Lots of people keep it on during the day! Especially if we're not frequently in and out. Example: I work most of the day in my office at the back of the house and wouldn't hear someone breaking down the front door, let alone climbing through a window :/ I have office machines, TV or radio on alwayys and I'd ESPECIALLY hate to be caught unawares while sitting on the pot. Some bathrooms have fans (lol) that turn on when you turn on the light and I would never hear anything when I'm in there.
Many crimes are crimes of opportunity and if the house looks like no one's home, they'll take a chance - smash, grab and go. It's always on so I have to turn it off to open the door and get deliveries, but I don't mind that a bit. Nothing's foolproof when criminals want to break in, but I feel safer in my mind at least.
I'd be absolutely paranoid if I lived/worked in a house of 10,000 sf! That's incredibly huge and especially with old homes built so solidly, it could be doubtful you'd hear what's going on in another part of the house depending on where you are vs a break-in.
I do understand people feeling a little more secure when other people are in the house, though, and maybe not arming the system, but not me. It happens once, you don't take it for granted again.
In terms of this case, we do not yet know if the security system was armed and then under duress AS forced to disarm it or if as one poster reported based on a news story the kick was delivered to an alarm sensor before entering. It seems SS and family were security-minded in that they had a security system, a large safe, and SS being a trained martial arts expert would likely be vigilant and feel prepared--my partner took lots of Tai Kwando and in discussing his training with me said the coach would go through various scenarios having to do with staying focused, alert, and prepared even walking down the street, what to do in the event of being followed to AVOID having to get in a scuffle etc.
But when "nothing like this has ever happened here before" prevails as a rule, we do tend to feel safer than we would in a neighborhood where we knew there was burglary, car theft, garages broken in to.
My mother refers to my paranoia about these matters as "big city paranoia." She lives in an extremely quiet, almost dead cul-de sac in the suburbs and comes and goes leaving the doors unlocked. I am always remonstrating with her and citing cases, but during the day she has a perception of safety and given forty years in her house with only one or two incidents of non-violent crimes in her neighborhood, she has a mind-set and finds it inconvenient to lock and unlock doors as she ends up locked out and having to get the extra set. She has a dog with a loud bark and I think this gives her an illusion of safety too.
Though the dog is definitely a watch-dog type (German Shepherd mix) we do not know how she would actually react to a break in or how some one targeting the house would react to the dog. I try to tell her this, that the dog could be hurt or shaken up.
Now my mother is not reckless nor are her neighbors in other parts of her town who last year were surprised to be burgled during the day while leaving doors unlocked.
It is just an adjustment many people see as unneeded fuss and history tells them they don't have to go to "extremes" that will demand rigorous consistency and possibly inconvenience to themselves and others.
We do not know if the SS household could have prevented this grave tragedy. When one is targeted and the criminals have impulsive and go for broke attitudes, they might find a way to get to one in daylight while one is getting into a car or walking the dog.
I would definitely feel on guard in a large, multiple storied lay-out with hedges to protect a potential psycho or thief from being viewed looking in on my houses through so many windows, but that's me. I lock the doors and windows if I take a shower!
AS could have been expecting her husband to come home possibly, the housekeeper to be leaving, and that her house would not make a good target due to levels of security in the whole area, an official residence across the street, and again, a "two-edged sword", those windows. JMO
Because I was held up at gunpoint on a terribly busy block in the middle of the day with crowded businesses and passerby a few feet away from me (in a small consignment shop where many women shoppers came in and out), I tend to feel "it" can come out of the blue when and where least expected.
On the other hand when I worked on a campus known for crime late into the night as my whole building would be shut down and I had to make my way to the notorious tiered parking lot past hedges with very few leaving at the same time, I was too embarrassed to call a guard to escort me, despite signs all around telling us to use that service. Many, many times in many, many situations I have taken chances and relied on the odds to protect me and a scream or keys in my hand.
The thing is we are really quite vulnerable in a house once a person gets in and no matter how close our neighbors, dogs, alarms, a gun, the curb with people and cars going by--we can just be ambushed in seconds and forced into total compliance which bypasses all of these "safe-guards."
Sorry to be so grim.
I do believe this incident, whatever the precautions against it or lack of same, will change the way people in similar life-styles conduct their day to day security.
Still, I think this was a mad, reckless, evil crime perpetrated by an unbalanced person/s who thought themselves impervious to the law and who wanted something badly enough at that moment that they would just "go for it" no matter the consequences. JMO JMO
