Friends home broken into - Homeless man held at shotgun point!

[Doug]

OTOH, if he had pressed charges, the mentally ill homeless man might have gotten some help.
Had he truly been feeling magnanimous, he could have gone to his court appearance and explained he just wanted the guy to get some help from the system.
With proper medication, "homeless guy" might become a contributing member of society rather than a shelter occupant.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

OTOH, if he had pressed charges, the mentally ill homeless man might have gotten some help.
Had he truly been feeling magnanimous, he could have gone to his court appearance and explained he just wanted the guy to get some help from the system.
With proper medication, "homeless guy" might become a contributing member of society rather than a shelter occupant.

When I first read Doug's report, I might have been motivated to just "forget about it" too. But after reading this and some of the other responses, the correct response would have been let the system work. Letting him go only serves to reinforce whatever he understands about his behavior and it eliminates or greatly reduces the likelihood he'd ever get help.

I wonder how long after the cops dropped him off he committed his next crime.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Slightly OT...

Ripping the keypad off the wall silenced the alarm? If that is all he had to do, time to find a new alarm company. This is icing on the cake after not calling the entire call list.

The keypad destruction should NEVER stop an alarm from sounding. The only way to kill the alarm is to find the actual panel, break into the metal enclosure, then kill AC power and disconnect the battery.

 

[foxxie02]

We have adt at our house and we have battery back up and wireless. cutting phone line or power would do nothing at our house and adt has sensor on pad if ripped from wall automatically sends alarm signal to company and they dispatch. there sop is if no one answers on phone tree to dispatch police. we know this because it has already happened.... again use layers. Scary dog, good doors and locks/deadbolts, adt and gun safe bolted to floor/wall etc.

 

[SSGSAD]

It's not that simple. Your friend essentially told officers it was ok for the mentally ill man to be there. That pretty much kills the notion of arrest and prosecution.

LEO, asked if he wanted to press charges, and he said no .....

 

[oldpink]

Slightly OT...

Ripping the keypad off the wall silenced the alarm? If that is all he had to do, time to find a new alarm company. This is icing on the cake after not calling the entire call list.

The keypad destruction should NEVER stop an alarm from sounding. The only way to kill the alarm is to find the actual panel, break into the metal enclosure, then kill AC power and disconnect the battery.

I didn't read that as having ripped the keypad off the wall at all, and below is the relevant quote that makes me almost dead certain that he was talking about the main control panel.

[...]As they entered the home they turned the corner and realized someone had ripped from the wall the security panel, so they knew someone had been in.[...]

I used to install security systems, and you're right about the keypad.
We always went to great pains to put the main control panel in an area not easily accessed from the perimeter of the building, normally inside a closet, basement, or pantry more to the middle of the house, all the better to slow down an intruder trying to locate the real brain of the system.
Also, once the security panel has been triggered (assuming that it's already set up with monitoring), it immediately sends an intrusion alarm to the monitoring company, and no kind of tampering with it can stop that once initiated, even if it's totally disconnected and opened so that the battery is unplugged.
The only thing that disconnecting the keypad will do is make any local audible piezo alarm on it shut up.
Maybe the OP confused the keypad with the main panel?

 

[Cameramonkey]

It's also possible the panel self-silenced. Some jurisdictions require alarms to stop after x minutes so it's not a long term menace. (eg a false alarm while you are on vacation annoying the neighbors by continuing to go off for a week solid. )

 

[Denny347]

OTOH, if he had pressed charges, the mentally ill homeless man might have gotten some help.
Had he truly been feeling magnanimous, he could have gone to his court appearance and explained he just wanted the guy to get some help from the system.
With proper medication, "homeless guy" might become a contributing member of society rather than a shelter occupant.

Help? Not likely. A probation Officer has no way of knowing if he is taking his meds or not. Prosecute him with the expectation of jail time or more likely, probation. DO NOT press charges hoping they will address a medical problem because that isn't likely.

Slightly OT...

Ripping the keypad off the wall silenced the alarm? If that is all he had to do, time to find a new alarm company. This is icing on the cake after not calling the entire call list.

The keypad destruction should NEVER stop an alarm from sounding. The only way to kill the alarm is to find the actual panel, break into the metal enclosure, then kill AC power and disconnect the battery.

Ripping the keypad silences the annoying interior speaker, has nothing to do with the alarm monitoring.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Help? Not likely. A probation Officer has no way of knowing if he is taking his meds or not. Prosecute him with the expectation of jail time or more likely, probation. DO NOT press charges hoping they will address a medical problem because that isn't likely.

Ripping the keypad silences the annoying interior speaker, has nothing to do with the alarm monitoring.

But not the annoying siren that alerts the neighbors that there is a problem.

 

[Lil Bob]

My mother-in-law encountered a similar situation with their vacation home except it was her granddaughter that was at fault. Her and friends broke into the place. My mother in law had all arrested but one she felt sorry for - one of the girlfriends was pregnant so she did not press charges. In retrospect she wishes she would have now. She did have the granddaughter charged though. I am surprised that she felt sorry for one of them. Normally she is a heartless b****.

 

[Libertarian01]

Slightly OT...

Ripping the keypad off the wall silenced the alarm? If that is all he had to do, time to find a new alarm company. This is icing on the cake after not calling the entire call list.

The keypad destruction should NEVER stop an alarm from sounding. The only way to kill the alarm is to find the actual panel, break into the metal enclosure, then kill AC power and disconnect the battery.

