https://docs.google.com/document/pre...NgnHuDT P_pvM

On 16/02/2013 10:50, charles wrote:


and pay a much higher premium ....


The discounts that insurers give for having a alarm with maintenance
contract are minimal so unless you live in an area where insurance is
difficult to obtain you may find that by moving insurers you will get a
new customer discount of 30%.

--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

On 16/02/2013 11:30, Tim Watts wrote:
I've never seen an alarm
requirement on any insurance quote.

Unless you have previously admitted to having one.




--
mailto:news{at}admac(dot}myzen{dot}co{dot}uk

In article ,
Nightjar wrote:
The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority happen in urban areas.

Given that's where the vast majority live, not surprising.

What I don't know is the percentages. Of course if you live in a small or
isolated place where any neighbours are more likely to know your
circumstances, this sort of information may also be available to thieves.

--
*Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 16/02/2013 13:44, Dave West wrote:
"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Snipped

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best say

you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions gone,
or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider it
sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000 on (in
addition to insurance!!)
Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?








Hide under the blankets

"Dave West" wrote in message
...

"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Snipped

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best say

you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions
gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider
it sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000
on (in addition to insurance!!)
Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in
to your house downstairs ?

Kill them.

"Mentalguy2k8" wrote in message
...

"Dave West" wrote in message
...

"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Snipped

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best say

you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions
gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider
it sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000
on (in addition to insurance!!)
Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking
in to your house downstairs ?

Kill them.

Sounds fairynuff to me!

--
--
http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

In message
,
Owain writes
On Feb 16, 12:06*pm, Bill wrote:
How many real CCTV cameras do you know with LED indicators on them?
Especially flashing ones?

I have often wondered about the double bluff idea and putting a few
flashing LEDs on real systems though :-)

Might stop the real cameras getting vandalised.

I fitted out a block of flats and made sure that each internal camera
covered the other one on the same floor. One of the inmates, residents,
came in with his hoody up and spray painted both cameras in the lobby.
one camera caught him, the other was obviously blacked out. His
disguise was very good, totally unrecognisable, just a pity that he wore
the same closes, minus the hood up when he first came in earlier and
later when he left again, some people are idiots...

We also had a phone call from one of the druggies complaining that we
were infringing his civil liberties by fitting the cameras, did this
bother us? No.

It was an interesting block of flats, some very friendly people there,
one girl made sure that we were kept well fed and watered, tea all and
biscuits day long, another one was offering a bit more, but this was of
course turned down :-)



Owain


--
Bill

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:44:41 -0000, "Dave West"
wrote:

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?

Me?
Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging.
**** the law, **** the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.

On 16/02/2013 13:44, Dave West wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?

Send the wife down.

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:26:58 +0000, geoff wrote:

My old boss, and ex copper once told me that you shouldn't tell the
police that you can see people in the house ... they'll take ages to turn
up. As he said "Why would anyone turn up if there's a chance of getting
hurt." ?

Nonsense.

It's clear however why he was an *ex* copper though.

Aha, a student from the dennis school of deductive reasoning

No shortage of arseholes in the world, is there?
I used to see the coppers in their minibus, parked up down a side
street near the town centre, on Friday, Saturday and (not so much)
Sunday nights.
Whenever trouble kicked off, they'd attend of course, but only after
the worst was over. One time, a mate saw a woman run to the cop 'bus,
tell the driver about an on-going fracas, and it took them a good ten
minutes to travel about 200 yards.
Can't say I blame them - why get injured for a bunch of ******s
getting ****ed out of their faces?

Martin wrote:
On 16/02/2013 13:44, Dave West wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone
breaking in to your house downstairs ?

Send the wife down.

So the burglar gets a blow job?

--
Adam

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:44:41 -0000, "Dave West"
wrote:

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?

Me?
Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging.
**** the law, **** the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.

Amen!!!

--
--
http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Dave West wrote:
"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Snipped

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best
say you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions
gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still
consider it sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth
spending £500-£1000 on (in addition to insurance!!)
Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone
breaking in to your house downstairs ?

just a hundred or so can get you an alarm system. I figure every bit of
extra difficulty/visible deterrent help to make the burglars think twice.
If you are in you can know instantly if someone is in the house that
shouldn't be. Internal sounders are a must too, the disorienting effect
couple with the loss of hearing makes someone that shouldn't be there get
out quick. I would have an alarm system before house insurance, but after
decent locks.

