Surviving Home Invasions

In past instances of home invasions, criminals have intimidated people into giving the security monitoring company the password to cancel an alarm. An intruder would not normally know what your password is, however, so giving the wrong one would force the alarm company to dispatch the police. A home invasion can be a frightening ordeal and is the perfect reason for protecting your home with a security system. The best defense and first place to start is always a good alarm. If a criminal manages to get into your house anyway, there are things you can do to protect yourself as much as possible. Here are a few tips.

• Get to the security panic button on your command station or use a portable one if you have it and sound the alarm.
• If your phone and security system include voice dialing, use the speaker-phone to call 911
• Come up with a false password in advance to let the monitoring company know you are under duress.
• Do not try and stop an intruder from taking money or property (your safety is more important than possessions or cash)
• Set up signals over the phone with family and friends so when they call you can let them know you are in trouble without alerting the intruder.