A neighbor was broken into on a Friday evening. Within a week, about five more houses on the same block were hit — in the middle of the day. Two of them were visible from his front lawn.
It starts with someone else’s house
He had never wanted an alarm system. Most people in this situation haven’t.
Got way to close for comfort. I was paranoid to leave my house and suspicious of every car.
Chris D., Fullerton
He researched, narrowed it to a few companies, and none of them called him back.
He found us because he’d seen the sticker in the window of a restaurant in Fullerton, checked the reviews, and sent a message. Jason replied within the hour and was at the house that evening.
What to do in the first 48 hours after a break-in nearby
Burglaries cluster. When a block gets hit it usually isn’t one opportunist passing through — it’s somebody who has found a street that works, and who comes back while it keeps working.
Criminologists have measured this. After a burglary, homes within roughly a quarter-mile carry a raised risk for about two to four weeks, and then it settles back to normal. That’s the window you’re in, and most people don’t know it exists.
- Find out how they got in. The entry method is the most useful thing you can know. Whatever worked next door is what gets tried at your house. Ask your neighbor directly — most people are glad to talk about it.
- Go and look at your own version of that. The side gate nobody locks. The garage door that doesn’t quite catch. The window behind the hedge. You’re looking for places where somebody could work unobserved for two minutes. That’s the whole requirement.
- Fix the free things first. Lock the gate. Cut back what screens the side of the house. Put a light where the dark part is. Stop leaving the garage remote in a car on the driveway.
- Report it even if you weren’t the one hit. Patrol attention follows reports. A street that generates reports gets attention that a street of shrugs doesn’t.
- Know what each thing does before you buy one. A camera records. An alarm interrupts. If you only do one, do the one that makes noise and calls a person.
One local thing people miss: most Orange County cities require an alarm permit, and several fine you for false alarms whether you have one or not. Worth ten minutes of reading before a system goes in rather than after — we’ve written up the rules for every city we serve.
What he chose
He described the visit as unpressured — no upsell, direct answers, options emailed afterwards. He started looking at an alarm and ended up with home automation:
- Color touchscreen panel, hardwired with battery backup and a cellular connection to the central station
- Wireless door, window and motion sensors, with Stay and Away modes
- Fire and smoke detection reporting to the central station
- Three HD cameras covering the entrances, which he can view live or play back from his phone
- Keyless deadbolts that disarm the alarm when unlocked
- Smart thermostat, garage door control, and custom text alerts
His most-used feature wasn’t the alarm. It was a cleaner’s door code that only works during her appointment window, and texts him when she arrives.
Why cellular, not a phone line
Every alarm has to tell somebody. That sounds obvious, and it’s the part almost nobody asks about when they’re comparing quotes.
A system that reports over a phone line depends on a cable running into your building from outside. It’s usually accessible, usually unprotected, and cutting it takes seconds. A panel with a severed line will do everything it’s supposed to — detect, sound the siren — and nobody outside the building will ever hear about it.
The other problem is quieter. Copper phone service is disappearing, and a lot of homes that still have a “phone line” are really running voice over their internet connection. That works until the internet drops, the router loses power, or the provider changes something. None of those are dramatic events. They just mean the alarm has no way to report on the day it matters.
Every system we install reports over a cellular connection to the central station. It’s a separate route that doesn’t depend on your building’s wiring, your internet or your power — the panel is hardwired with a battery behind it, and the radio keeps reporting when the rest of the house is dark. You can see it on every one of our plans.
It isn’t a premium option. It’s how we specify systems, because one that can be silenced by cutting a cable outside isn’t a system. When the carriers shut down their 3G networks, we moved our monitored accounts to LTE before the switch-off rather than after. Nobody lost coverage and nobody had to ask.
Afterwards
The install took a full day. When minor issues came up about a month later, the technician worked around his schedule to come back out.
If you need a basic alarm or you want to go crazy like I did with home automation you can control from your phone, look no further than Epic Alarm.
Chris D., Fullerton — published on Yelp, April 2016. Quoted as written.
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