In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:44:41 -0000, "Dave West"
wrote:

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone
breaking in to your house downstairs ?

Me?
Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging.
**** the law, **** the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.

Your kit is more important than your liberty?

--
*Always drink upstream from the herd *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 16/02/2013 15:24, ARW wrote:
Martin wrote:
On 16/02/2013 13:44, Dave West wrote:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone
breaking in to your house downstairs ?

Send the wife down.

So the burglar gets a blow job?

More than I ever got

"charles" wrote in message
...
In article , Tim Watts
wrote:
On Friday 15 February 2013 23:02 charles wrote in uk.d-i-y:

In article ,
Mathew Newton wrote:
On Friday, February 15, 2013 9:43:49 PM UTC, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Are there any companies that will maintain a diy fitted burglar
alarm.

I've not heard of one, for understandable reasons.

I think you'd be better off telling your insurance company you don't
have/use an alarm and pay the rise in premium. You'll still be quids
given the money you've saved not having to pay for a maintenance
contract.

But my insurance co INSIST on an alarm.


Find another insurer then.

and pay a much higher premium ....

Don’t believe it.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article
,
harry wrote:
A good dog is better than any of the above.
Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

By that you've never owned a dog.

Bet he has and is just understating the cost.

It isnt that expensive with a smaller dog
that is happy to eat the dry dog food.

That does work with the most stupid burglars.

It doesn’t with burglars that understand dogs tho.

Nightjar wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Nightjar wrote
harry wrote

Just put up a fake alarm enclosure/fake TV camera.
You can get them quite cheap with a few LEDS powered by a mini solar
panel.

But don't expect any serious thief to be fooled by them.

But how many of them are serious thieves with domestic houses ?

Most of them are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas,

Absolutely certainly true in urban areas and that's where most
of those discussing house insurance and alarms are too.

but in rural and semi-rural areas the main risk is from professional
thieves, who are prepared to travel great distances to find rich pickings.

Bet that claim isnt supported by the stats. There are
plenty of druggys in rural and semi rural areas too.

And plenty of houses in rural and semi rural areas which are no
richer pickings than in urban areas either. In fact the houses where
there average working class or middle class person lives in rural or
semi rural areas is a bit lower income wise than in urban areas if
only because more of them are likely to be retired etc.

When ADT took over another company, there was a spate of thefts from
properties that had not had the enclosure updated. The thieves kept
abreast of all the latest developments and they knew that anybody with
the older enclosure was not on a contract and would not be remotely
monitored. They were not worried about a simple alarm, knowing that
they usually get ignored.

That's not a common situation tho, the company takeover allowing that.

That is simply an illustration of how well clued up professional thieves
are.

But that sort of situation doesn't happen that much, so that isnt
a lot of use to the pros because it only happens occasionally.

It will apply equally well to fitting fake alarms.

Not if it's a DIY.

John Williamson wrote
Dave Plowman (News) wrote
harry wrote

A good dog is better than any of the above.
Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

By that you've never owned a dog.

I used to think of it as a free bonus when I did own a dog.

Yeah, that's certainly accurate. You don't need
a doorbell either with a dog that lives inside.

Companionship, an excuse for healthy exercise, and a reasonably reliable
burglar alarm and deterrent. Of course, the best system would be to have
two dogs, one small yappy one because they sleep lightly, and will wake up
the large one and the household,

Never had any problem with my ****ing great alsatian.

OTOH with an irish wolfhound that I had around at my place for a while
while the owner was way, the damned thing wouldn't even look up with
the cat I was also looking after literally walked right over it. That
useless
thing never even looked up when a visitor showed up.

and one large one to go for the throat while the little one distracts the
intruder.

Didn't need any distraction with mine.

Probably illegal now if it's a declared intention, knowing my luck.

I have to admit that mine was more likely to lick an intruder to death
than attack them, though, especially if they had a packet of chips about
their person.

