Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 1:35*pm, Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. *She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. *If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. *I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. *Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. *Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

And a fire will be not notified as fast , or ever.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

"Mike" wrote in message
...
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls, and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone when
the alarm sounds.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 4:50 pm, "Bob F" wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

...



My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls, and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone when
the alarm sounds.

I'm not sure where your here is, but my here is different. The cops
show up pronto, and you get two free false alarms, then they send out
a notice that they won't be responding to additional false alarms
within a certain period of time. If your alarm goes off and doesn't
shut off, you get fined. If it were up to me, you'd get shot.

I was installing a kitchen some years back, and was carrying a cabinet
into the help with my helper. Don't ask me why I'm the one that
always has to walk backwards when carrying something, but that's what
happens. Anyway, on one of the bigger base cabinets it was a tight
squeeze coming in through the door to the garage and I bumped into the
wall. A couple of more trips with cabinets, and as we're coming out
of the house there's a cop walking into the garage with his gun
drawn. Seems I had backed into the alarm keypad and pressed all of
the keys with my back, including the special combination which sends
off the silent panic alarm to central monitoring. Needless to say the
owners were _delighted_ I nearly got shot. ;)

R

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. ...

And how much would you save?

--

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. ...

And how much would you save?

It varies. Ours is $320/year.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 5:35*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. *...

And how much would you save?

It varies. Ours is $320/year.

Whether it's worth it depends on factors unknown to us. Like what you
have of value, how difficult it would be to replace, whether your
insurance is adequate and you would be OK with $$$ instead of some of
your items, etc.

Also, you should check with your insurance company. Many offer
discounts for homes that have monitored alarms. That can offset the
cost of the service.

Also, there are cheaper monitoring services available which you can
find with a search.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

Bob F wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message
...
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls, and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone when
the alarm sounds.


Chuckle. There is monitored as in a control room 3 counties away, and
monitored as in a local office with their own rent-a-cops they send out.
Some cities ban auto-dialers due to false alarms. Neighbors tend to
shoot out flashers and sirens that don't auto-reset after a few minutes.
If you are just 'out', an auto-dial to your cell will work, if you don't
mind being the first responder. Not much good if you are away on a road
trip.

If your neighborhood is bad enough that you need an alarm system, I'd
find someplace else to cut the budget. BTW, I'll bet your friend didn't
tell his insurance company he dropped the monitoring.

When I hit the lotto and build my dream house, it'll have automatic
shutters that lock the perp inside 5 minutes after he breaks in. It'll
then talk to him as it pumps the place full of something scary but
non-lethal.

--
aem sends...

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

"Mike" wrote in message
...
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up


He's foolish, IMO. Spending all that money and not using the system? By
the time he gets there in the morning, the looters have cleaned out the
place and/or the perps are long gone.

If you do decide to forgo the monitoring, you may be able to have the alarm
dial your cell phone. Some can do that. Anyhow, if you do use a siren, make
sure it SHUTS OFF AUTOMATICALLY after about 5 minutes otherwise the cops
will give you a ticket, and the neighbors will be quite unhappy. If the
siren wails for 30+ minutes, one of the neighbors may get a ladder and some
wirecutters and use them on the siren. (that would be me)

Personally, I'd look elsewhere to save money.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

"RicodJour" wrote in message
...
On Apr 9, 4:50 pm, "Bob F" wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

...



My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls,
and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone
when
the alarm sounds.

I'm not sure where your here is, but my here is different. The cops
show up pronto, and you get two free false alarms, then they send out
a notice that they won't be responding to additional false alarms
within a certain period of time. If your alarm goes off and doesn't
shut off, you get fined. If it were up to me, you'd get shot.

