My neighbor's house was robbed yeaterday, and it got me thinking about home security in general. They have wifi cameras all around (Ring) and a hardwired & monitored alarm system. The thieves entered through a second story window by covering the glass with film and cutting an opening large enough to crawl through. The film prevented shattering glass from triggering the glass break sensors of the alarm system, and by going into the second story bypassed the motion sensor on the first floor. The kicker was that they used a wifi jammer, taking down all the cameras in the target house and several houses on either side.
I never thought of my Arlo and Ring cameras as real security, mostly just a first level of defense against garden variety ne'er-do-wells. But after this event I browsed for wifi jammers online... they are shockingly cheap, and the ones I saw jam from 900 mHz - 2.4 gHz. That about covers all my zigbee, z-wave, and wifi stuff.
I know there's no fool proof theft protection, but this got me thinking about better ways do do it. Just sayin'.
That is a sad story and I feel for your neighbor.
And you’re probably right that “advanced” tools for burglaries, whether wireless jammers or lower tech methods like applying a film to cut a window quietly, are getting easier to obtain these days.
Using wired contact and motion sensors could protect you against signal jamming, but that’s not usually an easy retrofit for most homes.
And I would guess jamming devices are still a very uncommon tool in all burglaries nationwide (that may of course be different for specific individuals or even neighborhoods, I’m sure).
The cat burglar techniques are interesting, but again, probably don’t represent most home break-ins, which are much more likely to be a smash a window or door situation.
These jamming stories are now showing up in the popular press. Your neighbor's house was targeted, thieves won't go to the effort they did unless they believed there was something of high value there. Yes, cameras should be hard wired when possible. Newer alarm systems use encrypted and frequency hopping wireless sensors to minimize jamming. Qolsys alarm systems are easy enough to DIY install and can also be integrated into Hubitat. Qolsys is owned by Johnson Controls, as is DSC. Qolsys uses the DSC PowerG encrypted with frequency hopping sensors.
They are barely even that...the interweb is rife w/pics of people walking right past "security" cameras as they go to take things from a home. I think of mine as simply a way to see what's going on around my house when I'm not there, but I don't expect them to deter. Maybe they did when they were first coming onto the market and were uncommon, but since they've become ubiquitous their deterrence value appears to have become almost nil.
Simplest security steps in general are easy - goal is make your home harder to enter and less interesting than your neighbors'. Lock doors and windows, don't leave interesting stuff out in the front yard/driveway, etc. There definitely are cases where theives may target a home and come prepared as your neighbor's example, and if they want to get in they generally will, unfortunately.
Another interesting thing I saw on this subject: I was watching one of those real crime shows about a guy who was one of the mose prolific home burgurlars ever, maybe in Florida if I recall. When he eventually got caught he revealed that his secret to success was that he only entered the master bedrooms of the masions he targeted, directly through a window. He used a ladder, went in the window (probably much like happened in the subject of this thread) and never left the master bedroom, just back down the ladder and away. The master BR is where most people keep their most valuable stash, and usually don't have cameras or motion sensors there. Worth bearing in mind when setting up a system.
Simplest security steps in general are easy - goal is make your home harder to enter and less interesting than your neighbors'. Lock doors and windows, don't leave interesting stuff out in the front yard/driveway, etc. There definitely are cases where theives may target a home and come prepared as your neighbor's example, and if they want to get in they generally will, unfortunately.
This is the biggest takeaway I got from doing years of research on home security. There is no way to make your home completely burglar-proof. Your goal should be to make it considerably less appealing and/or more difficult to break in than any of your neighbors' places. That includes things like putting all your trash in your trash cans before taking it out to the curb so you're not casually advertising the large screen television you just bought because the box is just sitting there, making window locks and physical security features fairly obvious so a burglar sees them before even attempting to break in, making sure all regular entrances are brightly lit, and just not buying the biggest house on the block to begin with.
Interesting. But, still not insurmountable (at least to trigger an alarm/notice). I haven't set one up yet, but my thoughts...
If you're home during an invasion, then a security system is largely moot. You didn't say whether they were or not, so I'll assume not.
First, connect everything to landline internet. Put your router on a battery backup. Use POE cameras. ZWave (or not WiFi band) sensors (assuming not hardwired, and you gotta be a fanatic to do that). And set up a VPN in, for remote access.
Then, layer the sensors. Cameras on the outside.
Vibration sensors on the windows. I honestly doubt I'll do this, because ZWave ain't cheap. In which case, ZigBee/WiFi might better than nothing. I also don't know if trust vibration sensors - good gust of wind can rattle them - but see below on layering.
Motion detection inside, in each main area. This is potentially tricky with pets 
Light switches. These burglars might have been smart enough to not use lights, but... no one should be turning on a light switch if no one is at home. Most of us here probably have a preponderance of smart switches. (Power meters for lamps could also be used, but they're oddly rare.)
Lux sensors. These burglars, if they didn't turn on lights, maybe used flash lights. This would need to be fine tuned, and might only work in select places. I'm not going to install light sensors everywhere on the off chance this made a difference, but if I have motion, humidity, etc., sensor, might as well get a "multi sensor". However, could put them in drawers, jewelry boxes, gun cases, etc. (maybe safes, depending on if they'd reliably reconnect to the mesh?).
Sirens. I have a siren I got as free merch, and it is LOUD! I also hope to be able to connect my unified smoke alarms to Hubitat. (And, if at night, maybe turn all the lights on and off, every 30 seconds or so, in unison, to where it'd tend to disorient them, make them not care so much.)
