Tweedpipe

It was the recent post on home insurance that prompted the following thoughts.
Do you feel safe in your French home?

Security is something I've taken a particular interest in.
When we moved-in some 5 years ago - to what I consider a fairly modest property, a good, professionally-installed home alarm system was one of the first top priorities.
Statistics show that house break-ins have increased at an alarming rate over the last few years, and continue to do so. And secondary residences are especially known to be high risk. Imho, one would be foolish these days not to have insurance cover and a good alarm system on any property - especially secondary homes.
Frequent media reports show that there are on average 1.5 burglaries/minute in France - over 900/day which peaked at some 382,000 during 2013. That to me, is an alarming number!
If one reads the French press regularly, pensioners in particular would appear to be frequent targets, often with tragic consequences.

We're located in a fairly quiet, small, rural area, but even here burglaries have shown to be on the increase. Although we're not isolated as such, and have neighbours each side and opposite (two of which - without alarm systems - have had break-ins over the last 2 years) I'm a firm believer in 'belt & braces', and for additional assurance and peace of mind, also keep a legally registered, non-lethal, large rubber-bullet arm - in the bedside table. I fully recognise this to be only an additional deterrent - and nothing more.

There's a site - which I'll try and find and provide a link to - which gives some very interesting details on burglaries in France, and provides a real-time counter of burglaries since Jan 2014. It was a site I found when investigating residential alarm products for ourselves, and was interested to see that the site was a general statistical data-base, and not sponsored by any of the alarm companies. One assumes therefore that the information given is unbiased.

On a related subject (that of theft), some will be aware that not all SNCF delays have been due to industrial strikes. Many are attributed to rail-side, and overhead electrical rail, copper cables being cut and stolen in the early hours. This has been going on for some time and has been reported to be reaching near 'epidemic' proportions, resulting in drones now operating in many areas in a detection role.
And another new 'plague'; a number of wind-farms have had their towers broken into, and copper components removed. This is proving to be enormously expensive for many communities to rectify, certainly something not calculated into the original maintenance costs, which ultimately will result in higher than expected local taxes.

Equally worrying are reports of many vineyard owners having large quantities of vines uprooted and stolen overnight. And it doesn't stop there. Recently there have been numerous reports of beehives stolen. And this too, an apparent profitable soft target, unfortunately appears to be on the increase.

I also have a site bookmarked 'Les Voitures les Plus Volées en France en 2103' (Top 10 most stolen cars in France) which makes for interesting reading, especially for those considering a new purchase.

Returning to home security alarms, I cannot stress that it really pays to purchase from a recommended, well-established company. We were contacted last month to learn that there were a batch of 'back-up' batteries that were considered potentially faulty with a certain product, and the company suggested they be changed. The original installer arrived, changed six batteries, and checked-out the system all free of charge.
For those who may have placed the importance of, say, a satellite-dish purchase over that of an alarm system, I can assure you that the latter gives far more reassurance whilst one is out for the day, or on longer extended holidays away from home.
Stay safe.

grannybunz

Tweedpipe, I know it is better to be safe than sorry and we have had a few thefts in our small hamlet - ostly from cars parked in the communal space before Christmas with parcels left inside.

We don't have an alarm but we have connecting houses with good neighbours on 5 sides - we are part of an ancient Mas. Although we can't hear neighbours we are accutely aware of any unusual goings on and we always tell each other if we are away, even overnight.

Two houses have been burgled in the hameau in the 20 odd years we have been here. Both were detatched houses in their own grounds and both had alarms. Because they have high walls around them one can't see what is going on. In one, during the works to instal the new mains drains, he left the house unlocked and unalarmed and a white van ( one of many coming and going) drove up and removed all his computers, tvs etc.

At the other - again high walls, the travelling cherry pickers removed the garden furniture and ornaments through the unlocked gate

Call us nosy if you like, but most of us are very aware of any strange vehicle or person. We are also well lit and if the security lights go on everyone is up checking.

I used to be in charge of our neighbourhood watch in the UK and the main problem for me and the police liason officer was always that neighbours would simply not talk to or co-operate with other neighbours. They thought they were above it

bigglesworth

We have four dogs.


Sorted.

(Although recently one of our neighbours was absolutely distraught because someone had taken a bag of chicken feed from another neighbours store in the village. That was the first theft she could remember. And Arlette is 72!) Difficult to get out of the English mindset of locking everything always though.

Tweedpipe

Found the link I was referring to. It's interesting to see the count change in real-time whilst logged on.
Planetoscope - Statistiques : Nombre de cambriolages en France

@BigglesW,
We have a large, impressive boxer which makes us feel a little more secure, although I wouldn't like to depend on him as the only line of defense. If any potential intruders pronounced the words 'play' or 'walk' in English with the correct intonation, perhaps they'd get a warm welcome.
Also one cannot count on a dog whilst away on vacation, unless one uses a house/dog-sitter.

Novocastrian

This is true, we arrived back here in Normandy after an absence of nearly 9 months at about 2 pm today.

Apart from a bit of damp here and there and a flat battery (since dealt with) in the car we bought last year, no problems so far.

I don't think a dog living here would have helped that much.

cupoftea

I have never locked my house or my car. Not a single incident to report. Even leave car unlocked while I am at work.

bigglesworth

Knowing me TP I would forget to switch an alarm on. And if I did I could not switch it back on.

Dogs don't have an off switch.
Anyway, it's just things. If we are out I would worry more about any harm to our dogs.

If we were in, I really would worry about the harm to anyone who tried to hurt us. Ours are all mutts of varying size. But good dogs. Pack dogs are a wholly different thing to a dog on its own.

cyrian

I have a friend in the USA who inherited a wood [small forest].
It got stolen.
A team of lumberjacks came and cut the lot down.
He didn't have an alarm or dogs

bigglesworth

And there wasn't a single bark!


Woof Woof

Tweedpipe

Ok, now admit it! You live in Palermo and known to everyone as the Godfather....

Scots in Treignac

Regarding safety.

My fire alarm almost burnt the house down. The Highland Fire brigade recommended we hard wire the alarms because we have a 90 yr old in the house. By chance we were attending her at 4 am when we noticed sparks at one of the alarms. There was a smell of burning, so I knocked off the power. The electrician told us the burning had caused the alarm to fail.

I hate to think what could have happened as the next alarms are not that close. We have read that the alarms should be vacuumed 6 months to a year- but we'd only had it for moths or less

cupoftea

Ah yes, you have me sussed!

Seriously though, I would rather not spend my life worrying about what could/might happen to my material possessions. That level of anxiety I can live without, and it seems to me that the bigger the fortress, the more interesting it becomes ..... maybe encouraging people to take up the challenge and that the prize will be worth it when they do. At least I won't have to repair the damage caused by forced entry as well as everything else!

Chatter Static

The only thing that vanishes in Intermarche car parks is your paint work.

bigglesworth

So very true. I have tried leaving the very badly chipped cars unlocked in the hope someone would steal it and I could claim on the insurance.
But nobody has

Chatter Static

Yes I have seen your car as well