Alarm Systems

Recently friends of ours were robbed for the third time.  They live on a busy highway about 3 miles away from a small town.  This highway is heavily used by travelers going to recreational areas from a large metropolitan area.  The private setting along with easy access to a busy highway makes their home a prime target for thieves.  The insurance company that supplies the home owners insurance insisted that they purchase alarm systems for their home and garage, in order to maintain insurance coverage.

Alarm systems come in a wide range of prices, service and quality.  The insurance company wanted alarm systems that were linked to a professional monitoring company.  Our friends like the alarm systems that linked directly to the local law enforcement agency, but the insurance company had concerns that living in the rural area would hinder the ability of law enforcement to intervene quickly enough.

Our friends decided on the alarm systems and had them installed.  They went with two alarm systems to insure that they were going to maintain their insurance coverage.  The alarm systems worked together to provide on sight alarms and announcements as well as alerting law enforcement and the monitoring company that there was an intruder.  The alarm systems came complete with motion detectors for inside the home.

About three months after having the alarm systems installed the husband of our friend was called out to an emergency at his job.  The call came at 3:00 in the morning.  Our friend quickly dressed and as he was leaving the house automatically pushed the button that engaged the motion detectors.  His wife heard the announcement motion detectors on, as she lay in bed.  She did not know how long her husband was going to be gone, but she knew she would not be able to lie completely still until he arrived home.  She sat up in bed to call the monitoring company to explain the situation.  As soon as she sat up the alarm system started to go off.  She quickly shut off the alarms and called the monitoring company to explain the situation.  She was getting back in bed when a police officer knocked on the door asking if everything was alright.  She had to put on a robe and explain the situation to him.

Our friends know that the alarm systems that they have installed will bring the police in a hurry.  My friend also knows that the alarms are very loud and would have deterred her from entering the house.  At this time they have had no further break ins.  They do not know if this is from the alarm systems or if the thieves have found different homes to rob.