Pelco format) for $400AUS... The camera is a Chinese rip off, does ok but I will get something better in the future. As I said, the HIGH VISBILITY cameras seem to do the best job.
As for the outdoor beams, they cost me $150AUS for the 100ft version and its wired into an Ethernet 24 bit I/O card which hangs off Homeseer. I have speakers mounted in the ceiling upstairs and downstairs that are used for announcements and streaming audio. When the beam is tripped, the Text to Speach announces that someone is out the front. I have setup events in Homeseer to turn on lights outside.
In the first few days of installing, I had some idiots trip the beam at 4:30am trying to pull out my fountain lights and the 2x500W halogen lights freaked them out
After this event, my wife thought accepted that it was good to have.I was thinking of putting in a bunch of IR lights however I'll just let the Halogens light up the place. Seriously, there is only so much you can do before you start installing bollards and bars over the windows. I am going to put a few more perimeter beams out in the backyard so if someone jumps the fence, we start recording.
I setup an event on Homeseer yesterday where when someone comes to the front door, trips the outdoor Hawkeye movement sensor and if the ELK is in armed-away mode, it plays a dog bark wav file (nice growling doberman) thats EASILY heard from the front door
Its never ending Cheers..Pete
