Channel 4 Action News in Pittsburgh ran a story last night about a burglary attempt in West Deer that was thwarted by a 10 year old boy.

The burglar ended up being 21 year old Brett Kreider, who lives in the same neighbourhood, who is now a suspect in 8 recent burglaries. As is often the case with most burglars, the accused burglar had just gotten out of jail… for burglary.

The M.O. of the burglar is almost exactly as I’ve laid out in previous posts about how the typical residential burglary happens… the fact that it ended up being a single person responsible for a ‘rash’ of burglaries is also typical.

Here are a few quotes from the story… (you can read the full story here)

The intruder ignored a dog, but when a 10-year-old boy spotted him and yelled at him to get out, he fled the scene.

[Police Chief Joe] Lape said the burglar had already broken into two other homes in the same neighborhood that day.Investigators said the burglar, who operates in broad daylight, usually takes pills, money, weapons and anything else of value that is easily carried away. He has also taken a truck from one of the eight homes police believe he’s burglarized

The really important lesson in the story, comes next…

Police said on one occasion the burglar knocked on a front door to see if anyone was home. When the door was answered, the burglar said he was looking for a dog and walked away.

This is what happens in almost every single burglary… before breaking in, the crook will first knock on the door to check if someone is home. If anyone answers, the crook will make up a quick story about why they are there and leave as quickly as possible.

The vast majority of burglars are not violent and are not looking for drama… if they were, they’d be robbing a bank or holding up a convenience store instead.

The most important advice about home security that you can give your kids, nannies, housekeepers or other people in your home is to NEVER IGNORE THE DOOR.

If someone knocks on your door, you should always let them know that someone is inside. Don’t open the door, but talk through it to let them know that the house is not empty. If you believe that the person at the door is in any way suspicious, call 911. If you live in Vancouver, you can also call us at 604.664.1087.

Barking dogs are rarely the deterrent that people think that they are. The fact is that most house pets, despite a good bark, are still house pets… and a motivated burglar can get by them without too much hassle. A human being, on the other hand, is almost always more trouble than they are worth… even if they are only 10 years old. In almost every case, a potential witness is far too much hassle and the potential crook will move on to the next unoccupied home.

I’ve written on this topic before on this blog back in 2006 with a post titled Answer the Door and another one in April after a Delta teenager ended up having to call 911 from a bedroom closet after a burglar had broken into her home after she ignored the knocking at the door.

Reuters reported on Monday that Lindsay Lohan was the victim of a second burglary in less than 3 months in her Hollywood Hills home.

Apparently, the most recent burglary was discovered around 3am when Lohan came home to find her safe ripped out of a wall. Lohan’s father suggested the burglary was an inside job due to the fact that the alarm had not been armed by a member of her house staff.

Whether it was an inside job or not, leaving/forgetting to arm your alarm can create a major risk. However, if you are relying on other people to arm your alarm system in your home or business, there are a few things that you can do to minimize the risk of someone forgetting… or forgetting on purpose.

1. Partition your alarm system

Most alarm systems are capable of having at least a couple different ‘partitions’. A partition is a group of zones that can be armed/disarmed independently of other groups of zones (ie. other partitions). Most often, we use this feature to separate a basement suite or garage from the main house…. or a Manager’s office from the rest of a retail store.

In cases where clients have staff working in their homes, particularly when they are not home themselves, sensitive areas such as a home office, master bedroom closet, wine cellar or other similar areas can be armed independently. If a safe has been installed, we can either arm the safe itself, or the closet/room that it is installed in, to it’s own partition. This way, even if the main house alarm is not set, the safe is always armed and will trigger a response anytime that access is attempted. (For more details about security for your safe, click here.)

If it’s artwork that you need to protect, we can install sensors that will trip the alarm (with or without a siren) anytime that a painting, sculpture or anything else you’d like to protect gets moved… whether or not the rest of the alarm system is armed.

I discussed how we use this technology to look after paintings in a Global TV News story that was filmed after the UBC Museum of Anthropology was broken into last year. Click on the link below to watch a 50 second excerpt from that clip. (You can watch the entire clip here.)

2. Set up ‘Supervised’ Openings & Closings

In commercial applications, Provident provides ‘supervision’ of the arming and disarming of client’s alarm systems.

The way this service works is that different staff members are assigned different permissions in our monitoring software. For example, while a business owner will be allowed to arm or disarm their business at anytime of the day or night that they please, a junior staff person may only be allowed to use their code between 8:30am and 7:00pm on weekdays. In the event that they attempt to use their code outside of those hours, we can either (1) program the alarm to simply deny access; or (2) allow access and send a silent alarm to the business owner to follow-up.

This service is also used to ensure that an alarm has been armed by a certain time. For example, if the last person out of your business typically leaves by 8:30pm, we can create an alarm that will automatically trip in the event that the alarm has not been armed by 9:00pm. If someone has forgotten to arm the system, we can either respond in person or remotely arm the alarm for you. Either way, the alarm is not left disarmed all night long.

Community Security TV will go live on May 20th at 7:00pm…

As each of our past seminars has quickly sold out, we’ll be trying something new on the 20th… we’ll be streaming the entire seminar live on the internet. If you’d like to watch from home, or wherever you are, click here to watch. Not only will you be able to watch and listen to the entire seminar, you can also ask questions using the ‘chat room’ feature.

There is no need to register or login to watch the seminar, but if you would like to be able to use the chat feature and ask any questions, you will need to have a UStream.tv username & password which you can get by going to www.ustream.tv and clicking on the ‘signup’ link at the top of the page

Either in person, or on the internet, we hope that you can attend on May 20th.

