"home false sense of security" :P

[WRXtranceformed]

That is awesome, we have the garage door sensor and my wife gets notifications when the garage door is left open.

So a BUNCH of cars, ie 15+, were "broken into" in our neighborhood (ie pretty much all of them were unlocked :roll: ) and one of our cul de sac neighbors actually had their car stolen (left their keys in it :roll: :roll: :roll: ). I keep our cars in the garage instead of filling our garage full of junk, so we were fine and everyone whose vehicles were locked were also mostly fine. My neighbor had some cameras set up and caught four guys going house to house just testing door handles. It appears it's a well-coordinated ring because a lot of south Charlotte / SC neighborhoods have been hit recently. We're in a great area but I learned that you never let your guard down ever, no matter where you are. That's free money for bad guys when people become complacent.

Anyway, my neighbor's video footage may help them catch these guys. This has definitely helped speed up my timeline to get a camera system installed. The more of us that have cameras the better odds we have of getting good IDs of bad guys. Plus with my travel schedule picking up it looks like this year it gives me a lot of peace of mind when I'm away and Rachael is home. I'm going to call Frontpoint tonight / tomorrow to see if they have any other options other than the camera on their site, ie can I shop around and get another wireless camera that has a better field of vision and potentially still integrates with Alarm.com. I'll have to call an electrician / handyman to add some wiring to the soffits in the front and rear where I want to put them (near the floodlights might work) and may also add the doorbell camera for full front coverage. I figure I'm going to drop some $ in equipment install and monitoring but it's money well spent.

[WRXtranceformed]

Chris, you got the Frontpoint sanctioned cameras right? If so would you get them again?

I'm actually leaning toward several other third party options I've found on Amazon because they offer better cameras, local SD card storage to cloud / local download and I don't have to pay additional monitoring fees.

Something like 2 of these that I can also pan / zoom / tilt with: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HXUCUIE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2ZWW5EDCUMJJA&coliid=I9ASY1DOYQ9KW&psc=1">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HXUCUIE/re ... Q9KW&psc=1</a><!-- m -->

Or 2 of these and the Amcrest NVR + external hard drive: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I01Z1M2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2ZWW5EDCUMJJA&coliid=I3ITBKOZMRQDVDv">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I01Z1M2/re ... KOZMRQDVDv</a><!-- m -->

Edit: This is another potentially great option with the wireless and solar panel recharging. It would give me a lot of flexibility for placement and I could skip the costs of hiring an electrician. The cloud service fees suck, but at $2.50 / month per device that's not bad and probably less than I would spend with Frontpoint (i'll call to confirm the upcharge for video monitoring)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Stick-Outdoor-security-camera/dp/B01C6DXMX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484582905&sr=8-1&keywords=ring+outdoor+camera">https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Stick-Outdo ... oor+camera</a><!-- m -->

[Apoc]

I do have the Frontpoint cameras. They work well enough, although I wish they had a better frame rate - I think it's 5 frames/second. It's best to install the cameras so people approach them vs. walk across the frame. Our cameras would allow us to provide a description to police, but they aren't gonna see things like scars, birthmarks, etc. They're HD... it's just that frame rate matters if people aren't standing still. I will send you a link to sample video.

Be prepared for 3rd party to not integrate into your system. You may not care about it, but I'm willing to bet your wife is going to be mildly annoyed at all the different interfaces. I personally think it's worth it because all my security stuff is in a single app/website and I can set camera rules based on system events.

I do NOT recommend not hard wiring for power. Solar isn't reliable during the winter months and you're not going to want to deal with struggling to find backups, replace batteries, etc. If you care enough to install cameras, do it right and hire an electrician. I could see it if you were gonna move in a year or two, but you just moved into that house.

I pay Frontpoint $5/month for all the upgrades. This includes the ability to use home automation and a touchscreen panel. It's a flat fee, regardless of devices, so you're going to pay the $5/month regardless if you want to eventually get the touchscreen.

[WRXtranceformed]

Awesome thanks, yeah I'd love to see some sample vids. $5.00 / month for unlimited devices ain't bad at all! I do eventually want to replace this old SimonXT thing with a touch screen panel. And you're probably right on with the solar piece...the one thing I did like is that it would conceivably give me continued coverage should the power be out / be cut, but those odds aren't likely. I think you posted how much your electrician charged somewhere in this thread, but can you remind me again? (either here or PM)

[Ryan T]

So I guess this could go in the homeowners thread or this one interchangeably, but here might be best since it's about security. How do you guys keep your home when you are at home? Doors locked? Main door open and screen door locked? We generally keep all of our doors closed and a locked. If we are in the living room (where our front door is) we sometimes leave it open with just the glass door shut and locked, but if we leave the living room we shut the front door. We never unlock the side door unless we are going out on the deck. Garage doors are only up if we are working outside/going in and out. One of my neighbors will leave his garage door up all day and sometimes all night long without him ever being there. I'd never do that. What do you guys do?

