Building a Home in Davao

[Tommy T.]

Thanks for the tips, all. Forewarned is, at least somewhat, forearmed! We intend to also put some burglar alarms at least on the doors and be sure to set them off now and then when teenagers or others walk past. The coconut telegraph can be used to our advantage in this case, I believe. After first sound of alarm, everyone in the area will know about it within minutes, if not seconds!

[Jack Peterson]

27 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

and be sure to set them off now and then when teenagers or others walk past. The coconut telegraph can be used to our advantage in this case, I believe. After first sound of alarm, everyone in the area will know about it within minutes, if not seconds!

 Maybe Tom but beware the " Cry Wolf" Scenario  when no action is taken by you  Just saying my friend

[Tommy T.]

2 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Maybe Tom but beware the " Cry Wolf" Scenario  when no action is taken by you  Just saying my friend

I get your point, Jack.

I used to do something similar with the yacht, before. It had pressure sensitive alarms under the deck in key locations. Sometimes we would "forget" that the alarm was set and step aboard triggering lights and siren. Then it would be an audible, "Oh s***!" and we would disable the system. We made sure a local boat would see and hear.

I don't know if that worked or not, but there were no break-ins or boardings for over five years while anchored in fairly remote places in the islands...

[Jack Peterson]

7 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

I get your point, Jack.

Another point you might like to consider Tom is that we are approaching Fiesta time in many if not all parts of the PI, the People are just not heeding Curfews and the like so they will go ahead and do it, These times are usually Opportunist thieves times as we have seen and heard about, so vigilante we must be 

[Mike J]

21 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

That is the one thing that always bothered me - once inside, miscreants can escape out easily.

Once inside, do you really want to impede them leaving?  I would want those SOBs out as soon as possible. 

[Huggybearman]

23 hours ago, GeoffH said:

Our rear yard fence has broken glass bottle pieces cemented into the top (not us, the previous owner), that (or something similar) would tend to deter people climbing over.

I thought that as well. However I have seen that method trashed, literally, in a few seconds using a length of 2”x 2” wood to break the glass and a small piece of carpet to lay over the remains of the glass. It is really difficult to come up with an effective solution that doesn’t look like a prison. And the sound of the breaking glass wasn’t loud at all, which surprised me!
 

I guess that is why dogs are the preferred solution.

[Snowy79]

59 minutes ago, Mike J said:

Once inside, do you really want to impede them leaving?  I would want those SOBs out as soon as possible. 

Having had my own locksmith and alarm company for a few years a locked gate is a great detterent. I used to preach perimiter defence before internal defence. perimiter lighting, IR cameras etc.  You can even get sensors wired to activate recordings of angry dogs and people shouting if they breach the walls.

Two system I used were monitored, Dual Com and Red Care. A pressure sensor on the gate or IR beam breakage on a perimiter wall would wake the system up, lights could come on. This is basically to alert you of a possible break in and to give any burglar time to think again.  If there was a second detector set off after the initial ones it activated the response. Alarms, dogs barking and the alarm would automatically dial a set number and play a recorded message.  It could be a neighbours number or a friendly local policeman who you slip 1k a month to.  You can even get a smoke cloak for final back up if all else fails. It's like a smoke bomb that leaves no residue but will completely block all vision for a good ten minutes. Ideal for downstairs as anyone who is determined and ignores the alarms etc will give up and leg it as he has zero visibility and is vulnerable.

A few of the monitored ones once activated would show me the CCTV recordings and many you could see two or three people approach the property and one scale the wall.  The lights would come on and he'd rush to the gate try to open it for a few seconds before panicking then back over the wall and they'd all run away. A few determined ones would proceed until the alarms went off and the dog barking sound played.  Very few progressed to the stage where they were smashing windows etc and in those cases they'd been watching the house and saw the owners leave. These soon scarpered once they realised a responce team was on the way. 

The good thing with modern alarms is you can view your house from anywhere in the World, actiate it, deactivate it and even talk to people using speakers inside the house.  The technology is out there and prices are surprisingly cheap and many items plug and play. Just wire the control box to a 5 Amp spur and the remainder is wireless and batteries last over 2 yrs.

One of the best companies out there. https://alarm.riscogroup.com/en-GB

[RBM]

On 3/13/2021 at 8:57 AM, GeoffH said:

Our rear yard fence has broken glass bottle pieces cemented into the top (not us, the previous owner), that (or something similar) would tend to deter people climbing over.

Until they throw a sack over it......

[GeoffH]

34 minutes ago, RBM said:

Until they throw a sack over it......

If people think of a way to slow down a home invader some home invader will think of a way around it.

You can't 'stop' them all you can do is take reasonable precautions.

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, GeoffH said:

If people think of a way to slow down a home invader some home invader will think of a way around it.

You can't 'stop' them all you can do is take reasonable precautions.

Spot on Geoff. 

It reminds me of the old joke, you don't have to outrun a  lion, just the bloke running next to you.

We have minimal security as we're in a gated community. Petty pilfering still happens as thieves have to live somewhere, but it's things like bicycles and stock from sari sari stores etc. Plenty have dogs but they bark at the best of times so the boy who cried wolf springs to mind.

Security genuinely doesn't keep me awake at night and I'd move on if it did.