We have adt at our house and we have battery back up and wireless. cutting phone line or power would do nothing at our house and adt has sensor on pad if ripped from wall automatically sends alarm signal to company and they dispatch. there sop is if no one answers on phone tree to dispatch police. we know this because it has already happened.... again use layers. Scary dog, good doors and locks/deadbolts, adt and gun safe bolted to floor/wall etc.

Help? Not likely. A probation Officer has no way of knowing if he is taking his meds or not. Prosecute him with the expectation of jail time or more likely, probation. DO NOT press charges hoping they will address a medical problem because that isn't likely.

Ripping the keypad silences the annoying interior speaker, has nothing to do with the alarm monitoring.

On this one Denny wins the prize. I never said that the ripping of the board stopped the alarm, only that this was his apparent goal. The internal noise was quieted, to a degree, but the alarm still functioned with the battery intact.

The box itself is at the bottom of the stairs as you walk in the door. There isn't any easy place to put it otherwise. The home is a wide open bi-level, with very few closets for a home this size. They do have a backup for setting off the emergency alarm elsewhere in the home.

And I am the choir everyone is preaching to! I told him the MOMENT he told me he didn't press charges that this was the wrong decision, but it is too late now. I agree with ALL comments that for various reasons he should have pressed charges against the guy!!!

However, to my thinking this is one of those stories that will never make national news! A law abiding homeowner who is legally armed confronts an intruder. No shots are fired and no one is damaged. The intruded is forced out and taken away. No blood, no corpses, no ambulance, no drama. No blood = no story. How many are there like this that never get reported, yet we get painted with a smear campaign every time a homeowner opens fire. Yet here is, to a poor degree I must admit, a good story that everybody walks away from.

Regards,

Doug

 

[CTS]

Would you mind sharing their approximate area of town?

 

[Libertarian01]

Would you mind sharing their approximate area of town?

Sure. Southwest, within a mile of the Fort Wayne Country Club.

Doug

 

[MrsGungho]

[/COLOR]

But not the annoying siren that alerts the neighbors that there is a problem.

not all systems come with those annoying sirens. Some choose not to have those annoying sirens installed.

bum wanted to silence inside squealer and he succeeded.

 

[Libertarian01]

not all systems come with those annoying sirens. Some choose not to have those annoying sirens installed.

bum wanted to silence inside squealer and he succeeded.

I don't know. I think(?) he did to a point. It still had a battery backup within the panel itself as I understand it, so it was still making noises. Now, whether it was making loud, obnoxious noises as compared to a quieter, less annoying noise is a question I'd have to ask them.

However, we could all be wrong. Maybe(?) he thought that by ripping out the control panel that would disarm the system. Who knows? To my knowledge there wasn't exactly a long, in depth conversation with the man. Much of this is after the fact guesswork and finding what he got into.

Doug

 

[Denny347]

[/COLOR]

But not the annoying siren that alerts the neighbors that there is a problem.

Most do not have an exterior speaker. 99.9% of home alarms I check are strictly interior.

 

[Rookie]

Mine had an external speaker that would malfunction and go off for no apparent reason. I don't have an external speaker anymore.

 

[Doug]

I added an external siren for two reasons.
First, I had a false alarm while I was working in the yard and didn't hear the inside siren.
Second, on another day, a uniformed officer approached my wife in the backyard and told her our alarm system reported a motion sensor alarm. Our system did not show that an alarm had occurred; we concluded the officer had the wrong address. I want to increase the chances the siren will lead the police to my house.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Most do not have an exterior speaker. 99.9% of home alarms I check are strictly interior.

I added an external siren for two reasons.
First, I had a false alarm while I was working in the yard and didn't hear the inside siren.
Second, on another day, a uniformed officer approached my wife in the backyard and told her our alarm system reported a motion sensor alarm. Our system did not show that an alarm had occurred; we concluded the officer had the wrong address. I want to increase the chances the siren will lead the police to my house.

My "internal speaker" is loud enough to be heard from the street. Not to be confused with the puny beepers that are on the keypads. But I can understand the logic of a layman thinking what they are seeing on the wall by the front door IS the alarm, not just a keypad.

You have no idea how correct you are about wrong house. I have given a presentation to fire inspectors about panels dialing over VoIP lines. Long story short, DONT. They are not completely compatible, and while you will test OK 99% of the time, its possible for the central station to interpret your signal as having a different customer number. I have several documented instances of this. One of the most egregious: A building caught fire in Indiana. It went into full alarm with smokes, heat sensors and sprinkler flow sensors reporting. But when the panel dialed out the voip line hiccuped. The central station received the signal, but two digits were transposed in the signal. That garbled customer/site number just happened to be a legitimate site ID in OH. Multiple fire battalions were falsely dispatched to the site in OH while the ACTUAL site in IN burned with no immediate response. So we had dozens of firefighters risking their lives rushing to the scene for no reason, while a customer's store went up in smoke. Literally.

IF you run VoIP (comcast, brighthouse, etc) and your panel dials out over that line, Talk to your alarm company about one of two add-ons to fix it; An internet communicator, or a cellular communicator. Either will fix the problem. And most alarm companies are either ignorant, oblivious to the problem, or arent taking it seriously.

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the information. My system has its own cellular connection. Maybe someone else's system sent the wrong phone number or address.