The most important thing you can ever do to protect your home and your family is to install a burglar alarm system. I realize that you are saying to yourself "They are just telling me that because they are selling burglar alarms." Honestly, this is not the case. In a study of residential burglaries conducted in 1999 by the U.S. Department of Justice, 9 out of 10 convicted burglars agreed that they would avoid a home protected by an active security system. A 2004 study conducted by the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association showed that homes with an active security system are about 3 times less likely to be burglarized than a home without a security system. In 2007, the FBI issued a National Crime Report which stated that a burglary occurs in the United States every 14 seconds, with an average dollar loss of over $1,700. In another study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, 85% of Police Chiefs surveyed believe that a monitored security system deters burglary attempts. Therefore, the logical conclusion to be reached here is that an active security system is your highest and best deterrent to a burglary.

   This is the same type of system that the banks use. A cellular security system transmits the alarm signal from your home to our monitoring center via the cell towers. When a burglar cuts the phone line to a standard landline system, in almost all cases the alarm central station does not know it, the homeowner at that point does not know it, and the only person who does know is the burglar who just disabled the alarm system at your home and has also circumvented your ability to call for help from your home phone. Our company has installed security systems in the homes of many FBI agents. One of them revealed to us that in almost every burglary of a home where either it was an expensive home or there were high end collectibles (such as a gun collection, coin collection, stamp collection, etc.) the burglars cut the phone line to the house before entering. A cellular system is the only way to provide real safety and security for your home and family. Other companies never mention the availability of a cellular system until after their customer experiences a break-in and robbery due to the burglar cutting the phone line. Fox Brothers explains the benefits of a cellular system and gives customers the option of adding a cellular transmitter to their system before signing the installation and monitoring contracts.

   Fox Brothers is one of the few companies that provide this service here in the Lehigh Valley. The vast majority of alarms that are installed by the large national companies are what is known as passive landline alarm systems. In other words, they operate through the landline, not by cell tower system. They are subject to being easily defeated by someone cutting the phone line, and they are not tested on a regular daily basis. They can be tested but, for the most part, these large national companies have elected not to do this. A possible reason could be that they don’t want to pay for the constant long distance charges because their monitoring center is in Florida, or Texas, or Alabama; or they know that if a system is tested on a daily basis they are going to find regular things wrong with their alarm systems which will require substantial amounts of free service calls.
   We here at Fox Brothers try to encourage our customers to have their systems tested on a daily basis to make sure that they are working. There are 2 major problems in the alarm business: first that the alarm will not operate when the burglar breaks into your home, and second the false alarm. The major advantage of testing your alarm system each day is that we want you to know that it works, and we want to know that it works. If there is something wrong, we intend to address that situation and make it a major priority here in our company. Not a single day goes by where we do not have 3 or 4 alarm systems that do not test properly. This could be caused by the customer changing their telephone service from company A to company B, something internally from the system is inoperative, the backup battery has gone bad, loss of power to the alarm, or a host of other reasons. If you have an alarm system that does not work when you need it to work, it doesn’t make a lick of sense to even have a system in the first place. Don’t ever be lulled into a false sense of security by an alarm system in your home that is not tested on a regular daily basis. (P.S. This involves no actions on your part. This is all done remotely via a computer system through the communication line from your alarm system into our local monitoring facility.)

   A certain volunteer fire company was having some sort of an event at their firehouse, and the burglar intended to break into that facility in the middle of the night. He told me that as he approached the building, he noticed a Fox Brothers sticker on the door. He walked around the building and noticed other Fox Brothers stickers that were mounted throughout the property. He actually told me that he sat down and thought about this for a few minutes and decided not to break into the building because he did not want to get caught. Instead, this burglar told me that he left the firehouse and broke in somewhere else.

   You want to have your house clearly marked so that emergency personnel can find you, but only have your street address on your sign or mailbox. Do not have your name displayed on the outside of your home. If burglars know your name and address, they can call information to get your phone number and then call to see if anyone is home.

   Many people have an outside shed which contains tools, ladders and other things that are valuable and useful to a burglar. You don't want the burglar to break into your home using your own unsecured ladder or prying open your door with your own crowbar. Always make sure that these items have been secured and locked up. Never leave a spare key on the exterior of your home. Burglars know all the usual hiding places: under the doormat, above the doorway, in the mailbox, fake rock, etc. Let a trusted friend or neighbor hold onto your spare key.

   But they should also be kept low enough so that the burglar cannot hide behind them. Tall trees near 2nd floor windows should be pruned so that burglars cannot climb up them like a ladder.

   Otherwise, if you pile up the empty boxes in front of your house displaying that they contained a 52-inch widescreen TV, a TIVO, a DVD player, and a home theater, you are telling anyone that drives by your house (including your garbage collector), that you just put $10,000 worth of electronics in your house.

