Two thieves, searching for their next victims, drive from neighborhood to neighborhood.
They proceed down the street in search of items that would be easy to grab. If it’s visible from their vehicle, it could be a target. They see a bag with baseball equipment and several garden and power tools in one garage.
Then there’s a house with boxes near the front of the property in preparation for garbage day. The miscreants notice several bags from a high-end jewelry store, which would be the type of objects that would be easy to grab and sell.
The culprits write down the addresses because they might be good future hauls when the residents aren’t home. They continue on their way, making plans for periodic visits to get a feel for a good time to strike. Does the family go to church on Sunday mornings every week and what about their neighbors? When do the residents go to work? The criminals would scope it all out and make a plan.
They cross the street to another subdivision and scout out more properties. They come to a house with three boxes on the front porch, undoubtedly a recent delivery. A 120-inch TV, a PlayStation and a laptop all would make for a profitable stash.
The thieves were not planning on making their move today, but this one is too good to pass up. They drive around the circle and come back, pulling their vehicle, which looks like a delivery van, in the driveway. The duo walks directly to the porch, grabs all three boxes, puts them in the van and gets away cleanly.
Or did they?
The partners monitor the other houses until it’s time to initiate their plan: They go to the first home with the sports equipment and power tools, grab the baseball bag, a drill and a saw and get back to their vehicle and again drive away scot-free.
Or so they thought.
And finally, that same night, the would-be burglars sneak up to the house with the jewelry. They saw that the couple who lives there works at night, so it was a good time to pounce. They park a couple of blocks away and proceed to the back of the home so they are not seen by neighbors. They bust the door in and all of sudden are startled by the blaring of a security system. (The couple had installed an FTC security system since their last scouting trip and since it was dark, the perpetrators didn’t see the FTC Security signs in the yard.)
Panic-stricken, they fall over each other as they turn and try to run back to their vehicle. Before they can get to it, though, police apprehend the villains running down the street.
When they get to the police station, investigators tell the thieves they had been looking for them and then pull up video from the homes they had robbed previously. From the house with the boxes, they were caught on the Alula video doorbell installed by FTC. On the other house, they were caught by an Alula camera through surveillance with FTC.
In each case, the homeowner pulled the video from the cloud and made it available to law enforcement.
Making sure your house and loved ones are protected is vitally important year-round, especially around the holidays. Break-ins are more prevalent in November, December and January because criminals want to steal what’s under the tree and in a lot of cases, what was under the tree.
The key to not falling victim to these Grinches is making sure a property is secure. To make that happen, a resident or business operator should install a security system, complete with 24/7 monitoring, or surveillance cameras that send alerts, have remote accessibility and save video footage to the cloud.
FTC Security has all of this equipment as well as the expertise needed to protect any home or business from such culprits.
Interested in learning more about an FTC Security System or video surveillance? Go online to ftc.net/services/security/ or call 888-218-5050 to schedule a free site assessment and quote.
