It's that time of year again. Some love it and other dread this time of year. Weather it is spending time with family, shopping in crowded malls or just eating a whole lot of food.
There is another bad thing that comes along with the holiday as well. I am sure you see it on the news or social Media people stealing packages right off there porch. Now I know that having cameras at your front door will not stop everyone who wants to ruin your day, but it may catch the perpetrator and get your stuff back. Surveillance system are like insurance, you might never need it but when something happens you are glade you have it. Living in a neighborhood and being on the next door app and Facebook I hear of people who could benefit from having cameras. Things have happened such as, someone hitting a mailbox and not telling the owner, hitting cars and driving off, people breaking into cars or as simple as ding dong ditching. On my side of the neighborhood I have been able to help out when things happen such as when a girl was going around breaking into unlocked cars and when my neighbor had his car hit by there babysitter but she denied it happened. I don't live in a huge house but inside and outside my home i have a total of 13 cameras. Now when I tell some people this they think it is overkill. I am a Marine that served 4 years in Jacksonville NC. Any one that knows about the Marines, we prepare for everything. Just like insurance you would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
A few things you can do to make sure you are not a soft target. If you have one of our security systems you know you have the ability to add home automation. One of the great features is lighting. We can change out your light switches, outlets or add a plug in module to operate a lamp. With these different pieces of equipment you can keep the bad guy guessing. You not only can set up different times that your light come on and off, you can set them up so that everyday they come on and go off they differ by a few minuets. If you have seen Home Alone, the scene where they are checking out there potential victims they watch to see when the lights come on each night. Back then they did not have this option so they came on exactly at 8 P.M. every night. With this new technology they would never know that this is automated and you are 1000 miles away. Not only can you automate your lights but you can turn them off and on from your phone, tablet, computer or if you have Alexa you can turn them on and off with a voice command. Just to touch on a few other features of light control, you can also set up different scenes so when you open your garage door you can automate your lights to turn on so your not walking into a dark home. The last feature I want to tell you about is a great safety feature. So Let say it is 1 A.M. in the morning and someone kicks in your back door. If you have our security system with light automation you can have every light in the house come on so your not searching in the dark for you gun and you can see your target.
Another cool feature we have in our home automation belt is a video doorbell and our remote garage door control. This brings us back to the begin of this blog about people getting gifts stoles right off the front porch. If you have the video doorbell with the remote garage door control when the UPS guy rings your doorbell you can tell them to put it in the garage. All you would do is go to your app and hit open garage door and after they safely drop your package in your garage simply close it and your goodies are safe and sound.
In closing I would like to wish everyone a very Marry Christmas, be safe on the roads and kind and courteous to others. Please share your thoughts or let me know if you have any questions.
Tyler Turnwald
Phoenix Custom Systems
