 This morning I decided it was time to sort the weekly junk mail and junk leaflets from the bills and the threatening letters.
I was amazed to find a leaflet from "Victim Support" and when I read it I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. It is truly unbelievable, after my last post about how efficient the police were when I had an attempted break-in; twice!
 This PRIDE alarm only costs £160 £180 (they just put the price up especially for Old Age Pensioners!) fitted. When they say fitted, they mean it's just plugged into any convenient power point, nice and easy for an intruder to switch off when he gets in.
The leaflet goes on to say that the alarm box, with siren and strobe light, is fitted on the outside of the house (clever, eh? Where else would you fit it?)
The bit I really like is: Now you know, and I know, that nobody takes a blind bit of notice when a house alarm or a car alarm goes off these days. Why? Several reasons. It seems that EVERY house and EVERY car now has a security system which can be set of by vibration, noise, a cat, in fact anything; even a spider building it's web over the infrared motion detector. So if you phone the police and it turns out to be a false alarm, assuming that the police do actually turn up of course, you could get a "telling off" for interrupting their teabreak. But if you are like me and get absolutely fed up with alarms going off sometimes several times a day, as they do in my street, you just ignore them and think someone else will call the Fuzz.
I may be dim, but I can't see how this "Pride Alarm" is of any use to anybody unless it is connected to a control centre that is manned 24/7 (as they say in the Colonies), which it is not [see the last post below].
One thing you must never ever do in Britanistan now is to go and investigate an alarm that is sounding on a house or a car. Because if the thief is still in the house or the car and you try to apprehend him and get injured, you could finish up in hospital, or lose time off work, you won't get any compensation and your insurance company will not pay for lost earnings or any treatment you might need.
They will simply say that you are not covered "because you deliberately placed yourself in danger". I know this for a fact because my half-brother once tried to tackle a yob who was attempting to rob a jewellery shop. He was knifed in the arm and spent three weeks off work. He didn't get a penny to cover his lost earnings and the shop owner never even thanked him!
As to that Pride Alarm system. You can buy a similar thing from the DIY shop near me for £99.99. I know, I bought one.Labels: Burglars, Emergency Services, Police |
