If you really want to catch them, turn off all tour lights, let newspapers pile up in your drive way and put a note on your door saying you will be back next week, then camp out in your house with your little friend in your lap and wait.

On the serious side, I would hope that the law is always looking for a common thread, like stopped paper, stopped mail, curtailed service of any kind, etc. etc..

Also, a simple thing we all can do is snap a picture of any lic plate or stranger and hold till the next day or so. These thieves are visible for a few minutes. When nothing happens, delete.

All my valuables are stored away from the house. We don't like or need jewelry and cash is always at a minimum. so in effect we are house poor

I do believe burglaries are based on pre-mediated planning/targeting and that they may have had access to homes prior to their invasion

However it is always prudent to remain aware of your surroundings and so ensuring something of a curious nature does not escape you.

Given its environment I doubt contractors, etc have the capability or desire to vet their hires as such. In essence they need bodies to meet their commitments and that is the only source of control which is closed to us. Beside based on previous arrests not all are servicing this community and so while one can speculate it is not fair to indict all of them or pre-judge. Many of the contractors, etc here provide a good product and service to the community and should be respected for doing so

One of the burglaries took place within a 25 minute span. Needless to say, the homeowner was seen leaving the house. I hope the sheriff checked to see if lawnmowers were nearby or other service providers were in the very nearby area.

Same for the one who was gone for 3 hours.

Why has it not the name of that cleaning company been given who hired that one burglar? A company that does not perform in-depth background checks should be outted.

Once again, if someone had a loaded pistol at their home at the time of a burglary, it would have been in the hands of the burglar.

To those who would shoot a burglar over material things, have you really thought about the consequences? I would not want to open myself to the nightmare my life would then become for months and months and months.....possibly years of legal battles, with the possibility of losing in court....

Buggy, in one of the articles on the burglaries, the Sheriffs rep stated the perp got information from a woman working for a cleaning service. Don't see the need to drag the cleaning service thru the mud. ( I don't know the service)

:agree:

I remember a case in Iowa several years ago when a farmer had been burgeled a few times so he set up a shotgun on a tripwire aimed at the front door when he left home. A burglar entered, hit the tripwire, was shot in the stomach, and a long legal case took place. It ended with the farmer being found negligent and having to pay huge damages to the burglar in a civil suit.

Many large cleaning service have employees whose history is not known to the owners. If background checks are used then that would add to the cost of the service. That is how things work.


There are several one woman or one man or couple services that have received a lot of good press on this forum.


I would be skeptical and careful if I were hiring a cleaning service now. I never ever thought about all of the times I had unknown folks unsupervised cleaning my carpet in the past. But then, I didn't have jewelry then either. Not a fan.

We do not have a gun. We do have a large dog. Unfortunately, he is of the "How can I be of service?" variety. However, I do think he would sense if someone approaching the house were up to no good.

And he does like to lounge in the driveway on a line, so people passing through probably know this house has a large dog.

I cannot imagine shooting someone over a burglary. Don't know how I would live with myself if I killed someone who was not out to kill me first.

a reason they may be breaking windows is they know that an alarmed home can be entered by breaking the glass which does not trigger the sensor in the window.

That is why if you choose to put in a security system be sure to include motion sensors and a glass break sensor in your system.

I would doubt if the burglar crawls through the broken window. They probably reach in and unlock the slider or door. Definitely, do put in the glass break sensors as an extra layer. Motion detectors can be set off by moving shadows or passing lights.

I have a camera with me at all times. When I/we leave the house, I photograph vehicles (and license plates), as well as people walking/biking that I do not recognize. When nothing happens, I delete after a week.

This is yet another example of how upside down the legal system can be when it comes to common sense. If a criminal enters one's house, and gets shot as a result, that should be the end of it right there ... assuming the intruder is shot in the front vs in the back.

Actually, if you came home and surprised the intruder in your house, he could very well act out of panic and shoot you or your hubby. This almost happened to friends of ours.

Maybe it's my military background ... but if I had to shoot a criminal inside our house for self defense, I would not have a problem with that. It's within the law, and I would be protecting my home and wife.

Actually another solution is to get ADT's newer "shock sensors" ... if the glass is banged or shocked (ie does not have to be broken ...someone banging against it is good enough) the alarm will trigger.