This week two Dunwoody North homes were burglarized when the offenders kicked in the door leading into the home from the carport. These brazen day time attacks happened soon after the resident departed the home, which may mean that the perpetrators were watching the vehicles at home to make sure no one was there during the robbery. In today's robbery, the resident returned home within 20 minutes and very easily could have easily walked into crime happening, luckily for all involved, that did not happen.
The Dunwoody Police are well aware of the facts of the case, setting up addional patrols and have posted crime reduction suggestions on Facebook. They will also be attending a special called meeting of the Dunwoody North Civic Association, Neighborhood Watch to answer questions and share information with the community. My neighborhood is rather tight-knit, and we are working closely with the police department to help solve these crimes.
The Dunwoody Police has not released any other information publicly on the case and neither will I.
I do know that a great deal of information has been shared on private facebook groups. As my information is pushed far beyond closed neighborhood groups, I will defer to the Dunwoody Police Department on what they want to share.
What I can tell you is that internet camera sales will be rocketing in my little community! There are two versions, the hard wired high definition cameras out side that are meant to see and be seen; then there are the small wi-fi recorded devices. Both have pros and cons. I personally use and recommend the low-cost WYZE cameras in my garage and reviewing all external doors but I believe I will be looking into hard wiring a set of external cameras in the near future as the quality is exceptional.
Some of the names of the wi-fi cameras mentioned by neighbors or devices I know in use locally are...
https://www.wyze.com
http://yitechnology.com
https://www.arlo.com/en-us/default.aspx
https://shop.ring.com/products/door-view-cam
Nest Cams
What security items do you use?
4 comments:
This is, comparatively, ancient history. My home was burglarized in early 2001. They got in through a half rotten wooden door leading to the basement; at the rear of the house, by prying it out of its frame. It was replaced with a steel door & frame, and a heavy slide bolt was added to the deadbolt for extra difficulty in entering again via that entrance. At the time, one of my long term projects was to enclose the carport into a garage to better hide comings & goings, and whether anyone was home. It took the DeKalb Police 3 hours to show up after my call despite my home being 2/3 of a mile from the precinct house. One obvious benefit of incorporation has been that this absurdly lengthy delay no longer occurs.
I asked the officer and the later arriving evidence collector for advice. Looking at the neatness and the fact that I'd been gone for less than an hour, they concluded professionals had been watching the homes and they knew when my car was gone, no one was home. Other than the door, they were incredibly tidy. They both said the best money I could spend going forward would be to enclose the garage and avoid windows someone could see into to gain insight just as they'd done by looking at the carport. The work began a week or so later. Curiously, they also weren't keen on home security systems, save for signs & stickers, which they recommended heartily. They said professionals would move on to the next house without them, while amateur "smash & grab" folks would be in & out before any alarm could be answered. The much better staffed police department may have changed this consideration, though I've never asked about it.
Since those days, a few homes have periodically been burglarized in this subdivision. They seem to come in groups which suggests some extent of organization & intent. I suspect the same in Dunwoody North. The cameras may be a good idea if only to offer the possibility of providing identities of perpetrators. I've been shy of the "IoT" devices since they are not especially secure. They are easily hackable in many if not most cases and I'd hate to invite more trouble. That being said, I have long used cameras inside the house and garage, with one peeking at the front yard, driveway, and street. These days I save video from them to a hidden server so that even if the cameras are covered or destroyed, the last images should be of whomever was acting against them... and they'd have to already be in the house.
continued in next comment as I've hit a limit...
At the time, I did have a now old fashioned webcam I'd been using to capture candid photos when entertaining guests. I'd turned it off the day before the burglary because the images had filled the storage of the computer to which it was attached. The officer noticed it as the burglars, curiously enough, did not touch any of the several computers available. He said, "Please tell me that was running and it got a photo of the invaders!" I laughed and told him that I'd only turned it off the previous day as I was out of storage and hadn't dealt with the problem. The cameras I have now were meant as replacement and enhancement and I do send video out of the house as well as to the hidden server so that even if they find everything in the house, they will not get all the relevant data.
If you and your neighbors are going with the "IoT" type of cameras, please change default logins & passwords at the very least. I've toyed with buying a few different ones to play with and see just how rusty my hacking skills have become as I've done very little save for charity work since retiring 20 years ago.
To any reading this who have been victims of burglars, you have my sympathies. Aside from my wedding ring and that of my then recently deceased wife, nothing they took couldn't be replaced. The feeling of violation lingers to this day and every time I look across Ashford Dunwoody Road from my front yard and see the police department & city hall, I smile in hopes that it might give me some protection by proximity.
My work has an alarm system and security cameras all over the office as well as outside and we've been burglarized twice after I left for the night. The culprits were caught on tape, but never arrested.
Your best bet is a dog. The bigger the better. Back up in Chicago some of my wayward childhood friends, who for a few years engaged in the burglary trade prior to evolving into upstanding citizens, would admit that just the mere suspicion there's a ferocious dog in the house is more of a deterrent than an alarm system. So, even a few well placed "Beware of Dog" signs might do.
Also FYI, I live just a couple houses from the second home invasion that you mention, and although I realize this burglary was executed during broad daylight, there is a street light between our homes that has been out for about a year now - I've reported it with no response. Perhaps this unfortunate incident might be catalyst to get the bulb replaced? Thank-you!
Thank-you so very much Dunwoody! Now I know how to properly report this as well. I had earlier reported to DeKalb County. Appreciate it very much.
Michael Smith: We will report this to Georgia Power who maintains the lights. If it burns out again in the future you can report the outage directly to them at:
https://www.georgiapower.com/community/outages-and-stormcenter/power-outage-overview/street-light-outage.html
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