Home security

[SWOHTR]

Figured this would be a good crowd for this topic. Background:

-Husband (30 y/o) is active duty military and subject to months-long deployments, weeks-long underways, and weeks-long events keeping him away from the home. As of now, he has 1.5 months left in training on the other side of the country (Virginia).
-Family stays at home and consists of wife (27 y/o, pregnant), 2 year old son, and dog (Springer).
-Have a basic home security system, no cameras - yet.
-Own house, live in neighborhood in good area. Surrounded by other military families. Occasional car break-ins for petty theft: money, electronics. HOA has a security service that is not very active. House is in California.
-Keep house and car locked up, no valuables out in the open.
-Wife is not very comfortable with firearms but is opening up to idea of becoming proficient with a handgun.

Event: The family car was broken in to overnight while parked in front of the house. Car was locked, no valuables in sight in the car. Thieves took change, headphones specific to the car's entertainment system, and a binder full of hotel and gas receipts. Nothing really valuable, but enough to make someone feel violated and uncomfortable.

What would you do to help ensure the family is as secure and comfortable as possible? What would you add, what would you consider? Thanks for any and all input.

 

[Poser]

If it’s any piece of mind, I’ve had my vehicle rummaged through (I say rummaged because, after living in cities for a good while and had a couple of windows broken, I haven’t locked my truck in years) numerous times. This occurred while living in Nashville, Memphis and even once since moving to Durango. That said, I’ve never had a home break in. I’d speculate that a home invasion thief is in a different category than people breaking in cars. Because Durango is a small town, I heard that the night my vehicle was rummaged through, there were over 200 vehicles hit and the thieves got thousands of dollars and 2 dozen firearms out of the effort. It’s a numbers game. I’m not saying don’t take further precautions, only to put your mind a bit at ease. Break in enough cars and you’ll score. Break in enough houses and you’ll get shot. Thieves are aware of this.

 

[longspeak74]

Personally, I would add a few small cameras - even if they're decoys (I have one on my garage). I also added a "Beware of Dog" sign to my front porch door. Never had any problems and zero solicitors. The handgun is also favorable if she remains open to the idea.

 

[missjordan]

I bought a wireless cloud based security camera for our house and felt the investment was worth it. I have the Netgear Arlo at home and my work has Nest.

The Arlo system is a lot cheaper than the Nest. Video is only triggered by motion and that video is stored on a cloud based subscription. For the whole system it’s $10 a month for cloud storage up to 30 days. I paid $320 for the base station and 3 cameras. this camera also sends me notifications to my cell phone when motion is triggered by people, vehicles, or animals.

The Nest system has better video quality. And always constantly records even when there isn’t any motion. The initial investment also for 3 cameras was $500 but they are also 4K cameras. The monthly cost also is more expensive too, you pay per camera for a 15 day subscription and is $50 a month. They also notify you of motion but not in detail.

In my opinion if your just trying to monitor the motion in the front of your house, the Arlo is a good system worth looking into. Here are screen shots of where i got my cameras placed. One on our garage overlooking the driveway, the other at the front of the house, and last camera is in our breezeway by the side door

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rustneversleeps]

I love my nest cams

 

[Still Hunter]

They can have what's in the car. A Trained German Shepherd will protect the wife & kids. Shotgun in the house. She does not need to learn to do much more than point in the correct location. Most people even with handgun permits can't hit the side of a barn with a handgun.

This probably needs to be in the General Forum.

 

[[email protected]]

Cameras are a good addition, some formal firearms training not from husband may help wife also. In my home I’d say you’d count yourself lucky if my wife’s 12 gauge takes you out before the blueticks get ahold of ya. Probably be the same outcome but my wife would make sure it was quicker.

 

[Hessticles]

I have Amazon blink xt cheap and no extra fees

 

[Gunnersdad49]

The blink cameras are inexpensive, easy to set up, and wireless. My home was broken into, and the thief spotted one of my cameras and ripped it off the wall. It recorded his escape including his outfit! He was caught and confessed within 12 hours.

They have no monthly fees, and storage is in the cloud, controlled by an app on your phone. I cover all of my entrances, gates, vehicles, and the gun safe with them, and have "overlapping fields of fire" so that they cover theft or damage on one another.

You might also install motion lights, and or flood lights over the driveway. Bear spray is better than nothing as far as her safety, and marks the assailant. Also encourage her to work on being more aware when leaving the house and coming home. It is easy to get distracted and not see obvious signs of someone with bad intentions.

 

[WeiserBucks]

If you were in a less populated area I would get a sheep dog and let it do it's job . Great Pyrenees or Akbash are very intimidating, especially once they shred a tweakers leg .

 

[Salmonchaser]

Convince her it’s ok to call the cops if something makes her feel uneasy. Teach her how to formulate a suspect description. Race, sex, Height weight hair, eyes clothing. Practice it, everyone gets scanned so to speak. Bad guys intuition, they know they’ve just been made.

 

[Rodéo]

I'm also looking for recs on security cameras at the moment... Kuiu order got stolen from my porch last week and there's been some unwanted solicitation lately. Nothing like what OP unfortunately went through but nonetheless, I'm going out to check out some cameras today.

 

[SWOHTR]

Thanks for the replies! Will look into the above.

Also, not sure why I put it in the elk forum...whoops.