gregthehand wrote:my dad grabbed a golf club and headed in.
BIG MISTAKE! The guy who's already inside has all kinds of major tactical advantages. If you suspect a burglary has occurred, back out quickly the way you came in and call for help from a position of safety outside. It takes at least 4 officers (2 outside at diagonal corners and 2 inside) to do a reasonably safe search for intruders and to prevent escape.
Humanphibian wrote:Time for me to play Monday Mornin QB on this one......what if the accomplice had been in HIS home when le left in persuit of the first BG?? He just ran out leaving baby and wife with a BG that KNOWS he is in deep and would probably do anything to get away.
Excellent point - where there's one there are often more, both inside and out. Another reason to back out and call for the cavalry.
gregthehand wrote:A good security system and a dog can thrawt this kind of behavior most of the time though.
Security systems and dogs are both good things to have. Unfortunately, not all dogs and security systems are equal, and many are overrated in expectations of what they can do. Here's a bit of perspective from a former burglary squad commander:
Daytime and early evening are the favored times for burglary because this is when homes can most often be found unoccupied. (It's unhealthy to break into occupied homes in Texas.) Burglars look for homes that can be entered without taking a lot of time or making a lot of noise. (This is relative - if your house is on 5 acres of land, noise isn't an issue.)
Beginning burglars generally try to avoid homes with security systems altogether. This is good. Experienced burglars will often attack alarmed homes anyway, particularly if the system doesn't go off as they are attempting entry and is only triggered after they are inside (e.g., in economy setups where not all perimeter openings are protected, and reliance is placed on motion detectors inside.) They are particularly unconcerned about systems that do not have loud audible devices out front to notify the neighbors - they know that no one outside can hear the interior siren. In these cases, the BG simply limits his time inside to 3 - 5 minutes because he knows the alarm company will take nearly that long to determine they need to call the police, and police response will usually take another 7 - 15 minutes at least. He won't get away with everything inside, but you can bet he'll have an armload of jewelry, guns, furs, and any other high value easily disposed of items he can readily carry unless he is intercepted by an alert and prepared neighbor.
Dogs are great for early warning to you when you're home, and a large aggressive dog is valuable as an additional barrier to a bad guy. However, they are not the ultimate solution. I have seen dogs let out into the yard, fed meat from the victim's refrigerator, beaten, shot, tied up, and gagged. Dogs, unless they are specifically trained to attack when presented with certain stimuli, are highly unreliable for burglary protection when no one is home. You just can't predict what they'll do.
As an example, I recall doing an initial search for suspects on a possible burglary in progress call when I was approached by a neighbor who advised me to watch out for the vicious dog which was well known in the neighborhood and had bitten people before. I thanked him for the info, and advised him that I hadn't seen a dog yet. While searching the last guest bedroom, I lifted the comforter and looked under the bed to find a large mixed breed dog with its paws over its eyes. It lifted one paw to look at me. I told the dog he should be ashamed of himself. He put his paw back over his eye and stayed right there - he never came out the whole time we were processing the scene. Further investigation revealed a puddle in the kitchen where the dog and the intruder apparently met. The intruder either kicked or struck the dog, the dog lost bladder control, and headed for the hills since there was no owner to defend. The takeaway is: The dog that will fiercely stand between you and a threat isn't nearly as attached to your jewelry, and can be readily persuaded to find something else to do.
On the other hand, in another incident we responded to a report of a man screaming for help. Upon arrival we found a hysterical would be burglar on the ground outside a very nice home just below a window which had been broken
outwards from the
inside. A large german shepherd was standing on the BG's chest growling, barking, and snarling. Investigation revealed that our erstwhile burglar was peering in the window prior to making entry when the shepherd, who took his territory protection duties seriously, launched himself from inside through the multipane window frame and storm window and hit our villain square in the chest, taking him to the ground where we found him. It took a few minutes to stop laughing and to convince the dog to let us take his prize away, but we were successful. Reportedly the dog ate steak that night.
Like I said, you just can't tell what they'll do in your absence.
So - what actually works?
A defense in depth that makes your place simply harder to mess with than those around you. The random burglar goes for the easy hit, figuring that most of the folks in a given neighborhood have roughly the same contents in their homes. Easy entry = low risk = he gets to do it again tomorrow. You don't need to make it impossible to enter (which is in itself impossible) - you just have to make it obviously more difficult than the neighbors'. Here's an outline of the way to approach it:
1. Solid exterior doors in strong frames
2. Quality deadbolts with at least 1" bolt throw and extra length reinforced strike plates bolted into the wall framing (not just the doorjamb).
3. A high quality safe bolted to the foundation slab for jewelry and guns
4. An alarm system that covers all perimeter doors and windows with magnetic contacts or alarm screen and reports alarms to a central monitoring station.
5. Glass break detectors in all rooms with exterior glass
6. Motion detectors in the master bedroom and main hallway / traffic areas
7. Loud interior and exterior audible sirens
8. An exterior strobe light visible from the street to help observers pinpoint the location
9. A safe room with a reinforced door equipped with a dead bolt to provide the family with a retreat location if an intrusion occurs while people are home.
10. Motion activated lights to illuminate approaches to all exterior doors
