ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702120001
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HARRY WESSEL KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Your home may be your castle, but unless it's equipped with a moat and a drawbridge, it can be an inviting target for burglars.
Homeowners should take preventive action, if you haven't taken it already.
But you don't want to go overboard. The idea is to make your home tough for the bad guys to get into, while easy for you to get out of in case of emergency. Burglary is bad, but you don't want to take anti-burglary measures that turn your home into a firetrap.
Sensible measures start with the basics - solid doors with deadbolt locks, windows that can be pinned or locked. The doors and windows should be easy to open from the inside: If inside keys are required to open them, the keys should be kept in easy reach of the locks.
Any apparatus placed in or under the door to prevent it from being forced open needs to be easily removable in case of emergency. And putting bars on windows is almost never a good idea. This is a case where the cure is worse than the disease. Bars not only keep burglars out, they trap residents inside. Each year more than a dozen Americans die in fires because of burglar bars, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
Actually, say police, a lot of burglary prevention is a simple matter of not being stupid. Many burglaries occur to homes whose doors have been left unlocked or even left open. Many homes have inviting hiding places - namely trees and high shrubbery - near doors and windows. Too many homeowners all but announce they are away by leaving their homes dark, letting newspapers and mail accumulate, not having their lawns mowed, and so on.
How do you make a burglar feel unwelcome? You take away hiding places by trimming trees and shrubs that are near the house. You illuminate the outside of your house with strategically placed floodlights. For under $10 you can get a photocell fixture that will automatically turn a light on when it's dark. Motion-detector fixtures - for about $15 to $30 - will turn a floodlight on whenever someone comes within about 50 feet of it.
If you're out of town or just out for the evening, plugging a few indoor lights into timers will give the illusion that someone is home. It's not a bad idea to plug a radio or TV into a timer as well.
These measures are mostly designed for nighttime deterrence. Unfortunately, say police, that's not when your home is at highest risk.
``The majority of burglaries are committed in the daytime - when people are at work - by kids who live in the neighborhood,'' said Detective Mark Hussey with the Orange County, Fla., Sheriff's Office. ``They circulate the area and case it. They're looking for dogs, alarm systems, and shy away from those houses.''
Once inside, burglars are looking for ``everything they can take quickly,'' Hussey said, with small TVs, jewelry, VCRs and firearms among the favorite items.
A survey in Pennsylvania of ``residential intrusions'' found that 34 percent of burglars entered through the front door, 23 percent through a first-floor window, 22 percent through the back door and 9 percent through the garage.
Dogs are an excellent defense against burglars, Hussey and other experts said. Big dogs with menacing barks are ideal, but small barking dogs work, too. Few people leave their dogs at home when they go out of town, however, making an alarm system the best all-around deterrent.
Burglar alarm systems, which cost on average about $1,000 to install, come highly recommended not just by police but by insurance companies. In fact, most insurance companies put their money where their mouths are by offering discounts for professionally installed, monitored systems. Discounts generally range from 5 percent to 15 percent.
The motivation for these discounts can be found in two statistics compiled by the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association: Homes without security systems are three times more likely to be broken into than those with systems; the average loss from a burglary is $400 more in a home without a security system than from a home with a security system.
Both police and insurance companies recommend that you get a monitored security system. This means that in addition to a loud siren that goes off if somebody breaks into your house, a phone signal is automatically sent to a 24-hour monitoring center. The monitoring center first calls your home to make sure it isn't a false alarm. If there is no answer, or if the person who answers doesn't give the proper code, the company calls the police.
It will take the police anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour or more to get to your home, depending on what else is going on. In most cases they'll be there within 15 to 20 minutes, but most burglars will be long gone by then, scared away by the system's siren.
Which begs the question: Why pay a monthly monitoring fee of $20 to $30 if it's the siren that's deterring burglars?
Don Cerenzio, a longtime agent for State Farm Insurance in Winter Park, Fla., gave two main reasons that monitoring is worthwhile. For one, professional burglars can quickly determine if a home system is monitored. If it isn't, they'll wait for the siren to turn off and then go to work. After all, he said, burglar alarm sirens go off accidentally so often that most neighbors will ignore them.
The other reason Cerenzio likes monitoring isn't the threat of burglary but the threat of fire. Most home alarm systems are monitored for smoke and fire as well as break-ins. ``That will minimize response time. If you were away and there was a fire in your home, you'd have a total loss'' with an unmonitored system.
You can install an alarm system yourself and then have a company monitor it for you, but you're probably best off having the company that's going to do the monitoring do the installation as well. It's important to shop carefully, however. The home alarm industry has grown tremendously in recent years, meaning that there's lots of competition but also plenty of marginal companies out there. You want a company that will serve you well not just when the system is installed, but for many years to come.
Here are some shopping suggestions gleaned from interviews with police and several alarm companies:
Get referrals from family, friends, neighbors or your insurance agent. Be sure to contact at least two or three companies before making your decision.
Be sure you're getting full coverage. The system should cover every door and ground-floor window of your home.
Be sure that all equipment, as well as the monitoring station, is UL (Underwriters Laboratory) listed.
Be sure the company, and any people who come into your home, are properly licensed.
Be wary of contracts that lock you into monthly service for more than a year or two.
Find out if the equipment is being sold or leased. If you're planning to be in your home for several years or more, it's better to own your security system than to lease it.
Find out if the system has a proprietary chip or proprietary code. If it has either, you won't be able to change monitoring companies if you're unhappy with your service.
Ask for several references and be sure to check them out.
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