Have A Job? Take Vacations? Get A Home Alarm System

In recent years Americans have been taking more and more days off for vacation. This trend has been spurred, in part, by studies that have found that employees perform better with a break about every 3-4 months. While the increased time has lessened stress for many employees in the work place it has also inadvertently increased the chance of being burglarized as people spend more time away from their home for extended periods of time.

A study by business.salary.com shows that, on average, an employee with 10 years on the job receives 25 days of paid vacation per year. Those days do not include holidays or weekends. What this means is that the average employee has up to 5 full weeks for vacation each year.

If you are thinking that there is little chance that your home can be burglarized consider the statistics revealed recently by the FBI, which demonstrate how prevalent home burglaries are. The annual report is very extensive but here are some of the most shocking statistics the report revealed:

• In 2011 there were 2,188,005 reported burglaries in the United States.
• The number of burglaries increased from 2010 to 2011.
• 60.6% of the burglaries were forced entry.
• 6.3% were forced entry attempts. All other burglaries were unlawful entries but without force.
• Burglaries of residential areas accounted for 74.5% of all burglaries.
• Victims of burglaries suffered an estimated $4.8 billion in lost property. The average dollar loss per burglary was $2,185.
• 84.3% of burglaries occur in metropolitan areas.

Not convinced yet? Take a look at some of the statistics concerning the typical victim of a burglary:

• 79.2% of Americans live in metropolitan or urban areas.
• Only 15% of homes in the United States have security systems.
• 41% of homes with security systems that were burglarized had their system turned off at the time of the burglary. All homes with a security system have a 60% success rate of preventing burglaries.
• The majority of residential burglaries take place while no one is home.

The vast majority of burglaries take place in metropolitan areas and an even larger percentage of Americans live in these same areas. If you were thinking that a burglary is something that only takes place in the inner city then consider that a metropolitan area is defined as any area with a population over 2,500 people.

You should also consider that most burglaries take place when no residents were at home. This includes time spent at work and time spent out of town. Despite the huge number of burglaries happening in urban areas most people still feel that they do not need an alarm system. As shown above, alarm systems are effective in preventing a little over 60% of attempted burglaries; but the statistics reveal that about 40% of alarm systems were not on at the time of the burglary.

Even 5 to 10 years ago security systems were largely inadequate and this likely led many Americans to disregard the improvements of modern alarm systems. Improved technology, however, have made home alarm systems a sure defense against burglary. So if you live in a metropolitan area, are outside of your house regularly and do not have a security system or do not turn it on then you are at risk of being burglarized.