Yeah, most dogs kick up one hell of a stink when someone
they don't know shows up but few will actually try to bite
them or kill them. One hell of a deterrent tho, one of my
neighbours who used to ask if he could borrow garden
tools looked like he was seriously considering turning
and running at times when he knocked on the big patio
door that's the main entrance door and had the ****ing
great alsatian hurl himself at the door. He gave up coming
around very quickly |-)

In message , Rod Speed
writes

Yeah, most dogs kick up one hell of a stink when someone
they don't know shows up but few will actually try to bite
them or kill them. One hell of a deterrent tho, one of my
neighbours who used to ask if he could borrow garden
tools looked like he was seriously considering turning
and running at times when he knocked on the big patio
door that's the main entrance door and had the ****ing
great alsatian hurl himself at the door. He gave up coming
around very quickly |-)


I've been bitten by 2 dogs, both were defending their owners, and their
own, territory. I can assure people that they are a good deterrent!!
The really annoying part was that one of them, a GSD, knew me well since
being a pup, yet when I invaded his territory without his owners
permission I was still warned off, with vigour! The other, a Doberman,
caught me twice on 2 separate occasions, on the 3rd visit and, every one
after, he just came up and gave me a lick and sat down again!

There again, somewhat topically, I lived around foxes for most of my
early life, up to about 16 yrs, and never got bitten.
--
Bill

"ARW" wrote in message
...
Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:11:11 +0000, Peter Parry wrote:

Also bear in mind police forces do not, as a matter of policy,
react to bells only alarm as over 99% are false alarms. If a
neighbour phones the police and reports an alarm activation they
will be referred to the local council noise abetment unit. Only if
they phone and say the alarm has gone off and they can see someone
loading your belongings into a van might someone turn up,
eventually.

My old boss, and ex copper once told me that you shouldn't tell the
police that you can see people in the house ... they'll take ages to
turn up. As he said "Why would anyone turn up if there's a chance of
getting hurt." ?

They turned up pretty quickly when me an a mate interrupted a breakin at a
chemists late one night. The getaway driver bottled it and drove off, the
guy outside the chemist ran off over the fields and we captured the guy
that was inside the chemists.

Yeah, we've just had some crims caught red handed when
someone noticed them inside a house and called the cops.

It was probably the most stupid thing that I have ever done.

I did something similar. I did get burgled after the dog had died
of old age, and then noticed that the kids that walk past my place
the next day on the way to the high school were looking at my
place as they walked past. Thought that was suspicious, so I
parked the car a couple of streets over and stayed in the house
next day instead of going to work. Sure enough, I could hear
them coming in the same way they had got in the previous
day. Bailed them up, grabbed the one closest to me. The others
****ed off out the same way they came in. The one I had had
a big piece of very heavy walled 3" gal pip I had used as the
sewer stick pipe in his hand because they had come in thru
the workshop that’s part of the house, not separate. He didn’t
try to use it, because he was basically ****ting himself, but I
though afterwards that it wasn’t the smartest thing I ever did.

We fought with with the guy (and that included pushing fingers very hard
into his eyes and throttling him) before we managed to restrain him. When
the police turned up and arrested him a knife dropped out of the sleeve of
his jumper - that sobered me up, but not sober enough for the police to
take a statement - they had to take one the next day.

Mine didn’t resist at all.

When the cops showed up one of them was a quite slim good looking
woman. I didn’t quite hear what he said to her, but she started whacking
him in the chest and shouting 'what did you say' and he damned near shat
his pants all over again, and I nearly ****ed myself laughing at his
predicament.

What was even more eye opening was when I was down the cop shop
waiting for the cop to take a statement, his mum showed up and was
screaming abuse at the cops the second she came in thru the front
swing doors of the cop shop. All of them were the local indigenes
and cops recon they had gone thru about 6 places the day before,
all high school kids.

Didn’t lose much, just stupid stuff like a full bottle of scotch,
quite literally frozen pizzas out of the freezer, and a cup of
pens on the desk etc. I thought I had lost a big pile of CDs,
but they turned up on the wood stack in the workshop later.


I also got a phone call from the cops one saturday morning.
Some ****wit kids had been caught quite literally walking
around my street and another with a wheelbarrow they had
stolen filling it with what they had found in the neighbours cars.

I'd managed to leave my passenger's side door unlocked
as I'd been to a ****up the night before and had bought
some beer in a drive thru bottle shop. They got the last
of the beer and a few other things like a torch etc.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Nightjar wrote:
Most of the are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas, but in rural and semi-rural areas the main
risk is from professional thieves, who are prepared to travel great
distances to find rich pickings.

Professional thieves ain't going to travel great distances on spec. More
likely target a place they know contains valuables.

