We are excited to continue the series of guest blogs by Peter Rogers, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor, of FrontPoint Security Solutions. Peter has more than 20 years of home security experience, including leadership positions at some of the country’s most prominent alarm companies.
Wireless Home Security – Wilmington, Delaware Man Shot in His Home by Daytime Burglars.
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It was just a few months ago that I posted on this topic, with some very strongly worded advice: do not, under any circumstances, confront a burglar in your home. And this new story (published just last week) from Wilmington, Delaware, clearly makes the case for leaving burglars alone in your home and calling police immediately. Happily, the homeowner lived after being shot.
A Wilmington, Delaware man is hospitalized after being shot by a pair of burglars in his own home. It happened before 1:00 p.m. Monday. Police say two masked men broke into a home in the unit block of West 24th Street and began to burglarize it. As the suspects were removing items, police say a 29-year-old tenant confronted them inside the home. One of the suspects then pulled out a gun and shot the man in the chest. Both suspects then fled. Police arrived, found the wounded man and called medics. The man was rushed to Christiana Hospital, where he is listed in stable condition. Police are searching for two suspects described as black males wearing all black clothing and masks, last seen fleeing south on North Tattnall Street.
As I have stated before, one major challenge in avoiding burglar confrontations is that you don’t always know that an intruder is in your home when you walk through the door – especially if you have no alarm system to alert police, and scare the burglar off. Just imagine entering your home assuming you are safe and all is well, and suddenly encountering someone in the act of stealing your cash, jewelry, or electronics. When you have no wireless home security system and no warning, the results can be frightening – or as in this case, potentially fatal.
And of course, other aspects of this new report follow standard patterns. It was a day-time burglary, when intruders expect that nobody is home. As is usually the case in these situations – and I could cite countless more from daily crime reports – there is an 80% likelihood that there was no alarm system in the home of the victim. How do we know that? Because only about 20% of US homes do have a monitored alarm system that can trigger a police dispatch.
I’ve been reading police reports, police tips (especially about burglaries), and other home safety and wireless security system advice for over twenty years, and one of the most consistent and unvarying concepts I’ve seen during all this time is that one of most dangerous and foolhardy things you can do is to confront a burglar in your home. And now that so many people have guns in the home, there is a stronger disposition among some homeowners to take the law into their own hands when intruders strike. There are plenty of these stories in the news as well – and they often end badly.
Now imagine how much safer you would feel when entering your home at any time of day or night, without worrying about confronting intruders, who may well be armed. And with interactive monitoring services, such as those offered by today’s best alarm companies, you can also receive a text or email any time a door opens, telling you which door. That level of protection provides real peace of mind, which helps explain why more people are shopping for wireless home security systems, as home intrusion statistics continue to get worse across much of the US.
It just makes sense for homeowners to realize the fact that a monitored home alarm system can prevent these confrontations in the first place. The good news is that police tips are making increased reference to home security systems – they understand that monitored detection is the best way to keep burglars and homeowners from meeting face to face. And that’s also why so many more homeowners are shopping for true peace of mind, and why electronic security is included on the list. With only one in five homes protected by a monitored alarm system, and a burglary occurring every 14 seconds in the US, there are still lots of homes – and homeowners – left to protect in the alarm business .