I was installing a kitchen some years back, and was carrying a cabinet
into the help with my helper. Don't ask me why I'm the one that
always has to walk backwards when carrying something, but that's what
happens. Anyway, on one of the bigger base cabinets it was a tight
squeeze coming in through the door to the garage and I bumped into the
wall. A couple of more trips with cabinets, and as we're coming out
of the house there's a cop walking into the garage with his gun
drawn. Seems I had backed into the alarm keypad and pressed all of
the keys with my back, including the special combination which sends
off the silent panic alarm to central monitoring. Needless to say the
owners were _delighted_ I nearly got shot. ;)

A quick google search suggests that alarms that end up with police response are
between 90 and 99% false alarms. Several major police departments have policies
to ignor all but special classes of alarm calls. Researching the policies of
your police department would be useful in determining if alarm monitoring has
any usefulness.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 10, 2:26 am, "Bob F" wrote:

A quick google search suggests that alarms that end up with police response are
between 90 and 99% false alarms. Several major police departments have policies
to ignor all but special classes of alarm calls. Researching the policies of
your police department would be useful in determining if alarm monitoring has
any usefulness.

The central station calls the house to find out the problem. They do
the vetting. If no one is home then they call the cops directly. In
that situation I'm sure you're numbers are not far off.

R

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 7:30 pm, aemeijers wrote:
Bob F wrote:
"Mike" wrote in message

My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls, and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone when
the alarm sounds.

Chuckle. There is monitored as in a control room 3 counties away, and
monitored as in a local office with their own rent-a-cops they send out.

I agree that there is a big difference in central monitoring
companies. Some are a joke. That's worth investigating when you're
doing your due diligence in hiring a monitoring company.

Some cities ban auto-dialers due to false alarms. Neighbors tend to
shoot out flashers and sirens that don't auto-reset after a few minutes.

That sounds like a bad neighborhood to me. Maybe you should move. ;)

If you are just 'out', an auto-dial to your cell will work, if you don't
mind being the first responder. Not much good if you are away on a road
trip.

If your neighborhood is bad enough that you need an alarm system, I'd
find someplace else to cut the budget. BTW, I'll bet your friend didn't
tell his insurance company he dropped the monitoring.

Alarm systems are not only for theft and for bad areas. Fires and
other emergencies can be reported without you being present.

When I hit the lotto and build my dream house, it'll have automatic
shutters that lock the perp inside 5 minutes after he breaks in. It'll
then talk to him as it pumps the place full of something scary but
non-lethal.

There are some flaws in that plan, so maybe you should have a backup
in case you do hit the lottery.
Confining the person would be either a citizen's arrest or false
imprisonment, and you'd probably find yourself defending a lawsuit
(you'd be rich, so maybe that wouldn't matter).

Probably better to have the perp sprayed with dye like they do to the
money in bank heists. Let the guy walk around bright pink or blue for
a while while the police are looking for him.

R

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 7:30 pm, aemeijers wrote:
Bob F wrote:
My understanding is that the police here hardly ever respond to alarm calls, and
certainly not quickly, so monitoring is kind of useless.

Make sure that your alarm has good outside speakers, and that your neighbors
will check if they hear it. Or get a phone dialer to call your cell phone when
the alarm sounds.

Chuckle. There is monitored as in a control room 3 counties away, and
monitored as in a local office with their own rent-a-cops they send out.
Some cities ban auto-dialers due to false alarms. Neighbors tend to
shoot out flashers and sirens that don't auto-reset after a few minutes.
If you are just 'out', an auto-dial to your cell will work, if you don't
mind being the first responder. Not much good if you are away on a road
trip.

If your neighborhood is bad enough that you need an alarm system, I'd
find someplace else to cut the budget. BTW, I'll bet your friend didn't
tell his insurance company he dropped the monitoring.

aem sends...

Actually, we don't really need the alarm I don't think. When we
bought this house 6 years ago, it was our first real house. I was in
"new homeowner" mode when I ordered up the alarm system. The
neighbors on one side tell us "we haven't locked the house in years,
couldn't find the keys to lock it up if we had to" and the neighbor on
the other side doesn't lock her house either.

The cops did show up once when my wife accidentally entered the
"hostage" code when disarming the system.