Click here if you would like to attend in person… we’ve still got a few seats left.

Today, CBC reported about a disturbing sexual assault that happened when a man entered a home in Coquitlam around 3:30am and assaulted a 12-year-old girl who was asleep in her bed.

In this case, the man was able to gain entry to the home through an unlocked door. Luckily, the girl was able to fight the intruder off and scream for help.

This story reminded me of an incident in Kitsilano in 2006 where a very similar crime was committed.

While these types of incidents are not regular occurrences… they do raise the issue of how to best secure your home while you and your family are in it… especially while you are sleeping.

Beyond the obvious advice of ensuring that all of your doors and windows are locked, here are a few other things to consider:

Arm your alarm in STAY mode when you go to bed

With most alarms, certainly with each one that we install, there are several ‘modes’ that you can arm it in.

AWAY mode tells the alarm that you would like to arm every single device in your home, whereas STAY mode tells it to arm only specific zones. While the default programming is to make STAY mode arm all perimeter devices (typically all of the door and window contacts), we can program STAY mode to be anything you would like.

For example, we can program STAY mode to arm all of the perimeter devices as well as glassbreak sensors and motion detectors in the basement and certain areas of the home.

This allows you to arm your alarm, but walk around in your home without setting it off.

Your alarm system can only offer value if it is armed.

Ensure that you have portable telephones easily accessible

In the event of any type of emergency, it’s incredibly important to be able to call for help as quickly as possible.

While having a cellular phone is good, having portable telephones that use your landline (that are fully charged) offer the added benefit of providing Caller ID information to the 911 call centre so that even if you are unable to speak, they know what address to respond to.

Your security is in your redundancy… in the event that your phone lines are cut, a cellular phone is an important back-up measure.

Consider keeping your cellular phone charger in your bedroom (rather than downstairs in the kitchen) so that your phone is always charged and sitting on your nightstand.

Remember that home safety is much more than burglary detection

While these types of incidents cause a lot of fear, the reality is that the frequency of incidents like these are very rare.

A much more likely scenario is accidentally leaving something on the stove or something else that causes a fire to start. How old are your smoke detectors? Do you have monitored smoke detectors outside of each bedroom in your house?

A 14 year old in Delta is being commended for both keeping calm and acting quickly to help the Police catch a burglar in her home.

The teen was home alone when she heard someone at the front door… she ignored the knocking and ended up having to hide in the closet to call 911 while the crook went through the house – including into the room where she was hiding.

This story is only the latest example of why it is so important to always answer the door… without actually opening it.

Almost every burglar will first knock on the door to try and determine if someone is home… if they think it’s empty, they’ll break in.

If you have young children, babysitters, nannies or other people in your home, it is very important that they be told to always let the person at the door know that someone is home… but that they just can’t get to the door. At the very least, turn a light on so that a potential crook knows that the house isn’t empty.

If the person at the door doesn’t leave, call 911 immediately to report the incident… if you live West of Oak Street, you can also give us a call at 604.664.1087 and we’ll be happy to come by to check things out.

Click here to read about another similar case in Ohio last year.

One of the security risks with the majority of sliding glass doors is that they are relatively easy to lift out of their tracks…

In the past, we’ve always recommended that clients hire a locksmith to install locks on both the top and bottom of sliding doors to help deal with this risk.

I came across a much cheaper, do it yourself, solution for this issue on Shawn Flaugher’s blog.

“A washer screwed into the top part of the door that prevents it from being raised any higher then the side of the washer protrudes from the door’s edge.”

Click on the image to get a bigger version that’s a little easier to see.

Shawn is a Security Consultant in Raleigh, North Carolina and his blog has a lot of great content… especially for commercial and industrial properties.

Click on the video below to watch an excerpt from Tuesday’s home security seminar where I explain what happens when an alarm trips and why Police response is not the best option…

Police response to burglar alarms does not work. The only reason to have (and pay for) a monitored alarm is to generate an immediate response. Given that 98% of all alarms are false, the Police simply cannot be expected to treat them as a priority.

The solution is private response. At Provident, we guarantee a five minute response time… we treat every alarm as a real incident and do not make any attempts to verify an alarm over the phone. If a client has caused a false alarm, it is their responsibility to call us to let us know… otherwise, we’re assuming that they need us to attend immediately.

Our next seminar is being held on Tuesday, March 3rd… click  here for details and to RSVP

We’ve received a number of calls/emails from people today asking if they can just show up to tomorrow’s home security seminar in our Kerrisdale Showroom. Unfortunately, given space restraints, we really cannot fit anyone else in.

However, we have added another event next Tuesday, March 3rd…. exact same details as tomorrow’s event, just on a different day.

If you are interested in attending, please click here to RSVP for our March 3rd event.

If you are involved with a block watch and/or other group, let us know if you would like to book a private home security presentation… you can either bring your group here to us, or we’ll be happy to come to you. Contact Rebecca Bligh by email if you’re interested in more information.

Click below to watch a short clip where I describe how easy it is to add flood detection to your alarm system.

Our next home security seminar will be held on Tuesday, January 13th in our Kerrisdale Showroom … please come by around 6:45pm for some wine and cheese… the presentation will begin at 7:00pm.

Click here to read some comments from past attendees.

Every seminar that we have held over the past few months has sold out early… although it’s free to attend, we do have limited space.

If you’d like to attend, please click here to RSVP.