Tag Archive for: home invasion

Of all the things God would tell you to do, would it be break into someone’s house? Probably not. He might tell you to go invest in a home security system to prevent a home invasion but otherwise….no, I don’t think so.

Gawker reports “The Connecticut native was arrested for breaking into a stranger’s home, telling the owner that God made him do it, and then proceeding to smash statues of Roman soldiers and a marble table with a fireplace poker. Then he took a shower and dressed himself in the clothing of a deceased man who used to live there. When police took him into custody, he informed them that he’d smoked “a strange strand of herb.”

Smoking “a strange strand of herb” is probably what he thinks is God talking to him.

Meanwhile when in the home the invader told the homeowner he’d broken into the house because “God wants me to help the world,” and then told the homeowner, “I mean you no harm.”

The homeowner then called the police and as they waited for police, the homeowner asked him how he broke into the home, which he stood up then flexed and replied ‘You see, super-human strength.”

He definitely smoked something strange.

Rule #1: Never smoke anything strange because God may talk to you in way you wouldn’t expect.

Rule #2: Install a home alarm system to prevent someone who smokes strange herbs from invading your home and breaking all your little statues with a fireplace poker.

Rule #3: If ever invaded don’t hang out in the house with the invader asking them questions. Leave. Go to a safe place, then call the police.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADT Pulse™ on Fox News. Disclosures

We’ve gone over this at least a thousand times, lock your doors at night while you sleep, lock your windows and install a home security alarm.

Why? Because strange men who have murdered in the past and have been incarcerated as a teenager eventually get out of jail and then invade a person’s home at 3 am and hit the home owners daughter in the head with a cast iron pan. That’s why.

In Portland at 15 years old this guy pleaded no contest to murder. He eventually got out in 2006. Then at 26 years old he decides to break into someone’s house and fracture their skull. I have a cast iron frying pan and they are fantastic to make blackened fish and fajitas. And I can see how one to the skull could do some damage. His dad says drugs aren’t the problem but his son might have mental health issues. I’m no doctor, but I’d have to agree.

What he was after and why he broke in is not known. He didn’t have much time to steal anything because the father of the girl stabbed the home invader multiple time as the criminal was running out the door.

Understand that there always have been criminals, there are criminals now and there will always be criminals. And you Harry Homeowner need to recognize this and take steps to prevent becoming a criminal’s target.

Frankly, all that blood all over the house makes quite a mess and is just so unnecessary. A simple screaming home alarm in many cases could prevent the whole stabbing, frying pan, home invasion and waking up at 3 am thing from happening in the first place.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing Home Invasions on Montel Williams. Disclosures

Even though you have a home security system installed…right? You should still hide and lock up your stuff.

Burglars are generally aware that a woman’s jewelry is either in her jewelry box on top of her dresser or in her underwear drawer. For men, it’s in a similar place or sitting in a little dish next to the bed. These methods aren’t exactly covert.

A safe is your best bet. Wall and floor safes can be hidden and other heavy box safes can be bolted to the floor.

Here are some options:

1.    Buy or build a “Book Safe”. A book safe is a carved out book containing your most valuable valuables. Here is a DIY security book safe or do a search online and buy one.

2.    Hollow out an appliance. If you are mechanically inclined and have nothing more than a screw driver and wire snips you can gut anything from a power strip to a blender to a coffeemaker.

3.    Install a fake wall electric outlet or switch. This is also a buy or build.

4.    Use an air vent. If your home has “forced air” and you have air blowing for heat or cooling then any one of your horizontal vents can be a hiding place. Just make sure it’s a vent that doesn’t immediately lead to a drop.

5.    Can Safes. This is a buy or build. Mostly a buy. These are regular looking soda or aerosol cans that have a removable top or bottom. They are cheap enough to buy. But be careful with this because they can be mistaken as something you may not need and thrown away.

6.    Use your freezer. The best way to accomplish this is to freeze a smaller plastic bowl with nothing in it within a larger plastic bowl surrounded by tomato sauce. If a burglar looks in your freezer they see gravy.

7.    Hollow out a pillow. If you sew, this is an easy one.

8.    Make false inner pockets in clothing. Designate an older suit or dress that you don’t wear and put pockets in it.

9.    Use lamps or ceiling mounted lights. Lamps often have an hole  to insert anything. You may need a ladder for ceiling mounted lights so only put things in there you don’t access often.

10. Shoes. It’s easy enough to slide something in a pair of shoes then put a sock in there to contain it.

The key to improvised home security through obscurity is NOT to hide anything on the fly. Meaning designate a spot now and always use it. The day you quickly hide something in a lamp before you go on vacation is the day you lose what you hid because you will spend 6 months looking for it and think the house cleaners stole it. Yes, I know this from experience.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADT Pulse™ on Fox News Live. Disclosures

A cardboard cutout of you or a cardboard action figure of a WWE wrestler is a creative and inexpensive way to DIY home security that adds a layer of protection to your home security system. And it doesn’t cost a lot and it’s kind of fun.

I’m serious!!!!

This is not an idea I just thought of one day, it’s one I stumbled upon by accident.

A few years ago a “speakers bureau” I work with actually went ahead and had a 6 foot cardboard cutout made of me for a trade show they were doing at a Boston area convention center. While I was flattered, I was certainly amused.

The bureau president called me and told me what he was doing then offered the life-size me to me once the show was over. I was like “What am I going to do with that?” and he made a joke that it could keep my wife company while I was on the road, and actually a cardboard me that doesn’t talk or talk back would be appealing to my wife so I picked it up from him.

I brought it home and put it in my garage and let the dust collect on it. Then I had a kid. And at 1.5 years when she started walking she eventually came upon the cardboard me and it startled her. Her mom trying to explain that was as funny.

Then shortly after I had a party and brought someone into my garage to jump in the car for a packy run and the cardboard me scared the heck out of them. Since then about a dozen people have been jostled by it. Now it’s just funny!

Now, especially when I travel, the cardboard me is standing in front of the TV. My wife loves him. I’m a little jealous.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

There is unfortunately no limit to how naïve (and stupid) and vulnerable the public is to the evil (and creative) criminal mind when it comes to home security and burglary.

I haven’t seen reports of this happening in the US, yet, but in Turkey which is somewhere over there, burglars are actually donning white coats, and stethoscopes and knocking on peoples doors to burglarize them. They begin to use a ruse that may involve instantly reducing high blood pressure or another ruse conning the victim into ingesting a heavy sedative knocking them out.

Humans need to be led. Meaning we need leaders such as Presidents, Dictators, Prime Ministers, Generals, Police, Teachers etc. We need authoritarian figures to tell us what to do. Otherwise many of us would be wandering around bumping into walls (visualize that!).

Criminals know that we bow to authority so they pose as police, fire, inspectors, and DOCTORS.

The Turkish police were so alarmed by this trend they set out to test the public with their own “pose as a doctor” scam with a placebo pill in hand and got an astounding 86 percent of people to take the pills!!!

Can you say OMG!?!?

In other parts of Turkey the police tested people at apartment complexes to see what kind of apartment security systems may be in place. Most buildings have some form of intercom with a buzz-in system to let people in. But when the police would randomly select an apartment number and the person responded, the cops would state “I’m a burglar please open the door” Ands of course the police were amazed that every time they tried this, someone at the building would eventually let them in.

Come on people, I’m trying here. Is anyone listening?

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADTPulse on Fox News. Disclosures