Mike

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 9, 5:35 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. ...

And how much would you save?

It varies. Ours is $320/year.

The monitoring costs about $30/month I think. Wife floated the idea of
giving up cable to save some money and I had to put the kibosh on
that. I know it would be a good idea to do so, I just can't.

Mike

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 10, 7:27 am, Mike wrote:
On Apr 9, 5:35 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:

dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. ...

And how much would you save?

Certainly an alarm service offers you multiple services - Fire, carbon
monoxide (at least for me), a panic alarm (in case of forced extry
while home), and the general proximiety alarm in the house for about
$300-$360 a month. I sometimes debate this expense but have decided
to keep it because I USE these services - some people have alarms but
never turn them on.

I have also discovered that my home owners policy provides a discount
on my policy because I have these services - offsetting some of the
cost. In addition I have increased my deductables on the house to a
$1,000 to obtain an even greater savings on my home owners policy.

My muncipality also charges $50 a year for any alarm service BECAUSE
they respond to every alarm triggered on our property. In fact, they
do rapidly respond to an alarm.

IF you live in a community that is distant to response services, have
neighbors who are never home or don't care, have security issues, etc
- this does not seem like a bad investment.

Kent

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

Mike wrote:
On Apr 9, 5:35 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. ...
And how much would you save?
It varies. Ours is $320/year.

The monitoring costs about $30/month I think. Wife floated the idea of
giving up cable to save some money and I had to put the kibosh on
that. I know it would be a good idea to do so, I just can't.

Well, have to balance that against benefit and make a value judgment.
Not having cable/dish, there'd be no question which I'd choose if it
were a sufficient budgetary crisis that would make a difference. Of
course, there are probably lots of other areas that could find that kind
of spending in, too... :)

Just as a note, while we're totally rural, the big news on the city from
which the TV signals come recently has been car/garage thefts from the
better n'hoods just by cruisers driving by looking for open garage
doors. May be middle of the day -- a few minutes in the house during
break of lawn work or whatever and come out to poof! it's gone....

--

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

Alarm companies are more crooked than the crooks!

You may be locked into a multi-year monitoring agreement with automatic
renewals!

And if monitoring stops, your system may stop working. Depends on the
security company you have. The good guys will switch it over to a "local"
system for you.

Ask at alt.security.alarms for advice on this. Tell them the name of your
security company. Also read your monitoring contract, especially the small
print and backside. If you notify the security company, keep a copy of your
letter and send it certified mail return receipt requested.

They may want you to pay for the full length of the term of the contract.
Also determine who owns the equipment. You or the security company.


"Mike" wrote in message
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

If your system doesn't have a phone dialer, you can add one for much less
than $350.00 a year. They are programmable, so when we are away for weeks at
a time I put the sheriff's dept. number in and also notify them of our
plans. For more routine day/weekend trips and running around the dialer
calls mine and my wife's cell. We arm it every evening also with our cells
as the primary number. I took the sheriff number off as the primary do to
false trips and not wanting to have them 2nd guess what was going on,
because no matter how careful my wife and I were, eventually we would get a
false trip. It might be 12-18 months between them but still not good to have
them respond to a ooops sorry about that.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 10, 10:10*am, dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
On Apr 9, 5:35 pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
dpb wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. *...
And how much would you save?
It varies. Ours is $320/year.

The monitoring costs about $30/month I think. Wife floated the idea of
giving up cable to save some money and I had to put the kibosh on
that. I know it would be a good idea to do so, I just can't.

Well, have to balance that against benefit and make a value judgment.
Not having cable/dish, there'd be no question which I'd choose if it
were a sufficient budgetary crisis that would make a difference. *Of
course, there are probably lots of other areas that could find that kind
of spending in, too... :)

Just as a note, while we're totally rural, the big news on the city from
which the TV signals come recently has been car/garage thefts from the
better n'hoods just by cruisers driving by looking for open garage
doors. *May be middle of the day -- a few minutes in the house during
break of lawn work or whatever and come out to poof! *it's gone....

