Home Security Systems aren’t just for vacations!
Use them every time you leave the home empty!
Few intruders will persist with an alarm blaring.
Depending on your circumstances, you may want to set the alarm before tucking yourself in at night.
If you’re armed, your weapon should be accessible to you, but not a stranger or a child.
Its location should allow you to be in a defensible position within seconds.
Those with alarm buttons on their car keys should keep one close to bedside so it can be activated if someone breaks in while you are sleeping. Also, many stores carry portable boat alarms that can be kept bedside. They are VERY loud, I bought mine (large size) at Wally World for less than$20.00. It's also useful for treks into the woods and scaring off animals. I imagine most sporting goods stores would carry them.
All the houses in our neighborhood that are hit do not have alarm systems. They walk/drive right by the ones with alarm system signs out front.
“Few intruders will persist with an alarm blaring.”
Correct. A key point here is to make it AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE for the bad guy to find the alarm controller and disable it. You need to have the controller, and the horn, in places where it will be difficult for a criminal to find. So, if the controller is in a closet - then secure the closet door, as if it’s an exterior door. Make him spend a LOT of time trying to get through it, to get to the controller. Same for the horn.
Hell, you may want the alarm on any time you’re home!
Consider if the kids in the story at the link had had the alarm on. That said, they also could have been playing out in the yard or the pool when these thugs showed up.
At the minimum, if you have someone in the home who is someone defenseless (for example, disabled to some degree), I’d think about using the alarm all the time.