The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority of burglarys are druggys funding their drug habits.

"Nightjar" wrote in message
...
On 16/02/2013 12:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Nightjar wrote:
Most of the are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas, but in rural and semi-rural areas the main
risk is from professional thieves, who are prepared to travel great
distances to find rich pickings.

Professional thieves ain't going to travel great distances on spec. More
likely target a place they know contains valuables.

Exactly why they will know what sort of burglar alarm is being used.

The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority happen in urban areas.

That's only because the vast majority of houses are in urban areas.

It would be interesting to know what the relative risk for druggys
is with rural and semi rural areas. On the one hand you are less
likely to have anyone notice you entering the house, on the
other hand the neighbours are more likely to know if you are
known or not.

On Feb 16, 8:43*am, "Rod Speed" wrote:
harry wrote

ARW wrote
Dave Plowman (News) wrote
And I have decent neighbours who wouldn't just ignore it.
And that is the key to a good alarm. I have fitted several alarms on my
street - both nextdoor neighbours and the neighbours opposite would
respond if my alarm went off just as I would if theirs went off. I always
tell
them when I am working away and they do keep an eye on my house.
A good dog is better than any of the above.

Not necessarily. The bigger dogs that will deter those
who arent afraid of dogs arent exactly cheap to feed
even if they are happy to eat the dry dog food.

Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

No dog is ever free unless you let it eat the neighbourhood
children and even if you do that, that's not free either.

I wonder how this new law about dogs attacking people
on private property will affect dog attacks burglar scenario?

Corse it will.

My last dog would have ripped a burglars throat out.

Mine too. But feeding him was nothing like free.

Its not too clear if he would have ripped a burglar's throat out
because I did get someone to make sure he had enough water
etc to drink etc and he didn't get his throat ripped out.

Rather academic tho, because only the stupidest burglar
would have ever been stupid enough to break in and see.

Exactly.

On Feb 16, 8:39*am, charles wrote:
In article
,
* *harry wrote:









On Feb 15, 11:57 pm, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article ,
* *Peter Parry wrote:

It is invariably better to spend *the money you would have wasted on
alarms on better perimeter security including sound doors and locks..

Very difficult to protect a window from a determined attack - unless
you're happy with bars or gates.

I'm always amused to see houses round here with multiple expensive locks
on the front door but original sash windows...

Bungalows amuse me even more.
All the burglar has to do is go on the roof and lift a few tiles.
But a good dog cures most things.

at waht cost? *After feeding and vet's bills, an alarm might be cheaper..

You don't feed the dog on pedigree chum.
You buy the big bags of dry dog food.

On Feb 16, 11:22*am, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:
In article
,
* *harry wrote:

A good dog is better than any of the above.
Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

By that you've never owned a dog.

I have owned several. All from rescue places.
This is something dogs do naturally. Virtually no training needed.

On Feb 16, 12:02*pm, Bill wrote:
In message , geoff
writes



At the rear of my house, I have a sufficient number to sound bombs
(sixteen quads) to make anyone just want to be somewhere else

Sweet :-)

You can never have enough sound bombs, they even manage to drown out my
tinatus!

Seriously making the burglar feel uncomfortable, by what ever method,
does seem the best way to go.



Or automatic lighting. With an inside buzzer linked in.

On Feb 16, 12:16*pm, Bill wrote:
In message , charles
writes









In article , ARW
wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,

And I have decent neighbours who wouldn't just ignore it.

And that is the key to a good alarm. I have fitted several alarms on my
street - both nextdoor neighbours and the neighbours opposite would
respond if my alarm went off just as I would if theirs went off. I
always tell them when I am working away and they do keep an eye on my
house.

You can have good neighbours and idiot neighbours. *When we were burgled
for the first time, our next door neighbour (who was local secretary for
Neighbourhood Watch) heard the breaking glass and breaking wood (a window
was jemmied open) and decided - without investigating - that it was me
cutting a tree down. This, despite the fact it was 4pm on a working day and
both of us worked normal hours.

A neighbour of mine watched as 2 guys loaded £15,000:00 of aluminium
onto a flat bed truck that they had parked in my drive one weekday
afternoon. *He said something to the effect that they seemed to be good,
fast workers. *Yes, I bet they were!! *He is a local councillor *and
supposedly intelligent.