--

Had that happen last year to my neighbor and a couple of other houses
here. They cruise around neighborhoods and enter unlocked cars
sitting in the driveway or take things from open garages. Neigbor
lost DVD player, CD's, etc from his car. Also, any car with a
portable GPS/navigation sytem or evidence of one, like a mounting
bracket on the windshield is a high target for break-in when parked
anywhere.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

dpb wrote:

Just as a note, while we're totally rural, the big news on the city
from which the TV signals come recently has been car/garage thefts
from the better n'hoods just by cruisers driving by looking for open
garage doors. May be middle of the day -- a few minutes in the house
during break of lawn work or whatever and come out to poof! it's
gone....

Heh! They don't have to look for open garage doors.

Many people don't change the default code. The thieves just drive around
with a fresh door clicker. When a garage door pops open, they stop.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

wrote in message
Had that happen last year to my neighbor and a couple of other houses
here. They cruise around neighborhoods and enter unlocked cars
sitting in the driveway or take things from open garages. Neigbor
lost DVD player, CD's, etc from his car. Also, any car with a
portable GPS/navigation sytem or evidence of one, like a mounting
bracket on the windshield is a high target for break-in when parked
anywhere.

***************************************

Good reason not to lock your car. I don't keep anything of value in it and
I've had my car broken into twice. Total loss was a $1 can of oil. Other
cars parked near me had broken windows, scratched door frames etc. My
brother had his convertible top slashed for a $5 pair of sunglasses. I have
a GPS but I won't walk 10' away from the car if it is inside. Run into the
store and it goes in my pocket.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

A study by the Maryland State Fire Marshall showed that half of the
lives lost in a ten year period in Maryland would have been saved by the
use of monitored fire alarms. All but two would have been saved by
residential automatic fire sprinklers.
--
Tom Horne

Well we aren't no thin blue heroes but we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and women most remarkable like you.

With apoligies to the Kipling trust for the paraphrasing.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 10, 3:22*pm, "HeyBub" wrote:
dpb wrote:

Just as a note, while we're totally rural, the big news on the city
from which the TV signals come recently has been car/garage thefts
from the better n'hoods just by cruisers driving by looking for open
garage doors. *May be middle of the day -- a few minutes in the house
during break of lawn work or whatever and come out to poof! *it's
gone....

Heh! They don't have to look for open garage doors.

Many people don't change the default code. The thieves just drive around
with a fresh door clicker. When a garage door pops open, they stop.

That won't work with the newer units that have been available for
quite a few years now. They use a pseudo random code system that is
synched between that unit and it's remotes. You could press the
opener thousands of times and it stll wouldn't open the door.

Dropping the monitoring of the home alarm?
 

On Apr 10, 11:00*pm, Tom Horne wrote:
Mike wrote:
My wife is looking for ways to cut some expenses out of our family
budget, and she has suggested that we drop the monitoring of our home
alarm system. *She got the idea from a friend of ours who has done the
same at his small business. *If his alarm starts going off in the
middle of the night, then it will continue to sound until he shows up
the next morning. *I wouldn't say we live in a extremely high-crime
area, but we do live in the suburbs of a city where there is a good
deal of crime. *Any of you folks going "unmonitored" out there??

Thanks....

Mike

P.S. *Our alarm system consists of sensors on all doors, a motion
detector on the main floor, and a smoke alarm (we have several battery-
operated smoke detectors, too).

A study by the Maryland State Fire Marshall showed that half of the
lives lost in a ten year period in Maryland would have been saved by the
use of monitored fire alarms. All but two would have been saved by
residential automatic fire sprinklers.
--
Tom Horne

Does the above exclude exclude situations with working smoke
detectors? Virtually every fire fatality I've read about where info
was provided, there was no working smoke detector.






Well we aren't no thin blue heroes but we aren't no blackguards to.
We're just working men and women most remarkable like you.

With apoligies to the Kipling trust for the paraphrasing.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -