Saturday, March 01, 2008

PUT YOUR CAR KEYS' REMOTE BESIDE YOUR BED AT NIGHT

PUT YOUR CAR KEYS' REMOTE
BESIDE YOUR BED AT NIGHT
Saturday
, March 01, 2008


The following is, in part, from an email going around, (original author not know – but thanks go out to my friend, Mr. GarrettT for sharing it with us.)

It goes as follows:

Tell your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your parents, your Dr.'s Office, the check-out girl at the market, everyone you run across.

Put your remote for your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button on the remote for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this:

It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the remote. It works if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break in your house, odds are the burglar/rapist won't stick around... after a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won't want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there...

This is something that should really be shared with everyone. Maybe it could save a life or a sexual abuse crime...

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Now... Here’s some real helpful info I found in a Plano Police Department Publication... (It was on page 3 of the Crime Times Newsletter.)

It goes as follows:

Ask Officer Dawson…


Question: Is it a good idea to put a set of your car keys beside your bed at night? If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

Answer: If you're lying in bed when the burglary or the sexual assault suspect enters your house and you want to set your car alarm off, go ahead. Personally, I'm calling 911. If you can push one button, (car alarm,) you can push three, (911.) Rather than putting your car keys next to your bed put a telephone, not a cord less one, but a corded one. Get a corded (land-line) phone that plugs into the wall so the key pad will be back-lighted when you pick up the receiver. Therefore you can plainly see the numbers as you call the police in the middle of the night. Cordless phones are most always dark. Doing it my way ensures help is coming.

Doing it your way…
1. First you have to remember to put your keys on the night stand - whereas your corded phone is always there.

2. You'll have to find a much smaller object in darkness – keys verses phone.

3. Your key fob has multiple buttons in it; "Lock, Unlock, Alarm, Trunk release, Start, etc". In a panic situation, which button is the alarm? How long do you have to hold it for the alarm to go off?

4. Once the alarm is going off, you're depending on your neighbors to wake from a dead sleep to a noise that's coming from in side a closed garage in a house somewhere on their street. Do you think you would be able to do that… with your windows closed and the air conditioner running? I know I wouldn't, I don't even wake up during thunder storms. Then you're depending on them to call the police rather than roll over and go back to sleep, annoyed that they were awakened in the first place.

5. They have to try to identify which side of the alley the noise is coming from. Then try to pinpoint which house.

6. Then they have to call the police - which is highly unlikely because people don't even do that when a car alarm goes off on the parking lot of a mall in broad daylight. Nowadays car alarms are looked at as more of a nuisance than a deterrent to crime.

7. But just for kicks, let's say you live in a neighbor hood of first rate crime fighters and light sleepers. They hear your alarm going off, instantly they locate their phone and call the police to ex plain the situation. By the time this occurs and we drive to the location the car alarm has long since re set it self and the neighbor hood is quiet as a church mouse. Now here we are, driving around trying to locate a possible crime in progress. We have no idea where the alarm was coming from, whether it was an at tempted BMV (Burglary of a Motor Vehicle) or whether the alarm simply went off because some one got to close to the car as they were driving down your alley. Or some one re ally is in side your house at tempting to harm you. We can not go around your neighbor hood knocking on your neighbors doors in the middle of the night asking if everything's okay because a car alarm went off.

There's just so many things that have to go just right in order for your plan to work. Whereas my plan gets you the help you need fast. Get a corded phone with a lighted keypad and put it next to your bed. Call "911" immediately if anything goes wrong. That beats a car alarm any day.

If you have any personal safety or crime prevention questions, please e-mail Officer Mark Dawson at markda@plano.gov.

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I for one like the combination of using both ideas!
But... that’s just me...

Have a great weekend everyone!!!
AubreyJ.........

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