They messed up my house!

By Paul Alcock

What actually happened during the burglary!

Over the years, we have found there are two times when people buy a home security system: While a sales rep is sitting in front of them, and after they have been burglarized. 

We receive a lot of referrals from our customers and many of them are after they learn that a friend was a victim of a burglary. During the review of their needs, we ask about what happened during the burglary; what was taken, damaged, disturbed and left behind. Very often, the family recount not only the details that they figured out, but also the report that the police made after the burglary.

In one instance, the mother recanted how 'he was a Professional', and how 'he' broke in through the back door and  'he' went directly to the rooms where the valuables were stored, and then 'he' urinated on the carpet in the living room. Pretty awful events to live with.

Then we offered our interpretation of the burglary:

• Probably not 'Professionals' - Pros tend to go for the really high end properties where they know they will find extremely high value jewelry and valuable collections.
• There were probably two or three of them, and most likely they were kids/teenagers or drug addicts.
• They probably coerced one kid to help them, they need someone to lookout for people arriving at the house. That kid probably had never done anything like this before, and got spooked and probably peed in his pants, and that's the source of the urine on the floor.
• Even the young kid that breaks into a home knows that you don't go in through the front door! Anyone might see you. No, they normally break in around a secluded side or back door. If there is a sliding glass door, that is their first choice of entry.
• Once inside the house, they would quickly look for anyone at the home and for ways out! Just in case someone does arrive. 
• Then they will head to the master bedroom. That's where most home owners keep their jewelry, cash, and guns!
• Off the master bedroom they will look in the master bathroom for drugs, especially high level pain killers.
• They'll look in the closet, an obvious hiding place for more valuables, they'll also probably joked about the lingerie they found there too.
• The bedside drawers will be pulled open, they are looking for weapons and jewelry, but they find lots of other personal stuff there too.
• Before they leave, they'll check the living room for easy to grab electronics; Video recorders, Cameras, Video game controllers too. But don't think that big flat screen TV is safe! They probably have a buddy waiting in a car on the end of a cell phone, and he will pull up in front of the house, everyone pile in with whatever they can carry and they are off!
• They were probably in the home for about an hour, undetected, the memories of the burglary will probably last a lifetime.

Most homes require a unique solution to their alarm needs, we take the time to determine the most appropriate solution that fits in the home owners budget and meets their protection needs. If you would like us to provide a no-obligation review of your family's alarm system needs, then please contact us.

Have you been the victim of a burglary?

The more we learn about what happened during a burglary, the better we can protect homes and families, so please let us know what happened.

Thanks.

Paul Alcock

ACT Security 

954-956-7070

It was a beautiful day

By Paul Alcock

Jamie waited outside the schoolyard searching for the face of her daughter as the kids piled out enthusiastically from school on this warm spring day in South Florida. Dozens of kids screeching and yelling playfully as they looked for their Mom's or Dads in the waiting line of cars parked like a row of snails in their shells.

Among the melee, Vicky spotted her Mom who smiled as she scrambled into the back seat of their car, loading up the empty space behind the driver's seat with the collection of books and bags from the day. School was out, time to head to the Yogurt garden for her favorite desert with sprinkles.

Vicky quickly began to recall her busy day and show Jamie the pictures she had drawn. Her favorite was the picture of their home. Typical kids picture, quirky boxes for windows, scribbles for the curtains, and a stick figure dog playing in front. She had stuck some cotton wool over the house to look like clouds, and a big yellow star for the Sun. It was a beautiful day.

Jamie finished her yogurt first, Vicky was picking out the red sprinkles on hers between detailed stories of how her class had fun during their lunch break. Nearly time to head home and beat the traffic. It had been a long day at work and Jamie thought about how Vicky would dash out of the car as soon as it stopped in the driveway and loudly call 'Scruffy' before she even reached the side door. It was a beautiful day.

Bags in hand, Jamie followed Vicky but something was up! Vicky stopped at the door, she didn't rush in as usual, and there was no excited Scruffy to greet her. "What's up honey?" it came out a bit shaky. "Where's Scruffy?" Vicky quietly complained. Jamie put the bags down and moved towards the door, she noticed the splinters of glass by the doorstep. This was more than a bit scary! Quickly, Jamie scooped Vicky into her arms and headed back to the car. "Hang on honey! we better go look for Scruffy, he must have run off. We'll find him" and Jamie backed the car down the driveway a little quicker than normal.

Once on the road, Jamie called the police. It 'was' a beautiful day!

By the time Vicky was tucked in bed later that evening, the Police had left and Jamie had searched around the house to see what was missing. Both of the jewelry boxes in the bedroom had gone, the pain killers in the master bathroom cabinet were gone too. Her closet had been ripped apart, several pieces of her best lingerie were strewn on the crumpled bed. The bag with the video camcorder in the living room was missing, so were the memory cards with the videos that Jamie had taken when Vicky graduated 1st grade.

