Deterrents

Pick in 10 seconds

• If the house sits dark and empty in the evening → the fake TV simulator, which switches itself on at dusk.
• If the approach is dark → the solar motion security light. For a shed or gate with no outlet, the solar motion siren + strobe.
• If you want the house to look watched from the street → a decoy camera with a blinking LED and the surveillance warning sign.
• If you want to know before anyone reaches the door → the wireless driveway alarm.
• If you want a cheap alarm on every door that opens → the door and window entry alarm 4-pack.
• If your glass already carries TremShield alarms → alarm warning decals say so from the walkway.

Deterrence: winning the fight that never starts

Deterrents work on the decision a burglar makes from the sidewalk, before your locks are ever tested, and they are some of the cheapest security you can buy. What the evidence says is in our article on fake cameras and signs and in what deters burglars.

Make the house look watched

The decoy camera looks and blinks like a wired camera. It records nothing, runs about a year on two AA batteries, and goes up with two screws outdoors or tape indoors. Mount it high, angled at the path a visitor walks. The 24-hour surveillance sign is 8 by 12 inches of weatherproof metal; screw it to a gate or post, or zip-tie it to chain-link if you rent.

On the glass, alarm warning decals read "Warning: 125 dB alarm will sound". On a pane with a TremShield alarm behind it, that is a description, not a bluff.

Make the house look occupied

The TV simulator flickers in color like a real screen through curtains, switches on at dusk with its light sensor and off 4 or 7 hours later, and uses about as much power as a small nightlight. The solar motion light has three heads you aim at a corner, a path and a doorway, and charges itself. The evidence on each is in do fake TV lights deter burglars and do motion sensor lights deter burglars. Both earn the most while you travel: run the pre-trip security checklist before you leave.

Know when someone is close

The driveway alarm comes with two sensors that catch movement up to 24 feet out and chime on a plug-in receiver indoors, up to 400 feet away. Aim them across the path, not at the road. For the shed, the side gate or the back of a detached garage, the solar motion siren sounds 110 dB with a red strobe when a warm body crosses it, and has strobe-only modes for spots near a neighbor's window. Porch deliveries have their own plan in how to stop package theft.

Deterrents shape decisions; they don't stop hands

Spend in this order. First, one occupancy signal: the TV simulator or a motion light. Second, one watched signal: the decoy camera plus the sign where it is easy to read. Third, make the story true up close. The entry alarm 4-pack sounds up to 125 dB when a door or window is opened. The TremShield vibration alarm goes earlier: it sticks to the glass and sounds at 125 dB when the pane is struck or pried, while the person is still outside. Nothing to pair, nothing billed monthly.

A home that looks lived-in, looks watched and gets loud at the glass is the one a burglar walks past. Cover the reachable windows with six alarms for $99, $16.50 each, with 2 free no-drill window locks, or let the 60-second alarm finder place them. Locks for the openings themselves are in Window Security and Door Security.