At another property a very elderly neighbour, lovely old girl, said that
the guy who had attempted to break in was a nice guy, apparently he had
waved and said hello to her as he walked down the garden path to the
back of the house. *Nice guy, but a naff burglar, he couldn't even force
open a 1930s vintage wooden patio door!

The lead thieves round here work in broad daylight with safety hats
and dayglo jackets.

On Feb 16, 12:28*pm, Nightjar
wrote:
On 16/02/2013 12:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
* * Nightjar wrote:
Most of the are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas, but in rural and semi-rural areas the main
risk is from professional thieves, who are prepared to travel great
distances to find rich pickings.

Professional thieves ain't going to travel great distances on spec. More
likely target a place they know contains valuables.

Exactly why they will know what sort of burglar alarm is being used.

The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority happen in urban areas.

Colin Bignell

The go by the value of the car parked on the driveway.

On 16/02/2013 13:37, alan wrote:


Many insurance companies will give a (fiver) discount if you have
"approved" locks on all opening windows. It's probably best not to take
up this offer if you occasionally leave a window open, or unlocked.


Why would that matter.
They can still avoid paying out if you are negligent by leaving
doors/windows open/unlocked.

On 15/02/2013 23:21, Rod Speed wrote:



How do you propose to disable them ?

Cut the wire.


Particularly when they use the mobile phone system.


Even easier.
Jam the gsm control channel with a jamer off ebay.

On 16/02/2013 07:38, harry wrote:
On Feb 15, 6:53 pm, "ARW" wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
And I have decent neighbours who wouldn't just ignore it.

And that is the key to a good alarm. I have fitted several alarms on my
street - both nextdoor neighbours and the neighbours opposite would respond
if my alarm went off just as I would if theirs went off. I always tell them
when I am working away and they do keep an eye on my house.

--
Adam

A good dog is better than any of the above.
Alarm and attack system in one cheap/free package.

I wonder how this new law about dogs attacking people on private
property will affect dog attacks burglar scenario?

My last dog would have ripped a burglars throat out.


there are various aerosols available in supermarkets/halfords that will
disable a dog without much trouble.

On 16/02/2013 19:16, harry wrote:
On Feb 16, 12:28 pm, Nightjar
wrote:
On 16/02/2013 12:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Nightjar wrote:
Most of the are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas, but in rural and semi-rural areas
the main risk is from professional thieves, who are prepared to
travel great distances to find rich pickings.

Professional thieves ain't going to travel great distances on
spec. More likely target a place they know contains valuables.

Exactly why they will know what sort of burglar alarm is being
used.

The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority happen in urban areas.

Colin Bignell

The go by the value of the car parked on the driveway.

Which is not a very sensible approach when the residents are out - and
have either one car or a second car that is grossly mis-leading. E.g
Bentley and beaten up Fiesta. I think that most burglaries are when the
residents are not at home - not all, to be sure, but most.

--
Rod

alan wrote
Rod Speed wrote

Summary:

'The good news is that while homes with no basic home security had
a 5.8 per cent chance of being burgled in 2009-10, those with enhanced
security had a 0.6 per cent chance – an odds ratio of one to ten.

However, the bad news is that homes with basic home
security – defined as window locks and double deadlocks
- had a 0.9 per cent chance of having been burgled.

Yes, but its not clear how much of that is very basic stuff like window
locks.

Do good door and window locks make any difference?

They must do if those stats are accurate or even close to accurate.

I wonder how many householders fitting all these secure mechanisms think
the thief will respect their property win the same way as they do
themselves.

I doubt any do.

Presented with a lock they will simply smash the glass or kick the door
in.

But doing that dramatically increases the risk
of someone noticing that you are doing that.

Youtube is full of videos showing how easy it is to overcome the best of
locks - often with a minimal amount of skill and a lot of brute force.

But its hard to do that so no one notices you doing that.

Many insurance companies will give a (fiver) discount if you have
"approved" locks on all opening windows. It's probably best not to take up
this offer if you occasionally leave a window open, or unlocked.

Do you know that the insurance company actually bothers
to come around and check that stuff if you make a normal claim ?

I find it hard to believe that they can afford to send someone
around to all of them, let alone someone who puts the time
into checking to see if the crim got in thru an unlocked window.

Do the cops even bother with that stuff ?

"Owain" wrote in message
...
On Feb 16, 12:06 pm, Bill wrote:
How many real CCTV cameras do you know with LED indicators on them?
Especially flashing ones?