The side door was now reinforced by a piece of plywood from the garage, Jamie had jammed a piece of wood between the now broken handle and the floor, just in case 'they' should return.

The police officer was very sympathetic, and followed Jamie as she went around each room of the house "Just want to make sure 'they' are not still here". It only took him about ten minutes to write out the report and provide a copy for Jamie "You'll need that for the Insurance Claim" and "'they' would not have had so much time to rifle through your home and belongings if you had an alarm system. Probably a good idea"

Then Jamie and Vicky were at home, alone. Not the best of beautiful days!

Jamie wondered how Vicky would draw pictures of their home next time!

What would you have done?

What Jamie did right:

• She did not enter the house after realizing there had been a break in. 'They' might still be inside.
• She took action to make both herself and her daughter safe.
• She called the police once safely away from the house.
• She let the police officer accompany her as she surveyed the damage 'they' had done.
• She contacted an Alarm company the next day.

The things we see - Rip Off #1

By Paul Alcock of ACT Security.

Where you work is what you see!

If you worked in a hospital, you would meet a lot of sick people, so no big surprise, we meet a lot of people that worry about their home security, and we learn about a lot of people that have been ripped off.

Just a short time ago, we received a call from someone that was not happy with their existing alarm company. Let me describe the situation, I would really appreciate your comments.

Jill rented her home and had previously been broken into and wanted a new alarm system for the house she was renting. So, two and a half years ago, one of the top alarm companies charged over $5,000 for the system on a 3 year contract. Now the system was pretty good, not a run of the mill system, it certainly had all of the features that Jill wanted to secure her home. However, it was pretty expensive! We would have expected the system to be around half that price up front.

When Jill needed to move to a new home, she called the company asking to have the system moved. It was a wireless system, so no need to pull cables or install new cables at the new apartment, this is a pretty straight forward job. This should take just a few hours to do the move and test everything to make sure it's working in the new house.

What would you do?

It took multiple phone calls to Jill's alarm company before she could reach a human and then they told her that they could do the move 'next month'! What!
Understandably, Jill was a little 'upset', NO KIDDING!
Ever have that problem, you know, the one where you have to press 1 thru 10 in a multi-layered voice menu and then have to leave a message? Would you stand for that?

I'm curious! Have you been ripped off by your home alarm company? Have you ever been lost in voice menu nightmare?

They're hard to find - Good Employees

In support of the idea that there is nothing new under the sun, enjoy the following quote:

“Teenagers these days are out of control. They eat like pigs, they are disrespectful of adults, they interrupt and contradict their parents, and they terrorize their teachers.”

Written by Aristotle in the year 350 B.C.

Science and Technology have made huge advancements in the last millennium but human nature seems to stay about the same. I might be becoming a little negative here but it seems that people in general are not willing to do what it takes to improve themselves. Specifically I'm referring to the segment of our population that are in the “Unemployed and/or Underemployed” positions.

Recently our government released statistics that show our nation having a 7.5% unemployment rate. Some in our government state that the number is more like 14% when you include the people that have stopped trying to find work. Stopped Trying??? That's like saying you're tired of breathing so ...

What has happened to our country's attitude toward work? Referring to the word “work” means taking the personal responsibility of working on developing the skills needed to become proficient at ones job or profession with the attitude that you will succeed. Somewhere along the line it seems people loose sight of what is important. There is dignity and a good level of pride when a job is done well. When your work life is going well, usually everything else seems to go better too.

I had lunch with one of my customers who owns a company that makes marble and granite counter tops along with other kitchen and bath upgrades. He has 6 locations and 90 employees. He knew I had hired about 22 salespeople in the last 8 months and he asked how they were working out. When I told him that none of them worked out he just shook his head. He said he just placed an ad that morning for a laborer that would help stock his locations and drive a company truck. In three hours he had eighty Email resumes. He showed me on his tablet what most of these resumes looked like.

The resumes were horrible. I swear that when my stepdaughter was in third grade she could have written better resumes. During our conversation my friend and business owner made a statement that I had not considered. He believes that more than half the people looking for work are UN-employable. Most do not possess the basic written and verbal skills needed to be hired. The ones that do, half of them don't show up for the interview and most of the ones that show up either can't pass a drug screen test or only want to know how much they will be paid and how many days off they get.

Is this a problem nationwide or is it just a South Florida problem? What have you experienced when trying to hire new employees? I'd like to know.

Putting negativity aside, if you have good employees, cherish them. They are few and far between. I wish you all good luck and good fortune in your business ventures.