[Apoc]

I'd rather not go into too much detail on a public forum, but if our doors are closed they are generally locked.

There are two exceptions:
1) If we're doing things in the yard, etc. the front door is generally unlocked.
2) When it's nice outside since, like most people in Seattle, we do not have AC. That means our front and side door are open whenever we're home, awake, and within earshot. We do not have screen doors (Seattle doesn't have mosquitoes), but we do have a metal gate on the side door. I'd estimate 70% of houses have the front door open in the summer, so I'm not too worried about it.

I have yet to figure out how having a kid will change this, if at all.

[Ryan T]

Something that came to us from work that you may want to look at, if you go to <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.familytreenow.com">http://www.familytreenow.com</a><!-- m --> and search your name, you can find all your family members, their past addresses as well as your current address. This was especially disturbing to me being in law enforcement since there are more than a few people out there who don't really care for me. You can opt out of them displaying your information and I would recommend all of you opt your and your family/spouses information out. We recently had an officer's wife and family threatened and offender's stalking his home. After arrest they advised they used the above site to find out where they live. I have no doubt there are plenty of other ways, but this is free and the fastest I've found to supply that info.

[JPolen01]

That's creepy. It's got very correct info for me even relating me to my other in law with her maiden name although her age is wrong. I'm guessing you need to create an account to opt your info out?

[Ryan T]

That's creepy. It's got very correct info for me even relating me to my other in law with her maiden name although her age is wrong. I'm guessing you need to create an account to opt your info out?

No, you don't. Scroll to the bottom and click on "contact us" and at the top there will be a statement about opting out. Click that then it will have you do another search to find your record. Find it and click "opt out of this record" at the top.

[JPolen01]

Just opted out my entire immediate family. Thanks for the heads up.

[BLINGMW]

Nono it should be fine guys, it clearly says not to use this information to stalk anyone.
Geez how many sites are out there like this? The "possible associates" section is pretty impressive/scary too

[WRXtranceformed]

My wife also forwarded me that site a few days ago and we opted out. Definitely scary for LEOs...

We always lock and close our doors even when home, unless like stated we're out in the yard or something. Garage door is also always closed, for several reasons I would also rather not get into on a public forum. But we know people have been casing our neighborhood before the last unlocked car theft hit, so I don't want people potentially peeking around where they shouldn't be. We did the same thing when we lived on our 100acre farm in the middle of nowhere. If you ever let your guard down you run a greater risk of being a victim.

[Jake]

I opted myself and my parents out from that site, definitely creepy to see how accurate it is.

My general rule for doors is closed-and-locked, the exception being the sliding glass door to my balcony if I'm home and want fresh air coming in with the screen door shut. The garage I rent is separate from the apartment, so that's only opened up if I'm actively working in there.

[ScottyB]

How do you guys keep your home when you are at home?

all doors closed and locked but i do leave windows open sometimes for a breeze. our house is not big so i'm in earshot of everything which puts me more at ease with that. sometimes i'll pop the screendoor at the back of the house open but its typically when i'm in the rooms next to it.

i'll never understand people that just leave the garage up/open all day or night. its basically just another room in your house with all your shit in it right next to the sidewalk. do you WANT stuff to just disappear? i had lots of issues at our last place with mice/shrews coming in through the wide open garage to find a warm nook in the cold months too which sucked, so I close it more often in the cold seasons now.

[JPolen01]

Living in a middle townhouse is much easier to keep secure. Front door is always locked but I will leave the backdoor open on a nice day for airflow. All of our windows are at least 10 ft off the ground thanks to the house being a split level so I can leave them open without worry as well. Our basement window is actually nailed shut via the previous owner which I'm not mad about.

[Apoc]

I went to install the Frontpoint branded garage door sensor and our new garage opener didn't work. It actually turned out to be somewhat serendipitous because I then set up a notification to text my wife and me when the door opened, because we had to leave it unlocked. The opener is fixed now, so I removed the immediate alert and created ones that will let us know if the door is left open at three intervals OR if is open/opens when both my wife and my phones leave the neighborhood. The peace of mind is totally worth $40 for the sensor.

[WRXtranceformed]

Good call man I agree, that is money well spent...I wouldn't have a system without it after our garage got broken into last year

[JustinG]

You guys put any film on your garage door windows?

You can see what is hanging on my walls through the garage door windows and the pedestrian door in the back has a window. I don't want to tint, cause I like the light coming in. So I was contemplating getting some of that crackled glass looking film from HomeDepot/Lowes. Just not sure if that stuff is garbage like DIY car window tint.

like this:

[Apoc]

I don't have any windows, but I know people who have had good success using it on bathroom windows. I'm guessing brand/quality makes all the difference.

[Jake]

Justin, I put some of that stuff on the window in my garage and it works well.I just went with the regular frosted glass look, not "crackled" or whatever, but a a $10 solution, money well spent.