I have often wondered about the double bluff idea and putting a few
flashing LEDs on real systems though :-)

Might stop the real cameras getting vandalised.

It isnt hard to make the real cameras invisible.

On 16/02/2013 15:15, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:44:41 -0000, "Dave West"
wrote:

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?

Me?
Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging.
**** the law, **** the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.


ITYM go down and kill them because you are afraid they will hurt you or
your family.

"Dave West" wrote in message
...

"larkim" wrote in message
...
On Friday, 15 February 2013 15:13:26 UTC, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:08:11 +0000, Toby Sleigh wrote:

Snipped

IME any discount gained by having a burglar alarm is minimal. Best say

you haven't got one. Especially since if you have got one, but had a

break in when it was off (e.g. you were at home) they may not pay up.

Much as I'd hate to imagine either arriving home with the possessions
gone, or waking up in the night with an intruder around, I still consider
it sufficiently unlikely to occur that its not worth spending £500-£1000
on (in addition to insurance!!)
Matt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars, what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in
to your house downstairs ?

Depends on who you are. If you're some elderly wimp or woman,
best to just lock the door of the room you are in and call the cops
and tell them that some is burgling your house right now.

Also depends on how likely it is for the cops to show up soon.

I know they show up very quickly here, because I have called
them a number of times and have had them show up quickly.

Also depends on whether you are insured or not too.

It can be worth making it clear that you know they are there,
most of the crims will **** off when they realise that the people
in the house know they are there.

Not all do tho, most obviously those who choose to
**** over the occupants to get the PIN of the cards etc.

There basically is no nice tidy thing to do that best in all situations.

I personally do want to maximise the chance of getting the arsehole caught.

But don’t go to the expense of doing the house so its easy to
make sure they cant get out again once you have detected they
are inside the house. Basically because I have 13 ****ing great
patio doors and only conventional windows in the bathrooms,
toilets and kitchens and only full electrically activated bars
would do that and that isnt worth the very substantial cost.

It wouldn’t cost much more to have another one to the bedroom
so I could just stay there and let the cops deal with it even if they
do take a while to show up because they have had a rash of them
etc.

When I check why the neighbour's alarm has gone off I am a bit
careful about checking if there are any crims in the yard, but one
side of their house is very close to the fence and I do go right
around the house to check if someone has tried to get in thru
one of the windows and there wouldn’t be any way to get
away from a group of them up there if they were there.

The risk is trivial, so I risk it anyway, even tho
the home owner isnt too keen in the risk.

"dennis@home" wrote in message
eb.com...
On 16/02/2013 15:15, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:44:41 -0000, "Dave West"
wrote:

So in 2013 with the supposedly new attitude by the authorities to
burglars,
what is the best course of action on hearing someone breaking in to your
house downstairs ?

Me?
Grab the fire-axe by the door and go down swinging.
**** the law, **** the thieves, they're not having any of my kit.


ITYM go down and kill them because you are afraid they will hurt you or
your family.

They break into my house and they will take what they are given. If they
don't like that ... then stay out.


--
--
http://www.shop.helpforheroes.org.uk/

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 19:25:03 +0000, polygonum
wrote:

On 16/02/2013 19:16, harry wrote:
On Feb 16, 12:28 pm, Nightjar
wrote:
On 16/02/2013 12:13, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

In article ,
Nightjar wrote:
Most of the are druggys paying for their drug habits.

Possibly true in urban areas, but in rural and semi-rural areas
the main risk is from professional thieves, who are prepared to
travel great distances to find rich pickings.

Professional thieves ain't going to travel great distances on
spec. More likely target a place they know contains valuables.

Exactly why they will know what sort of burglar alarm is being
used.

The vast majority of burglaries are on spec.

The vast majority happen in urban areas.

Colin Bignell

The go by the value of the car parked on the driveway.

Which is not a very sensible approach when the residents are out - and
have either one car or a second car that is grossly mis-leading. E.g
Bentley and beaten up Fiesta. I think that most burglaries are when the
residents are not at home - not all, to be sure, but most.

A lot of burglaries nowadays are really car thefts and almost by
definition must happen when the residents are home. The car is picked
out - often from a shopping list - and the house is burgled in order
to steal the keys - immobilisers being so much more sophisticated
these days. Or so I am told.

Nick