Urgent home security advice needed

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skimread

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My townhouse is being constantly broken into. Twice in the past month. It is in Centurion. I need a CCTV solution that can record movement pointing outside that I can monitor over the internet while I am at work or away from home as most of the time not there.
Staying with family in Joburg most of the time as I work in Joburg to avoid high petrol bills. I have internet access when I am not at home so this would be great.
I don't have a telephone line so it has to be cellular based.

I lock the doors on the inside but they seem to be all broken easily with a crowbar once the thieves get inside, taking my stuff. Police just say a syndicate is back in the area

I know it is my fault for not being there all the time and not having a securty system.
Do i know cover all my upstairs and downstairs doors and windows with trelidor like my neighbours or do I install a security system. Not sure what to do. They took my PC, LCSd,clothes, screen but leave the old TV.

Does anyone know of a DIY guy in Centurion who can redo burglar proofing on windows. My current burglar proofing is not sufficient and trellidoring the whole place would be expensive. I am not that well off so can't afford a huge installation and monthly bill.

I am avoiding dealing with it as I don't have insurance and I am living as a zombie at the moment thinking about not so much my stuff but all my personal data (4Tb) I lost.
 
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Dude a physical barrier like Trelidoor will be the best option IMHO. Really sorry to hear about the break ins.
 
CCTV is great for when you are at home or away. I installed mine myself as technically its easy if you have a DVR system but just a little work manually, so it took me 3 weekends for 8 cameras on a double story on my own. (security companies overcharge for systems) You need good cameras with good Infra Red at night otherwise you are wasting your time. 15 Meters Infra Red. Mine are all outside because I have beams and bars so when an alrms goes off they will still be trying to get in. It will not stop thieves though, so my logic is when my alarm goes off at night or when I am away. I logon over ADSL or have it connected to my TV so I check immediately whats up.

Ysterman is a guy in PTA for bars and security. He is online. Maxidor and Trellidor are the best though. If on a budget, do your upstairs where you sleep at night and block access to your upstairs for you and family and a auto lock on 1 room for more safety.

You are in a good and bad situation with insurance because they will demand that you do install security otherwise you will have high premiums, so start with an entry IDS alarms system.Think carefully about where you want install sensors and cameras. To try and cover every point is not 100% possible and economically viable.
 
Sorry guys so you want to login in remotely to your cameras when alarm is received and then what? Drive all the way there and sort out the problem?

I think your money will be much better spent on a proper alarm system connected to armed response and with proper outdoor PIR's and beams so you the armed response gets notification as soon as someone is in your yard. Cameras can then come later to verify what is happening but you are trying to stop the guys from stealing stuff and therefore stopping them from getting in the house.
 
Agree that the money will be better spent first on proper burglar bars and trellis, along with a decent alarm system and having it hooked up to a response company.

I can hook you up with CCTV equipment at good prices should you still be interested.

Also you say it is a townhouse? complain to complex manager, either the complex's security is crap or it is an inside job.
 
i also used Ysterman. they are reasonably priced. a buddy of mine in centurion has also done some security gates for me. you can call him for a comparative quote-Pierre 082 894 2091.

problem is, if they can get past your door they can get past these gates if they are not a higher guage than the usual. maybe consider installing the gates on the inside of the door.
 
IP cams can do a lot nowadays. You can use them to trigger an alert SMS when someone enters a preset zone in the camera's view. They are far better than normal CCTV.
 
An alert SMS when you are km's away... :( I'm thinking of a Halon bomb, sensors get triggered via intusion, wait until internal sensors are triggered and then release the Halon, should work wonders :) Off course will need to put up signage stating that entering this house may end your life ;)
 
EchoZA said:
An alert SMS when you are km's away... :( I'm thinking of a Halon bomb, sensors get triggered via intusion, wait until internal sensors are triggered and then release the Halon, should work wonders :) Off course will need to put up signage stating that entering this house may end your life ;)
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I don't know of an ADT system that does that. Our neighbours have them and they go off constantly, with the patrol guy turning up a long time after. At least you can take charge and call the police and say there's a crim in my lounge and I'm watching him on my iPhone 100km away!
 
EchoZA said:
An alert SMS when you are km's away... :( I'm thinking of a Halon bomb, sensors get triggered via intusion, wait until internal sensors are triggered and then release the Halon, should work wonders :) Off course will need to put up signage stating that entering this house may end your life ;)
Click to expand...

yeah sounds like a good plan.. just better have some acid tank to dissolve their bodies in. otherwise u might get in trouble with u know who :p
 
EchoZA said:
An alert SMS when you are km's away... :( I'm thinking of a Halon bomb, sensors get triggered via intusion, wait until internal sensors are triggered and then release the Halon, should work wonders :) Off course will need to put up signage stating that entering this house may end your life ;)
Click to expand...

You do get pepper gas alarm systems as far as I recall.
 
Tweak said:
yeah sounds like a good plan.. just better have some acid tank to dissolve their bodies in. otherwise u might get in trouble with u know who :p
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just drop the bodies at a pig farm, just be sure to remove the teeth and finger nails first :p
 
Mother truckers broke in yesterday, took my 51" plasma, turntables and my ASUS Transformer, among other things.

They left a whole bunch of stuff like my projector, Canon 7D docking stations etc, I think they will come back.

I live in a town house, they pushed the main gate off the rails and then forced the security gate open, I also have 2 scary pit bulls.

They coming tomorrow to install a trellidor at 3k, hope they can't pull it out too easily.
 
D3x! said:
You do get pepper gas alarm systems as far as I recall.
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Yes, you do. You also get (quite a few, in fact) on-demand security fog. Combine the two would make things ...less than pleasant.

But you can make it quite a bit worse, with an added sound and light show. :erm:

Put those all together and you have a pepper fog that's viciously strobing at you to the accompaniment of an "intolerable sound emitter" apparently screeching away at 125dB. I know I would VERY much not want to be anywhere near that situation.
 
CoolBug said:
Mother truckers broke in yesterday, took my 51" plasma, turntables and my ASUS Transformer, among other things.

They left a whole bunch of stuff like my projector, Canon 7D docking stations etc, I think they will come back.

I live in a town house, they pushed the main gate off the rails and then forced the security gate open, I also have 2 scary pit bulls.

They coming tomorrow to install a trellidor at 3k, hope they can't pull it out too easily.
Click to expand...

At 3K thats a steal. I assume you don't have an alarm system?
 
EchoZA said:
I'm thinking of a Halon bomb, sensors get triggered via intusion, wait until internal sensors are triggered and then release the Halon, should work wonders :) Off course will need to put up signage stating that entering this house may end your life ;)
Click to expand...

How exactly would a Halon bomb end your life?
 
morkhans said:
Clearly not scary enough? :p

Shouldn't they be able to roam the perimeter of the property so as to "discourage" intrusions?
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The dogs can't access the house, usually, you don't need to access the garden to access the front door in a town house. So the dogs could only watch them. The garden wraps around the house but only 3 sides of the house, if that makes sense

And no, I don't have any other security, other than electric fencing.

Would be cool if the doors that access the garden could open if there is a break in so that the dogs can play with their faces

Also there are very few houses in the complex so maybe they rang all the houses and there was no answer
 
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CoolBug said:
The dogs can't access the house, usually, you don't need to access the garden to access the front door in a town house. So the dogs could only watch them. The garden wraps around the house but only 3 sides of the house, if that makes sense
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Ah ok, in some complexes units are have their own complete perimeter wall with entrance gate etc. Might be worth finding out if you can close off the front so the dogs can guard the front of the house as well.
 
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