   This has a number of advantages. First of all, if your friends and family want to call you, they will be able to easily contact you. Burglars can get your phone number out of the book, and even if you have an unlisted number, it is very easy to obtain your phone number from sources over the internet. They will simply call your home number and, if no one answers, you are a target for a burglary.

   Another convicted thief at Northampton County Prison told me that he used to find his victims at the airport. He would carry a clipboard and a piece of paper as if he was some kind of an official and walk up to the luggage that was being processed. He would write down the names and addresses that were on the luggage, and then he would watch the luggage as it was processed and loaded onto the airplane. The people would get on the airplane and fly away. The thief would go back to their homes, knock on the door and, if no one answered, break in.

   When I was a paperboy - back when I was thin and good looking - I was always amazed that people would tell me they were going to be away for 2 weeks and to stop delivering their paper on my route. This is extremely dangerous and should not be done. My view is to keep the information that you are going to be away from your house for an extended period of time limited to a short list of people that you can trust. Whenever go away, you should always have a trusted friend or neighbor pick up your mail and newspapers each day and save them for you.

   You want to make your home look like it is always occupied. If a burglar drives by your home 1 or 2 days after a snowstorm and sees that the snow is untouched, he knows without a doubt that no one has been in or out of the house since then. Numerous burglars at the prison told me that they never ever want to confront a homeowner. So, if your home looks like it is occupied, they will most likely move on to an easier target.

   Burglars hate well lit areas, and they will be startled by a light that suddenly comes on prior to entering your home. They may think that you are home and you heard something or that you noticed them and turned on the light.  This will also provide you additional safety when you come home at night.  By not providing intruders an opportunity to lurk in the dark you decrease your chances of being attacked outside your own home.

 

   If a burglar sees that the lights are on 24 hours a day, he will know that no one is home. Have lights and a radio or television on timers so that they randomly turn on and off. These devices can be purchased from your local hardware store.

   This device works on a sound-activated principle and if somebody bangs hard at the door or smashes out a window near the device, the lights will come on scaring the burglar away.

   This is generally used for people who have a driveway to their home and/or a garage. A burglar may walk through your neighborhood and, if your house looks as if it is unoccupied, he may take an item from your yard and move it into the driveway. This could be a potted plant, a lawn chair from your back porch, a bicycle, etc. Later that evening or the next evening, he will drive by your home. If these items remain where he put them, he will know the house is unoccupied and break in. Arrange to have someone drive by your house when you are away just to check up on things.

   In about 32% of home burglaries there is no sign of forced entry. This means that the burglar entered through an unlocked door or an open door or window. Sometimes in our busy lives we forget to do the obvious. We want to air out the house in the springtime. In summertime we like that fresh air. These things are good, but when you are not in the home, you always have to lock your doors and windows. If you want fresh air in the home at night, be sure to lock the doors and windows on the 1st floor and open the window in your 2nd floor bedroom. Less than 2% of all breakins occur through 2nd floor windows.

   In fact, over 75% of all burglaries occur through doors. One of the reasons for this is that most door frames are made out of wood. You should install dead bolt locks and harden your door frames. An effective method for hardening your door frame is to install a steel plate on the frame of the door. This can be purchased at your local hardware store and is commonly called Jamb Armor. There is a You Tube video showing you how to do this.

   Most of the time these are legitimate business people trying to make an honest living by doing repair work to your home. But burglars also use these methods. Sometimes a burglar will put a flyer in your outside screen door and a door hanger on your front door. They will come back later that night and drive by your home to see if these items have been removed. They may break in at this point, but the creative burglar generally waits another day or two and, if these items have not been removed after 2 or 3 days, he is pretty sure that there is no one home at your house.

   The days of the door-to-door salesman are over. We live in a different age. Always ask for identification and have them show it to you through the peephole. If someone comes to your home and asks to talk to you about installing doors and windows in your house, tell them to leave the information on your front porch for you to review, and you will call them if you want them to come back. After they leave, call their office and also the Better Business Bureau to verify that the are a legitimate company before letting them into your home.

   Statistics show that 40% of the homes that were burglarized had alarm systems, but the alarm was not turned on. Always use your alarm system. If you are uncomfortable using it, you don’t understand or remember how to use it, or it was designed one way when you initially bought it and now your family circumstances have changed, please call us. You may have a new pet and feel that now you can’t use the alarm system because the pet might set off the alarm. Maybe we can eliminate the motion detector from your system or reduce its sensitivity, or upgrade the motion detector to a glass breakage sensor, or configure the alarm system in a different way. Call us and let us know what your concerns are so that we can resolve them.