Extract from the Alarm Association of Florda

President's Newsletter August 2013

The Make you feel good box.

Knowing that they have an alarm system, to alert if their home is broken into, or if there is a fire in the house, makes the home owner feel good'

 Perhaps we should sell 'Feel Good Boxes' a bit like Mood Stones.

But the alarm system does not always make the home owner 'Feel Good', this is not good!

How does an alarm system make them feel bad? There's a list of things: It makes noises when it shouldn't. It calls a false alarm into the Monitoring center, typically when the home owner makes a mistake and hits the wrong buttons trying to disarm the system.

When do most false alarms occur? When the home owner gets home. So most False Alarms occur between 5pm and 8pm as people get home from work.

 You know, attitude is everything! If we sold 'Feel Good Boxes' but explained that part of the Feel Good process involved the Box letting you know when it was having job issues! Such as when the Battery can't keep the box powered for long if the power goes out.
The Box is smart enough to let the home owner know.. "Hey! My Battery is getting low, and I want to keep the 'Feel Good' thing going!"

 So when the Battery low signal shows up on your system, take a positive attitude about it, you do want the Feel Good Box to keep doing it's job... Right?

Hidden in Plain Sight

Criminals don't just break into your homes and businesses! Burglars do that.

There is a new type of criminal and you are their target. Burglars steal your belongings and valuables from your home or vehicle, these new criminals steal your Identity! It only takes a few seconds to commit this crime, but it can take months, even years to clean up your Credit Score or recover the monies stolen from your accounts.

Once a criminal steals your purse, your briefcase, computer, laptop and with their increase use, your computing tablet, the door is wide open for them to steal your identity.

Many times, after a home is robbed, the criminal uses the information stolen to steal the identity of the home owner or tenant. So securing your home is a vital part in your identity security.

What can you do to prevent this happening to your and your family?
First: Don't make it easy! Secure your computers at home with the appropriate software, make sure your system passwords are not given out, if they are, then consider changing them... quickly! Of course, you have an alarm system! (click on the link below to visit Discount Home Alarms)
Secondly: Consider your vulnerability when out of the home in your vehicle. Don't leave cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc. in plain sight, they are not hidden just because your vehicle doors are closed. Make sure an opportunistic criminal cannot open the door (or lean through an open window) of your vehicle. If you know you are going to leave your vehicle parked where it could be at risk, then put your 'stuff' out of sight before you arrive, as you leave your home or office.

Be especially aware that if you drive an SUV or Minivan, then your vision of the passenger side of the vehicle is restricted, and criminals know that! So it's easier for them to sneak up to your vehicle. How many stories have you heard about a pocket book being stolen while someone was filling their vehicle at a gas station? Too often, someone will leave their auto doors unlocked and, in just a few distracted seconds, a criminal will just open the door, pickup anything found and walk away.. or over to their car at the adjacent pump!

It can take months, even years to correct your credit when this type of crime occurs. So take steps to prevent the crime before it ruins your day!

Remember: Forewarned is Forarmed.

The Grandparent Scam

Have you heard about the Grandparent Scam? Not a new Crime but an often used scam that we all need to make sure we are aware of, and that our Grandparents are too.


How does it work?

The Criminal will contact a person claiming to be a family member or close personal friend with a compelling story. You'll get the idea, "I lost my wallet", "At the airport and my luggage was stolen"... They validate their story by recalling information culled from the web, names of relatives, city of residence etc.
And of course, the call is an urgent one, even reinforced by claim of being in danger or about to miss a vital travel connection.

Once some degree of recognition by the 'Grandparent' is established, the next step is to ask for some money to be wired "Right Away"

Of course, once the money has been delivered, it is automatically transferred to a foreign account and that is the end of the line as far as tracing the money. It's gone as soon as it's delivered.

So, what can you do?

Discuss this with parents, relatives and friends. Explain how to avoid getting taken, provide predetermined reactions, and the suggestion that the 'Grandparent' call you before parting with their money so that you can verify the legitimacy of the long lost relative.

• Ask yourself if this person or family member really would contact you in a similar crisis.
• Contact other relatives to confirm the status and location of the person calling you.
• Ask the caller for a phone number and let them know that you will call them back. If they refuse, it's most likely a scam, if they provide a number, then ask a relative to confirm before you call back.
• If the 'Loved one' claims the are in jail, then ask for the location, then call the jail (not using a number that they provide!)
• If you get a call that a loved one is in the hospital, and ask for financial information, first verify the address of the hospital and contact the billing department.
• Always, ALWAYS, question the validity of a call before you send money or provide any financial information to anyone that calls, emails, or text's you about an emergency situation.
• Plain and simple: Trust you guts, you know the saying, if it does not seem right, or out of the ordinary, then it is probably a scam.