Our Year of Living Dangerously

Well, not not by choice anyways. We had a break-in while the house was still under renovation when we were still living in our rental apartment. That incident left us traumatized and super paranoid. We got a quote to install a security alarm for the house right after we moved in. I don't remember how much but the quote was an exuberant amount in the thousands of dollars. So we put the idea on the back burner seeing as how there was no money left from the house renovation.

Fast forward almost a year, during which I've heard gun shots from one street over and had our hubcaps stolen when we used to park our car out front. We've met neighbors who have had close calls with burglars trying to break into their houses. So when the time came for our week long vacation in Michigan this summer, my protective maternal instinct/paranoia kicked in. I told Justin we need to install an alarm, because our house will be sitting empty and it's just too vulnerable without any kind of protection. I had even considered getting a dog to bark at any suspicious persons or activities, but Justin was not into getting a dog and said the alarm was too costly and wouldn't do much good. Luckily nothing happened while we were away.

Not long after we got back from our vacation, we were being our usual couch potatoes on a Sunday night when we heard a loud sound coming from outside our window. Justin immediately when out to investigate and I opened the window trying to look out into the darkness, couldn't see a thing. Justin came back and told me that our tenant's apartment window was opened and he saw two guys leisurely walking away from our house. I called the police and made a report. Our tenant works nights so we let ourselves in the apartment to fix the broken piece of the window temporarily. It took two hours for the cop to show up to talk to us. I don't think either of us slept too well that night. When I told the tenant what happened, she was really freaked out and subtly implied that her might break the lease and find a place that allows dogs. I hope it doesn't come to that because she is a really good tenant.

Obviously something has got to be done to make our tenant and ourselves feel safe in our own house again. Since allowing a dog in the apartment was out of the question, Justin has agreed to getting the security alarm. I did some research and found that the national companies such as ADT and Brinks lock you into three year contracts and have bad customer service. I made couple of appointments with two local companies to come out and give us some quotes. Does anyone have recommendations on what to look for in a good burglar alarm system?



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