An interesting question I was asked the other day is does a burglar alarm actually prevent a burglary. And that’s what I’m going to be talking about in today’s blog.

The simple answers that question is no, it doesn’t, it can’t do. There’s no physical barrier with an alarm system.

It doesn’t lock your doors or your windows. It doesn’t prevent them from opening.

So you might ask what’s the point of actually having a burglar alarm.

Well, the point of haveing an arm system is twofold.

Firstly, it lets you know when there’s a problem, so you can take action accordingly. Originally systems just had the siren or the bell that went off, but these days you want to have a monitored system. So when it goes off, the monitoring centre calls you and says your alarm’s gone off. Or you have a self monitored alarm system where you have a smartphone app, or the system phones you on your mobile and lets you know that there’s a problem.

So that’s part 1. It lets you know when there’s a problem and then you can phone the police or pop home and see what the problem is.

The second point of having an alarm system is it provides a massive deterrent. There was a survey done a little while back from convicted burglars in prison and 81% of them said that they’re put off burgling your house by the presence of an alarm system. And that’s the vital point . Burglars aren’t specifically after your house, they can get what they’re looking for in virtually every house. They’re after, cash, cards, jewellery, phones, iPads, tablets, games, console, small electrical tech items that they can sell easily, which they can get in every house in your street.

So there’s no truth in the myth that having an alarm system advertises to a burglar that you’ve got something worth stealing.

No, it doesn’t. Every house has got something worth stealing.

So if you’re a burglar and you’ve got a choice of burgling two houses, one with a window open and a burglar alarm system, and one with a window open and without a burglar alarm system, which are you going to burgle? Every self-respecting burglar is going to go for the one without the alarm system.

Now it could be that if you’ve got an alarm system and you’ve left a window open, but next door hasn’t gotten alarm system, but hasn’t left a window open. Then you’re leaving yourself at risk clearly. But with all things being equal, a burglar alarm system is a huge deterrent and it’s well worth having one.

Hope that answers that question for you.

And if you need anything more answered, give me a shout.