Most people don’t have bodyguards. Bodyguards are generally only for the rich and famous. Government officials, movie stars, musicians, top corporate executives…you know, those people we’re not! You have to have a pretty good income to be able to afford even the most basic bodyguards. If you want one that’s really good, you better have some deep pockets.
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Well, boys and girls, my beautiful girlfriend and I are neither rich nor famous, but we have hired a guard of our own. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, we have someone watching our house. Not a person, but a monitored alarm system. Every entrance to our house is monitored against intruders. Each door and each window has a sensor. And, in case one of them fails, we have passive infrared motion sensors throughout the house that will detect anyone who moves inside. There are also glass break sensors that will detect someone breaking a window. Each sensor reports as a different “zone” to the alarm company, so they can tell the police where to look for trouble. There are extremely loud sirens inside and out that will alert anyone at home and also my neighbors if there is a break-in or fire. Speaking of fires, there are not only hardwired smoke detectors throughout the house, but also heat detectors in the kitchen. They alert our alarm company with a different signal, so they know to call the fire department right away, instead of the police.
So whether I’m home or away, I know someone is protecting my house. If my wife is home alone, the alarm is on and if an intruder tried to break in, the alarm would go off. Immediately a deafening siren would sound, as well as the monitoring station calling the police. In the meantime, my wife would be alerted and would have enough time to go to our safe room, arm herself and wait for the police to arrive. If there is a fire, the alarm will sound and the fire department will be alerted immediately, as well as waking up my neighbors.
I get all this protection for about $25 a month. Yes, less than a dollar a day pays a guard for my house and my wife when she is there and I am not. It is not infallible. There are people who know how to get around those things. Those people usually won’t be interested in the small amount they can get by burglarizing my house. They go for much bigger goals. I see it as an insurance policy. (And speaking of insurance, we get a discount on our homeowners insurance for having the system. So it actually costs even less in the long run.) I hope we never need it, but it’s there just in case. Another tool to help our chances of survival in an emergency. Well worth the cost, in my opinion.