Take This To Bed With You

[Richard in Smithville]

This came in an email and I though it sounded good so I thought I would pass it on.

Put your car keys beside your bed at night



Tell your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your parents, your Dr's office, the check-out girl at the market, everyone you run across. Put your car keys beside your bed at night.
If you hear someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies. This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob. It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break into your house, odds are the burglar/rapist won't stick around. After a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won't want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there. This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or prevent a sexual abuse crime.

[pelligrini]

I don't know if it will do a lot of good around here. Most folks find car alarms going off just to be a mild annoyance. Usually given just a "I wish that moron would shut off his alarm."

[cabinetman]

That's a pretty good idea Richard. I prefer the system we use, it's called EWS, which stands for Early Warning System. A pair of German Shepherds with a combined weight of about 190 LBS, that nothing gets by. A gnat can't pass gas without the dogs going off.
.

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[crokett]

My neighbors aren't really close enough to me to hear the car alarm. Besides which, I also have an EWS - a chocolate lab and a lab chow mix.

[Rand]

I heard someone say that car alarms are the urban equivalent of crickets.

[radhak]

I think that's a great idea, Richard, at least for us!

We are in a very quiet sub-division where the homes are not too far away (rather, a bit too close, if you ask me). A car alarm going off middle of the night might wake up the neighbors enough to be a deterrent to any would-be invader. Not sure anybody would actually come over to complain, but if it keeps up, cops are gonna show up eventually, and that's not anybody with a crowbar and a face-mask wants !

One that I particularly want to pass on to LOML. She's pretty paranoid when I'm not home, even middle of the day (when kids are at school), so this is a tip she'd appreciate.

[Ed62]

That's a good tip for a lot of people. We have a security alarm installed because my wife feels much safer with it. Even though we live in a safe neighborhood, she doesn't want doors left unlocked, even during the day time. We also have my avatar.

Ed

[herb fellows]

I live in NYC, and I go to Maine every summer. Maine has crickets, NYC has car alarms. Give me the crickets!

[alpha]

The sound of cocking a 12 gauge has the same effect.

[Russianwolf]

With our EWS in place, I would actually beg the thief to try breaking in. I want to see how they'd take him out. I'm thinking it would be a coordinated attack like in Jurrasic Park. Then, there's the Katana that's resting by my bedside. It's a 2 body blade, and I know how to use it (image two thiefs break in and they are walking around when the arm of one suddenly and inexplicably "falls" off )

[JSUPreston]

I don't know if it will do a lot of good around here. Most folks find car alarms going off just to be a mild annoyance. Usually given just a "I wish that moron would shut off his alarm."

I'm the moron in my neighborhood. Seriously, seems like every time I sit down or squat to do something, I push the alarm button on the remote, since I keep my keys in my pocket.

Most of my neighbors are hard of hearing due to age, so this wouldn't help anyway. I have been thinking about an X10 system or something equivalent.

[DUD]

I know Our Lab works great for Us, Someone climbed Our 6' privacy fence. Kipper was

there and person saw Him and grabbed a short piece of 2X4, hit him in the head,

climbed the fence and left. I wouldn't want to be the next person to try climbing it, LOML does keep Her keys on Her night stand. Bill

[John Hunter]

But if I scare them off then my dog Coco won't get a free meal.