Why You Need a Home Security System

You may not see a lot of crime in your neighborhood. You may not own a lot of expensive things. Why would any thief want to break into your house when the place next door has better stuff to steal? These are all good points. I thought the same things. Then my house got broken into and a bunch of stuff was stolen.

What Do Thieves Want?

Commonly, thieves don’t know what they are going to get before they break into a house. Unless the thief is a neighbor, which may sometimes be the case, they have no idea what you have and it’s not like a movie where the jewel thief cases the joint for weeks to determine what’s there and how best to get it. No. Most home burglars are crack heads or other addicts looking for anything they can steal so they can turn it into quick cash to feed their habit. They aren’t breaking in because they know you have something valuable. They are breaking in to steal anything they can find.

My Story

In my case, one day I got home from work and found the front door hanging open. I later noticed that the deadbolt lock was still locked. The thieves had taken a crowbar to the front door and popped it open in broad daylight just like a potato chip can. Nothing good ever comes from that. Inside I discovered my TV was gone. My computer was missing, along with the backup drive I kept plugged into it for security reasons. Oops! And then the big one… All the Christmas presents I had purchased and wrapped up ready to be delivered to family and friends. The theft happened 3 days before Christmas. What’s funny is that the gifts weren’t all that great. If they hadn’t been wrapped up, the thieves probably wouldn’t have bothered. They also took my favorite leather jacket. I had a really big scary looking dog, but he was safely locked up in the backyard. I suspect that more would have been stolen if the dog wasn’t there. He generally threw himself, all 100+ pounds of himself, up against the back door when he wanted someone to let him in. That’s probably what scared the thieves off.

It wasn’t a high-crime neighborhood. It is a nice boring older suburban area. The houses weren’t big, fancy, or new. The people living there were mostly working-class, so not a ton of money or expensive things. It’s the kind of neighborhood you lived in because you couldn’t afford anything better. A friend warned me that sometimes the thieves come back a month or two later after insurance has paid off and you’ve replaced all the stolen items. 

I Installed a Home Security System

I will probably never know why my house was broken into instead of the neighbor’s, but I put a quick stop to it by installing a home security system. Nothing fancy, just a couple of detectors that would tell you if one of the doors was opened and a motion detector in the living room. This was fine because it was a small house with only a front door and a back door. The motion detector was placed such that nobody could get to or from the bedrooms without setting off the motion detector. There was a keypad by the front door so I could turn the system on or off when I left home or arrived back. I also put a sign in the yard and stickers on the windows. A relatively simple system that did the trick. I was never broken into again.

While it was a simple home security system, I had it installed by professionals since I didn’t really know how to do it myself. I just called the first company that I found, but later discovered that other companies had better systems for cheaper. Don’t make that mistake. Use GetYourQuote.com to help you determine which home security company you should use to install and monitor your system. They’ve already figured out which companies are the best and most trustworthy.