Hi,

A year an a half ago we bought our new home. It's an end of terrace at the end of a cul-de-sac. When we moved in we kind of figured out that it had previously been burgled because the French doors at the back had different handled and there are marks on it from it being jimmyed open. Anyway, when we moved in I got a Yale Easyfit smartphone alarm and me and my dad installed it. I figured that having an alarm would help deter anyone and they would burgled somewhere else.

Anyway, last night at 8pm the alarm beeped and I got a notification on my phone saying that a 'Jam detected' and then another notification 30 seconds later saying 'no jam'.

 

I didn't sleep a wink last night because I was concerned about getting robbed. So I've ordered a Patlock to go over the French door handles and am going to install CCTV this weekend (once I've looked into this further).

Are jams common or is someone trying to interfere with our alarm?

Edited May 9, 20178 yr by James Freeman

To be honest its unlikely to be sabotage, Yale uses one way old tech radio and its more likely a taxi or some over form of radio interference.

Its all about what type of burglar you are likely to get, and the very fact that you have chosen to diy a Yale alarm tells me that you are unlikely to have high value contents, therefore the type of burglar you would get is likely to be more opportunist than than professional. Any burglar investing in technology to Jam wireless systems are looking for something worth getting caught for. 

 

My advice would be not to rush into getting CCTV the same as you rushed into getting a (terrible quality) alarm.

 

Yale are regarded as 'tat' by professional installers, and the likelyhood is as much that the 'jamming' (this can be caused by any emission at the same frequency as the alarm uses, and the alarm obviously

has no idea if it is intentional or accidental) was a nearby heating controller, spurious emission, or even one of it's own devices. It's likely you may never know the actual cause.

 

In 'real life' burglars don't bother with electronic countermeasures (even Hatton Garden appears to be a 'good old fashioned blag') they just smash their way in and get what they want.

The fact you have a shiny Yale lid (although they are, IMHO, and most others, terrible) is half the battle in persuading them to try the next house along, although some less addled thugs may see Yale
and think 'probably doesn't work, probably isn't set' as compared to a clean, branded lid that looks as if it's been properly installed and looked after.

 

All CCTV will do is confirm that the door swinging open and no TV you see with your own eyes, isn't just a bad dream, along with some pictures of men in trakky bottoms with ski masks on who left 6 hours previously.

And cheap / crap / rush installed CCTV will just confirm the above in appalling resolution (or not at all if it's night!).

Edited May 9, 20178 yr by datadiffusion

17 minutes ago, datadiffusion said:

 

 

In 'real life' burglars don't bother with electronic countermeasures (even Hatton Garden appears to be a 'good old fashioned blag') they just smash their way in and get what they want.

 

Mostly they dont but I have experience some that have tried and failed, high tech is mostly used to steal cars than get around burglar alarms. Again they wouldnt spend £1k upwards to steal a Skoda though

Why not? the 1k is not per car...

I actually thought that the code cracking part of the bypass *was* centralised by east-euro / Russian gangs who charge £££ 'per car' so that only high end stuff like Range Rovers were 'worth it'?

 

A bit like phone unlocking where the software is free, the hardware (if any) is cheap, but the codes are charged per go...

Edited May 9, 20178 yr by datadiffusion

Not bad for a diyer though lol, most Yale alarm i see , sit around with a fault or they never get it work let alone on the app, 

2 hours ago, datadiffusion said:

I actually thought that the code cracking part of the bypass *was* centralised by east-euro / Russian gangs who charge £££ 'per car' so that only high end stuff like Range Rovers were 'worth it'?

 

A bit like phone unlocking where the software is free, the hardware (if any) is cheap, but the codes are charged per go...

No idea, but I have noticed that range extenders are creeping in for theft with the keyless vehicles, like any kit buy it once and thieve multiple times, the more you take the cheaper the device becomes...

 

Ok, thanks for the reassurance. I did think about having a paid for alarm, but couldn't justify the monthly cost. I only wanted an alarm to help deter burglars and hope they would move on to the next house without an alarm. I think I'd still like to install cctv as another layer of security as it really has spooked me!

Professional alarms dont all come with a monthly cost. 

3 hours ago, norman said:

Why not? the 1k is not per car...

It depends on the skoda I suppose