IMO (not having set up a system yet), the key is minimizing false positives (extremely few false alarms) and false negatives (maximum detection). To do that, I think you need:
-
A very reliable means to say when you are or are not home - solely relying on manually arming a system doesn't work. And GPS is finicky. Not sure how I will do this, especially with "hybrid work". I'm thinking figuring out a "true" and "false" routine, like Garage door is closed + Living room motion is not triggered in X minutes = Away. But again, with layers, as (preferably) multiple possible triggers.
-
A layered detection system, where more than one event could be required to trigger it. If one type of sensor gives false alarms. Hence motion and lux sensors, and light switches. Maybe one or more sensor types tend to give false alarms, so... require two in X minutes.
And 3) Since nothing is perfect, it also needs an easy, intuitive, fast way to turn off, even if woken half drunk in the dead of night - and/or remotely.
The real rub is that no universal set of rules work for everyone. But, if you can customize it, then it could work a lot better. Unless of course, you do a bad job, and who can say if you did?
Get a big barking dog
The newest trend is to use "active deterrent" cameras.
What does "active deterrent" mean?
It allows you to set a switch, or a schedule, for when you want the "alarm" on.
If the "alarm" is on, and the camera senses a human where nobody should be, then the camera:
- has powerful lioghts that flash
- has a loud sounding siren that sounds
There are many breands that have these types of cameras. (Eufy is one of them.)
I originally had a bit of a rant about glass break sensors. The TLDR version: They don't work for what they are supposed to so, and too well for what they aren't. Ours (in a Vivint system) are easily triggered by Dogs howling and whining, dropping a floor fan, or even a tool, but dropping and shattering a glass, they don't trigger.
We are seriously considering shutting down our Vivint system, Its just now worth the expense. Because it is so often falsely triggered by dogs howling, crying, or whining, it's only armed one night a week (no reason, that night just never got shut off). I don't think we have EVER used it when we are away.
For several years I volunteered with our police Departments' Citizens on Patrol. These are the same things we were told in training, and that we would try educating people to do, especially cutting down boxes for large, expensive purchases like TV's, computers, or other electronics. If it's a large, plain brown box (like the catio I need to assemble tomorrow) those are just going next to the recycle bin. But the boxes that advertise what was in them get broken down and put in the recycle bin. The other one is convincing people to turn their lights on at night, or at least have some kind of motion lighting. I really do not understand why people are so resistant to this. Why provide extra cover for someone looking to do something nefarious?
My current automation has my garage light one sunset to sun rise, and the light over our front door on until 10:00 pm. Soon I'm going to include a motion sensor so that the light over the front door gets turned on if someone approaches the front of the house. I have considered having my garage lights dim at say 10:00pm, and having a motion trigger to brighten them, then dim again when the motion stops. Though I am not sure the energy savings is enough to justify the effort.
While this may be the trend, I'm not sure the implementation is worthy of its hype. "Powerful" lights that flash? Most cameras that I have seen have LEDs, and while they may be somewhat bright, not sure what deterrence effect they would have. Sirens may help, as long as you are near neighbors and don't "false" too much; we all know how car alarms are largely ignored these days because it seems that every time, it's a false alarm. I also have seen some systems where there is a speaker announcement that warns the person to leave.
All in all, though, cameras are not really "security" as much as they are "documentation." To be useful, they must cover the right areas, be mounted at the right height (big problem with most people's cameras!), with the right lens depending on what is trying to be detected (the infamous "DORI" charts). And cameras should be PoE and hardwired, not wifi or battery. Even the right camera in the right location is not a "simply install it and go" thing... Tweaking them takes a while.
Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now, but if anyone wants more information, check out the ipcamtalk forums... They'll bore you to death with the details.
I agree with this. Cameras are there to document the occurrence of a crime for reporting afterwards, unless someone is monitoring the feeds 24/7 and prepared to respond in real-time if suspicious activity is seen.
For me it's just the opposite. I have Unifi G5 dome and bullet cameras and a G4 Pro doorbell at our primary house. I use the UniFi Protect Controller app in HE to monitor the cameras, and when a person or vehicle is detected, it sends an announcement through Echo Speaks to all of the Alexa devices in our house. At our beach house, I have a couple of C5 Flex cameras that do the same.
And of course, we get notifications on our phones from both locations, so we can (and do) respond in real-time. I'm much less interested in documenting something after the fact, then being made aware of suspicious activity happening in real time.
This sounds to be a very targeted break-in. (i.e. They knew there were no motion sensors on the second floor). Possibly a "friend" or neighbor. Seems that the thief understood the risk, exactly how to circumvent it and what the reward for their effort would be.
Lack of motion sensors on the second floor is typical, since most break-ins would occur from the first floor (or basement). This is one area where a lot of people "cheap out" on their system. I recall years ago that an alarm company told me the same when I was investigating such systems.
Regardless, it's still a targeted break-in. There's no amount of protection will prevent this type of burglary. We can all live in fear or leave our valuables at the bank and live a little.
Don't necessarily agree with the "targeted" assessment. This seems to be common knowledge in some circles. Heck, a year or so back, there were many reports of South American visiting burglary crews hitting one of the richest zip codes in the country (not far from where I live, but a world away!), breaking into many very high-end homes using a ladder to access the second floor.
