POLL - Do you have a home alarm system?

funnybone · #1 06-14-2002, 01:46 PM

We have never seen the need to have one, although our home is wired for one. Lately though, I have been thinking that we should get one. I was just wondering how many people on the board have one.

slknight · #2 06-14-2002, 01:48 PM

Nope, don't have one, although my sister does. We don't even lock our doors.

ebobbitt · #3 06-14-2002, 01:49 PM

No, I don't have one. Probably the only reason I would want one is because of the break on homeowners.

AzAnne · #4 06-14-2002, 01:56 PM

Does a dog count??? She even "watches" the neighbor house, and actually foiled 3 misguided teenagers from wreaking havoc one night!

BlueMoose · #5 06-14-2002, 02:10 PM

We don't. But my dog is such a comfort to have around. Anyone who would try to break into our house after hearing his bark would have to be crazy. And I think he would do serious damage to anyone attempting to get in.

KathrynY · #6 06-14-2002, 02:18 PM

Yes - we've got one. Both my family and DH's live out of state, so when we travel to visit them we're gone for weeks at a time, and we feel better about leaving the house alarmed. Most of my neighbors have alarm systems too.

SueK · #7 06-14-2002, 03:11 PM

I doubt that my two bassets qualify!

We don't have one, and I feel safe. We have motion detector lights in the front and the back of the house, plus double locks on all doors and safety locks (plus regular ones) on all the windows. DH thinks it's overkill, but he travels so much that I feel safer having them.

On a side note, I always keep the doors locked when I am home alone. DH thought I was nuts, until one day someone from a carpet cleaning company tried to get into the house! (Long story, but we didn't have an appt, so he had no business being there).

KristaMB · #8 06-14-2002, 04:17 PM

We had one put in when my DH was in the military and away from home a lot. The funny thing is, now that he's out of the service we rarely use it.

lhall · #9 06-14-2002, 07:11 PM

Yes, it came with the house.

We lived here a year before we activated the monitoring.

Leigh

wallycat · #10 06-15-2002, 08:34 AM

No alarm--we do have an "attack cat"

I had thought about gettng one as I got older--if I live alone and need to flag someone for assistance. I think if someone is going to burgle my home (is burgle a word?), an alarm may not prevent it.
Having said that, I've never owned one..maybe it would

Dewey · #11 06-16-2002, 10:16 PM

Don't have one, although I do have two big dogs that alert me to EVERYTHING that goes on. We live in a pretty rural area, so usually there isn't too much activity and when my dogs bark, I know it means that someone is coming up the drive. I do lock my doors at night, unless it's really hot, then I leave the sliding glass doors open (screen doors closed). When I'm gone for the day, I never lock my doors though.

Angela · #12 06-17-2002, 05:49 AM

Yes, we have an alarm, but it's never set and hasn't been for about 2 years. We also have three camera's, 2 on the outside and one inside. These also are not set/connected. DF loves those kind of gadget things

Holly in KC · #13 06-17-2002, 06:08 AM

YES!

I put the alarm system in when I built my house (about 6 years ago). Doors & windows are all monitored, and I have 2 motion detectors. I set the alarm every night when I go to bed, and always when I leave. I just feel more secure with it on.

carolyn.1 · #14 06-17-2002, 11:39 AM

I voted "no" but I do have 2 count them 2 maneating black labs

Carolyn

gertdog · #15 06-17-2002, 01:07 PM

Just my dog Gertie. No one approaches the house w/o her knowing about it... she barks until we tell her "okay... good girl" and she then stops, knowing her job is done.

However, she will sleep right through the racket of the raccoons getting into the trash, while I wake up immediately.

I grew up with an alarm system in the house and it drove me nuts... I was always setting it off. But it also made me feel safer when I was home alone at night. Cars got stolen or broken into in our neighborhood all the time, and houses got broken into too (and this was a pretty nice neighborhood!) and I liked knowing that I had the alarm btw. me and the potential burglar.

AndreaU · #16 06-17-2002, 02:52 PM

I almost voted yes, but I didn't want to skew the results.

We have 2 dogs and they are the most responsible watchdogs I've ever known. They definitely earn their keep around here (and they're cute, too!).

julia · #17 06-17-2002, 02:57 PM

We have one and it also came with the house. It can be really annoying as my printer is in the basement and if the alarm is set when we go to bed and DH gets up to do some work ing the middle of the night, sends something to print (we're networked), the d*** thing goes off, it's that sensitive.

One of the things I do like about it is that if we go out and set the alarm, it tells us if we've left any doors open.

Gilgamesh37 · #18 06-18-2002, 12:22 PM

I don't have one, but I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it. In my old house (the one I'm just moving out of now), the house was burgled while we were all asleep upstairs . That creeped me out for a long while, lemme tell you. Also, because we were in a heavily student neighborhood, several times I had people get so drunk they thought my house was their house--never had anyone actually break in, but know people who have, and people who have come downstairs in the morning to find a perfect stranger passed out on their couch (once alseep in their front closet) under the mistaken impression that they were at their own home.

