How to stop burglars

[Tvtyrant]

If we're going to the realm of ridiculous guard animals, I have to put my vote behind an emu or ostrich. Those things are basically still dinosaurs as far as I'm concerned, and I think most people would IMMEDIATELY rethink every life-choice they made if they broke into a house and wound up being charged by one or with one right in their face.

On more realistic notes, it's amazing how much even a simple sticker other sign claiming that your house has security can help. It's kind of like running away from a bear - you just have to be harder to break into than the person next to you. If you're the only house in the neighborhood that even seems like it might be protected, most burglarers would just hit another house nearby.

If you want to go further, you can get things like a real security system (you can find cameras almost anywhere that sells electronics - I think even WalMart has a home security aisle in their electronics section now), a large dog (even if you don't train it for security, if you don't get it in the habit if being friendly with strangers it will probably be loud enough to both alert you and scare the burglar), or a weapon (please, PLEASE get proper training for yourself and anyone else in your house if you do this), but if things are that bad, you should be focused as much on mitigation as protection. Make sure you have good records of all your valuables and their worth, make sure you have adequate homeowners or renters insurance, have the serial numbers of any electronics wrote down somewhere, get a good, hard to steal safe for your valuable papers, etc. That way, you're prepared in the eventuality that the protections fail.

At the point where combining cameras, dogs and weapons stops working it sounds like it is time to leave.

[Xyril]

At the point where combining cameras, dogs and weapons stops working it sounds like it is time to leave.

Technically he's not combining them, he's just using them simultaneously.

Personally, I wouldn't on any burglar getting past the armed camera-dogs.

[Peelee]

Technically he's not combining them, he's just using them simultaneously.

Personally, I wouldn't on any burglar getting past the armed camera-dogs.

[furiously scribbles notes in D&D campaign journal]

[Tvtyrant]

Technically he's not combining them, he's just using them simultaneously.

Personally, I wouldn't on any burglar getting past the armed camera-dogs.

I too fear the pupperazzi.

[singletonamos50]

I was just about to post on a similar issue. Can you recommend some cameras along the lines you mentioned?

[ForzaFiori]

At the point where combining cameras, dogs and weapons stops working it sounds like it is time to leave.

I agree, but in most cases, if your living in an area like that it's not because you choose to, it's because you can't afford to live in a safer neighborhood. Also, as others have pointed out, weapons are less useful than most people seem to think (if they're safely stored, it's probably going to take to long to get to them), and dogs without training are not a sure bet. Perhaps it would be better to say "if you reach a point where you don't want to spend any more time and effort on prevention, and cannot simply move, work on mitigation." It also never hurts to plan for a freak incident anyway, and going ahead and having records of valuables and insurance can help in plenty of unfortunate circumstances outside of robberies.