Lifestyle Defense

Someone approached me the other day and told me that their neighborhood was ransacked by robbers with machetes and sawed off shot guns.

Usually an alarm or hand held weapon would solve this problem but this person lived in Australia and their laws prohibited them from carrying a fire arm and keeping one in the house.

On top of that, they had cats that kept setting off the alarm in the house.

So as you can assume they asked me what I thought would work to solve their problems.

The first thing I asked them was whether or not they were allowed to carry pepper sprays and or stun guns on their person, as of this writing they said no. Not sure what the rules are in good old Australia but you would think they would know since they lived there; so I left it at that.

Since they could not carry the trusted pepper spray we moved on to step two; get the alarm working.

So how do we go about getting the alarm to work when they have cats in the house? That is an easy one. Most alarm companies have a setting that will allow the alarm to ignore certain motions. I’m not really sure how that works out but I know it works cause it works on my alarm system.

So after I explained that to them, they went home, figured it out and the alarm was working. All is well that ends well.

As for the whole having a weapon in the house situation, I told them to keep their knifes sharp and at arms length so they can use them if the situation were to arise.

There you have it! Someone with a little problem that was easily fixed with the help of good old Matt.

Remember if you have a problem like that post it in the comment section and I will help “YOU” out.

Good luck and remember to think outside the box when situations like this arise. You don’t want to be caught in the middle of two guys with machetes and sawed off shot guns.

Take care and be safe.

-Matt

OK, I am going to start this series off by telling you a little story. This is something that happened roughly six months ago and I thought it would be wise to teach people about it so it doesn’t happen to them.

About six months ago I was coming home from staying the night at my girlfriend’s house. When I pulled up into the driveway I noticed that my back door was propped open and the window next to it was perched up. Immediately I thought it might have been my little brother trying to get into the house because he forgot something. When I went into the house I noticed that nothing from the window seal was necessarily broken, but nicely placed on the kitchen counter. As I walked into my living room I almost fainted. My big screen TV was gone. Now, this TV wasn’t a newer model big screen it was one of the old ones that weighed several hundred pounds. Anyway, I proceeded to run upstairs and saw the same disaster. All of my office belongings were gone; computer, two monitors, printer, DVD burners, etc.

While prying a little further into the office I noticed that my three hundred pound safe was gone too. Also, while looking I noticed my video camera was gone as well as a few other non important items.

After I noticed everything that was stolen I called the police and made my statement. After three hours of crap including canceling my credit cards (they were in the safe), calling the insurance company, and dealing with CSI like investigators, I was finally done.

Here is what I want to teach you. On a scheduled basis make sure you check your doors and windows to maintain security.

The problem I had was old employees. I ran my landscaping business out of my home and often let fellow employees come in for a bit while I was getting things ready. While one of them were in my house they must have unlocked the window. Since they were there they had a general idea of when I was home and when I stayed at the girlfriend’s house. Once the window was unlocked they waited until my scheduled overnight stay and took me for everything I was worth.

Rule number one is to NEVER let an employee in your house, especially new ones. Rule number two is ideally have you business meeting place somewhere else other than your home. And the third rule is to check all of your window locks before going on a trip or anywhere you might be gone for the night.

Because of my carelessness it cost me near $7000.00 in stolen property, not to mention the time wasted. Just be sure you have a plan of action and stick to it. If you have an alarm in your house then that’s great. If not just periodically check everything and you should be fine. I will have part two of this series up by the end of the week so check back in for some more articles.