As a result, I ALWAYS keep the doors locked when I am home. I'm kind of obsessive about it--it drives my father insane and he tells me I'm being an idiot (simply because he finds it inconvenient)--even my saying "this is my home and I'm allowed to make the decisions here" didn't stop the snotty comments--then last year, within one month and in very nice upscale neighborhoods, we had THREE separate "home invasion" incidents, where armed people stormed occupied houses looking for drugs. Problem was, in each case they got the wrong house. I sent my dad that clipping and he hasn't complained about my locking the doors since. DBF teases me about it, but he does lock the doors, just because it makes me feel better.

HDgirl · #19 06-18-2002, 12:29 PM

I voted no as we just cancelled our service. We stopped using it. We had it installed after our house was broken into. Scary thing. They got in squeezing through our basement window. Which SO promptly fixed, no one is getting in that way now.

I always thought my dog was a good watchdog. She ALWAYS barked if anyone or thing was in the yard or approaching the house. However, the day of our break in, she did not deter the bad guys. We found her hiding in the attic. MHO is until your animal is put in that situation you don't know how they'll act.

That being said, I wonder how my cat would do. We had to put a mailbox on our house because the mailpersons wouldn't deliver through the mail slot anymore...said my kitty was playing too rough!!

Sami · #20 06-30-2002, 09:05 PM

Yes i do have an alarm. We got it originally, when my oldest daughter was 10 and was staying with our other 2 for short periods. We bought it for the fire alarm, and security system came with it. For years, the children didn't carry keys and we left the door open with the alarm on. After many false alarms with the police visiting each time, we just left the door unlocked. Now, since I am alone a lot of the time, I do use it at night, and when I go on long trips.

It's funny, because in Vermont, I lock nothing except when I leave. In ski season there are a lot of teenagers around, but so far I have had no problems.

Sami

MrsReber · #21 07-03-2002, 10:57 AM

We don't have one, but I wish we did. I am so paranoid now that we have a baby (and we'll have a second one next week). I see these stories on the news about kids being taken right from their homes in the middle of the night. I wake up a lot and check on DD. I can't even sleep if her window is open in her room. I never thought much about it before she arrived last year. However, we had 2 ex-cops go crazy about half an hour from here and walk into neighbors' houses and kill them. We do have firearms in the house- mostly for DH's hunting, but there is one handgun that he's showed me how to use. I was always against having a gun in the house, but if I were defending my babies, I don't think I'd hesitate to use it. Also, DH is very responsible with his firearms. We also have a yappy little dog who really scares people. She's a big baby, but she sounds nasty.

JanetJ · #22 07-03-2002, 05:02 PM

We are actually getting one installed one Saturday. DBF has been thinking about getting one for a while. I know I will appreciate it when he is away for business. The biggest perk for him is that if the smoke detector goes off and we don't enter a code within a certain period of time the fire department will be called for us. Everytime we go away for a day or two he worries about the dogs getting trapped in the house.

Mickey17 · #23 07-03-2002, 09:18 PM

We have an alarm system. We turn it on when we are not here. I think that if DH ever goes away for business I would also turn it on at night. We don't keep the house locked when we are here and awake but do any other time. I think if anyone ever tried to burgle us when we are awake and home they would get a rude awakening at how fast the police show up since we have a phone in EVERY room of the house including the bathrooms and 2 of the CLOSETS! (Yes my DH is a gadget freak, why do you ask?)

luv2cook · #24 07-05-2002, 12:25 PM

We have a monitored alarm system. We use it, of course, when we leave but not at night. I have the philosophy that I do w/my car. If burglars have a choice between a car w/no alarm and a car w/alarm, which one are they going to go to first?

Same thing w/our house. We have wrought iron on both sides, two inside dogs and an alarm. Why would they pick our house when they can go across the street?

HejazSunKat · #25 07-23-2002, 02:00 AM

We do have one. We got it after our next door neighbor's house was burgled in broad daylight. I must say it's a mixed blessing though. The thing is loud enough to wake the dead which is what it's supposed to do - scare a burglar enough so that he goes out the same way he came in. If it goes off in the middle of the night though it's enough to give you a heart attack. I was using my treadmill down in the basement, near the control panel, one time and the vibration jarred the door just enough for it to swing open in the middle of the night - setting off the alarm. My poor husband had to creep down there with baseball bat in hand to investigate.

Another time a bat got in the house and started swooping by the motion sensors.

I'm glad that we have it though. I feel much better if I'm home alone or if we're away on vacation.

cjm · #26 07-23-2002, 09:28 AM

Yes we have a system. We had one installed into our "old" house...one of our kids (grown & out of the house) made the comment that we were the only people he knew that installed a system BEFORE they were robbed... When we bought our current house (3 yrs ago) it already had one installed.

cjm

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