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My brother's vacation home/trailer was a target for theives until he
installed an X10 alarm system with cameras and PC recorder - and a set
of Fiamm air horms - all run off a good UPS system so it works even 8
hours after the power is disconnected.

Our neighborhood got hit hard during a recent blackout with several houses
broken into. My X-10 REX electronic dog has been beefed up with a 12V gel
cell that runs it for 72 plus hours.

http://www.x10.com/products/x10_pk9.htm

Hearing a dog apparently barking in the basement when the neighborhood is
eerily quite from a blackout gives burglars (and Jehovah's Witnesses) pause.
It's run by battery operated motion detectors so it appears to "respond" to
their movement. My neighbor's cat thinks it's real and no longer comes to
my porch to visit.

One miscreant left a patch of denim with better than a square inch of
skin/flesh from his shin on the "downspoout re-enforcement" at the
back corner of the trailer when he headed for the bush when the
flood-lights came on and blinded him.

Start collecting DNA samples from your neighbors. (-:

That was the last episode - on a cold stormy winter night when the
power was out in the whole area and the guy must have figured the
"obvious" alarm system would be useless.

When my car was broken into a long, long time ago, it was during a very bad
rainstorm. Thieves like to have the cover of darkness and they know fewer
people are likely to be out of their houses to catch them in bad weather.

--
Bobby G.