Comment by naturalmovement
1 day ago
> In the future I'm going to add a local battery backed alarm
Wait, you have an office full of expensive equipment but decided to half-ass DIY the security? No wonder you were targeted.
A proper monitored alarm system would have prevented this. They pretty much all have built-in cellular backup now. Do yourself a favor next time and call a professional.
Don't blow your entire budget on cameras then wonder if you need an alarm system because the only good the cameras will serve is to watch your stuff disappear. You mentioned California so expect these guys to be roaming free in short order if they see any jail time at all. Good luck with seeing any restitution or getting your stuff back.
You'd think. However, this is a rural area with a sheriffs department that has budget constraints. I know of 2 shops with monitored alarm systems that were successfully robbed over the last 5 years because by the time anyone followed up they were gone.
Your statement that "a proper monitored alarm system would have prevented this" is optimistic. I never had any particular expectation that if somewhat intelligent criminals decided to break in when no one was there that I wasn't going to lose whatever they could get at. The cameras let me document what happened and when and what was taken. If the imagery ends up having any other value that's a bonus rather than the point.
Yes sheriff's dept response times can be terrible. But someone could have been there a lot sooner, and it does put pressure on the perpetrators. I would suggest trying to find out why you were targeted, if the establishment was cased beforehand, etc. These crimes are not usually random.
Good luck figuring that out.
Chances are, the thieves were monitoring the local dispatch over the radio (rural departments are not usually doing anything fancy) and knew exactly how long they had.