Any burglars out there - active or retired?

[Mountain Goat]

Is a dummy burglar alarm box, with genuine logo and sticker from first rate well-known alarm company, going to fool any professional worth his salt?

i.e. is it better than nothing? As we're not in the mood to burn a few £k on the real thing at the moment.

We got them off a salesman (after an exotic lunch) and felt they were worth using.

Do PM to avoid embarrassment.

MG

[Big Sis..]

Embarassed MG Why....

What do your neighbours use......If they havent got alarms it must put a few off if you have one I should think......
If they have , do they have these response ones or just the ones that make a noise and everybody ignores.....
I would think anythings better than nothing unless you follow the ....They must have stuff worth nicking as theyve got an Alarm brigade......
If someones hell bent on breaking in I think they will all you can do is make them go next door or slow em down a bit............

[Giddy Goat]

Mountie, forget the box I think - it's better to have something that works - Mr GG installed a Yale wireless controlled burglar alarm (nasty yellow box with blue writing on it - can see a mile off) at very little cost - it has smoke detectors as well, and is fairly sophisticated - it can be programmed eg to call a series of up to six phone numbers if there is a disturbance at your property. Can be bought as a unit plus however many sensors you need. It does need an electricity supply and if the fire happened to be an electrical one, husband recalls that there is a back-up battery - he thinks...

Can be bought on line, but also at Homebase eg in the UK.

[Jimbo]

Mountain Goat wrote:

Is a dummy burglar alarm box, with genuine logo and sticker from first rate well-known alarm company, going to fool any professional worth his salt?

Sadly, I don't think it would even deter the rookie amateurs. Just before we left the UK, our village post office was ramraided by a gang with a stolen JCB at 2 in the morning. They demolished the front of of the building and escaped with the wall-mounted cash machine in the JCB's bucket. Further down the road they used explosives to blow up the cashbox and most of the bank notes ended up in the trees. All that effort for 500 quid - must be easier to work for a living.

I don't think that an OXO tin pretending to be Group 4's finest is going to cut the mustard.

Jim

[Big Sis..]

I don't think that an OXO tin pretending to be Group 4's finest is going to cut the mustard.

Ahh! Might be a LARGE... prewar Oxo tin though????

And shouldnt the mustard be Colmans[from my neck of the woods]
As my Dad used to say they make more money from whats left on the plate than whats eaten!!??

[vrooje]

For me, the question wouldn't be, "do they work?" but would rather be, "could they backfire somehow?"

Any situation I can think of where someone might be tempted to break in just to prove they can get past the alarm is far fetched indeed.

So I say, it can't hurt!

This is slightly off-topic, but what do you all think of that relatively new security system where the burglar gets sprayed by a substance that shows up only in the right light and that doesn't wash off? You can apparently also use it to mark your most valuable possessions so that they're unmistakable should they show up in pawn shops etc...

...it sounded cool to me, but as far as I know, it's only in the UK at the moment.

[Stephen]

MG
I would say, Yes a dummie alarm box is better than nothing, although it wouldn't deter a pro who would probably just disarm it.

[LaLuz]

After spending years in the criminal law area I would say that the average burglar is an opportunist who won't want to be bothered with anything which he will have to think about or is likely to slow him down.

If he thinks there's an alarm of any type he will most probably move onto the next house!

Here in the UK I've noticed a sharp increase in the number of sneak break ins where the occupants are at home at the time.

Usually the thief opens the unlocked door and takes whatever is available.

Think how many of us (particularly ladies) walk in the door and drop our keys, handbags, mobile phones etc on the hall table! Easy pickings!

I think for a thief to go to the trouble of disabling an alarm or ignoring it, he has to be pretty certain that it's going to be worth his while!

of course there will always be exceptions to all this but to be quite frank the burglars I've had the dubious honour of coming across have not been the brightest of the bunch so I wouldn't think too deeply!!!

[Sue Dyer]

Brooke, I wonder if you are referring to a post I made a while ago viewtopic.php?t=2308&highlight=dna

We were at a country fair in October and the police had a stand there giving out free kits so we got one for the cottage too. The smart water site http://www.smartwater.com/ has a button for U.S visitors, it mentions they are in the process of marketing it in the states. You can buy it on ebay too (what can't you buy there?) and seems to be suitable for vehicles too.

[vrooje]

Sue,

Yep, that's the one! I thought I had first heard about it here.

[Mountain Goat]

Sue, Brooke

Smartwater does sound a good idea with upside potential, but how does one get the message equallly to both burglars and police etc.?

I would have thought if everyone knew about the system then the deterrent value was excellent, but in the meantime one's local break-in pro is just going to be an exotic feature in the pub disco (day-glo perm, luminous hoodie admired by his mates etc. - around our way, if you haven't got an Asbo you're social history).

And how far does one go with a domestic spray system?

Call me old-fashioned, but we need to be convinced further, and in the meantime it's Oxo tin labels for us.

MG

[Big Sis..]

Call me old-fashioned, but we need to be convinced further, and in the meantime it's Oxo tin labels for us.

Old Fashioned....who said that[theyre not prewar tins are they Mountain with Oxos still in them no doubt..back to your rationing days ]

...the good thing about using an OXO tin though is........
it wouldnt matter if its upside down...
try that with a jar of BISTO.....[well it is still early and Im havinfg fun anyway ]

[Sue Dyer]

HI, Northumbria and other police forces are screening EVERYONE charged for any crime through an airport type walk thru doorway which will show up U.V. spray (it only shows up under U.V light). http://www.warwickshire.police.uk/polic ... smartwater

You get stickers to put on your window and some of the property saying it is covered by "forensic science". As criminals are processed I guess it won't take long for the word to get around about the system. There has been publicity in the local/national papers too.

Maybe this isn't a solve it all system but something else in the war against crime. Speaking from experience (we've been burgled 4 times here) I welcome anything which may deter or catch the bastards.

Probably the drawback is a lot of folk who are burgled and have their stuff replaced with new on insurance don't want their older telly/dvd player back which has been lugged out of the window and thrown about. I know I wouldn't, not that anything I've had stolen has ever been recovered....

yours, cynical "chop their bloody hands off" Sue.

[Fraise]

" cynical "chop their bloody hands off" Sue" LOL - I can think of other anatomical parts that would hurt more !!

[Mountain Goat]

Pub friend of a friend of a friend, who claims to have current professional expertise in this field, claims that although a genuine label/box can put a burglar off, one can ignore the dummy boxes with flashing LED - big giveaway in his opinion.

We've settled for convincing (?) dummy boxes from Maplin's @ a tenner, with genuine labels, as a better-than-nothing solution until Smart Water makes it down south.

MG