There’s been a few garage break ins round here recently and I’ve improved security in that area but it’s got me thinking about getting a house alarm. Is a fake alarm box effective or is it a false economy and can a burglar spot them a mile off?

We’ve got them and we’ve not been burgled. Does that help?

With your username, surely you’d know 😉

No less effective than real alarms which everyone ignores as they go off by accident so often.

With your username, surely you’d know

Took me a minute to get that one

Actual alarms aren’t effective, so fake ones are definitely not.

Our house was burgled in the middle of the afternoon a few years ago, the alarm triggered as you would expect, but it didn’t stop them taking about 10k worth of stuff. Either nobody heard the alarm, or they didn’t do anything about it.

PeterPoddy – Member

No less effective than real alarms which everyone ignores as they go off by accident so often.

+1

& go off for hours when the owners out.. no one actually checks the house not being burgled.

no one actually checks the house not being burgled.

No-one thinks to check it. Everyone will roll their eyes going “that bloody alarm has been going off for ages.” I don’t even think it enters people’s minds that there might be a good reason for it.

They’re probably more effective as a deterrent on the grounds of making your property less attractive than the neighbours. If a scally’s weighing up his next hit, you’ve got an alarm and next door doesn’t, then all other things being equal he’ll go for the unprotected one I’d expect. It’s the tiger / running shoes joke, basically.

Its impossible to know really whether either a real or fake alarm is effective as you can’t quantify what hasn’t happened.

There are some burglars who’ll take the chance even knowing a place is alarmed. When my workshop was burgled they just ripped all the alarm apparatus off the walls – inside and out – and smashed it all up. They’d have had to have done that with the alarm sounding – in plain sight of the neighbours and just banked on the sound of an alarm not being enough to make anyone look out their window.

What you can’t know is how many potentials opportunist an alarm system deters.

I’d say nowadays an alarm system that tells you that it has been triggered is more important that one tells your neighbours. Its no more or less of a deterrent but at least it allows you to do something to mitigate a break in if it happens.

My knowledge is based on the people that get caught . opportunists are unlikely to be put off by an alarm if they see an opportunity they will quickly take it replying on speed to render an active alarm pointless or the opportunity suggesting that the alarm is inactive . pros will come prepared either for speed and brute force or to negate the alarm quickly . an alarm on an out building may well divert the opportunist to a neighbouring shed but would suggest to the pro that something worth having was inside.

No-one thinks to check it

And what if you do?

Jump the neighbours’ fence (not a euphemism), someone sees you, rings the feds and before you know it you’re on the inside, doing porridge and being vigourously bummed every time you go for a shower.

Maybe.

no one actually checks the house not being burgled.

I would if it was a neighbour…

I would if it was a neighbour…

It depends a bit on what arrangements you have with your neighbours – I have keys, and alarm codes for neighbours properties and my number is held by the alarm co so they call me if its triggered. In other words I’ve been instructed and authorised to act if that alarm goes off.

Without that then nobody knows who should act or how. If neighbouring alarm is going off are they someone you can contact even? If the alarm sounds, even if its a false alarm then I’m heading straight to that property just out of courtesy to other neighbours rather than any incentive to meat out vigilante justice.

Just fitting the alarm isn’t enough you need to have a plan you’ve discussed with the people around you too.

I tripped our alarm during a DIY project, 9pm on night.
Looked out the front window to see two burly blokes running up the drive, one to each door of the house.
Great neighbours!!!

I think the fakes are not worth it unless you have flashing lights or something on it and a real system hooked up. Dubious even then. Our fake was rusty and tatty so took it off.

Fake CCTV cameras a better bet?

It depends a bit on what arrangements you have with your neighbours – I have keys, and alarm codes for neighbours properties and my number is held by the alarm co so they call me if its triggered. In other words I’ve been instructed and authorised to act if that alarm goes off.

Regardless I’d still go and have a look in case someone is breaking in….

Couple of years ago, two scrotes decided to smash our side door in with a sledgehammer, it had two 5 lever mortice locks, but still gave up after the onslaught. When the alarm went off they still had the locked kitchen door to get through, no room to swing the sledge, so tried to prise it open with a spade.
They didn’t get in probably because the alarm eventually spooked em and a neighbour spotted them driving away in a battered old transit.
A few years previous a neighbour without an alarm came back from two weeks holiday to find their house stripped of everything in it, including boiler, rads and pipework.

an alarm on an out building may well divert the opportunist to a neighbouring shed but would suggest to the pro that something worth having was inside.

That’s a good point, I hadn’t considered that.

And what if you do?

Jump the neighbours’ fence

Well no, I’m not suggesting someone goes bounding in like Rambo. But you can make basic checks, “casually” walk past the property and look for any obvious anomalies. Is the back gate intact, are there two blokes loading electronics into a van, that sort of thing. I’ve done this myself in the past (and actually caught someone in the act so rang 999).

After a printers I worked at was broken in to the owner got an alarm fitted. We were broken into again a couple of weeks later and the alarm system itself was stolen! Obviously one can never be sure but my suspicions were directed towards the 2 colleagues who between them had a number of previous convictions and a generally blase attitude to nicking anything they could.

A few years previous a neighbour without an alarm came back from two weeks holiday to find their house stripped of everything in it, including boiler, rads and pipework.

They did that to an empty house in our street a few years back, looked like a standard renovation job, only they just stripped it over several days and then buggered off!

I think a fake box, which exactly matches the real box, just to keep them guessing and hopefully makes them look for a softer target.

2 houses on a street, 1 has an alarm box, 1 doesnt. Which do you think the burglar would choose?

They did that to an empty house in our street a few years back, looked like a standard renovation job, only they just stripped it over several days and then buggered off!

I did find it impressive when a pals got done over and they managed to take all the floorboards too!

No less effective than real alarms which everyone ignores as they go off by accident so often.

Where we live if an alarm goes off a neighbour always has a check round the house. We must have a nice group of neighbours.

2 houses on a street, 1 has an alarm box, 1 doesnt. Which do you think the burglar would choose?

The one with the flat screen in the window and tablet on the coffee table.

House up the road from us was broken into during the daytime. The burglar turned the alarm off (ADT).

2 houses on a street, 1 has an alarm box, 1 doesnt. Which do you think the burglar would choose?
The one with the flat screen in the window and tablet on the coffee table

This +100

Domestic crime, inc burglary, has been falling for years now. Less and less chance of being a victim every year.