As we progress through the next 60 days we will see an increase in home invasion. It happens every year and this year was and will continue to be no different. Fortunately, we only had one burglary during the Thanksgiving four day holiday. We anticipate an increase over the Christmas and New Year weekend as well. Daylight hours are fewer and provide a level of undetection until it is too late. Believing the misconception that you can be more relaxed during the holidays or that you could not be a victim of a home invasion is a big misconception. Because of the holidays, people often forget to either test the alarm system or fail to set the alarm.
One of the tactics that are often used during the holidays is to have a caller request from our office instructions over the phone on how to change the password to the security system. I am continually amazed how many times this happens, especially during the holiday season. Usually they do not do this during the normal working hours and often it is either on Saturday or the Friday following a holiday. The familiar pattern contains statements like "its an emergency and I need it changed" or "my member asked me to go inside to get something they have forgotten". This year it was "we need to go inside to get something"! Are you kidding me!
Customers who use our web enabled security systems can remotely change their password any time they desire. Even from a cell phone they can access them remotely and give a temporary password or change it while they travel. If you do not have a web enabled security system, now is a great time to upgrade! For those with older systems, we have instructions within our downloads page and we even have a question listed on our FAQ page. So, Can we tell you how to change your password over the phone, no. It is for your security and for security reasons we never retain passwords of our customers security systems. That is one of the reasons we make sure all customers change their password from the default in the system.
The home invasion mentioned earlier in this article, we think the home owner was very fortunate. They found the stolen jewelry and tiller at a pawn shop within 10 miles from the home and sure enough the burglar signed his name on the receipt and provided a drivers license picture during the transaction! Smart one he was! I still wonder why someone would go through the trouble of loading a tiller up after rummaging through the master bedroom for jewelry. My thought was that he had entered the property multiple times, who knows? I suspect if that is true he also was watching the home to make sure both adults were absent prior to making entry on to the property.
Breaking and entering is one felony and grand theft is another so my thinking is he will be in jail at least a few years when they get him.
Final thoughts. Check your security system, check it regularly. Once a month is sufficient. Also make sure your smoke detectors are working as well. With candles, added lights and trees that dry out are all reasons to check your smoke detector!
