Best Security Products blog

It can be a scary feeling – to be busy with your tasks or even sleeping and then to hear your alarm sound. Panic can set in immediately. But when we panic, we can make bad decisions, so it is best to be prepared with a plan ahead of time. If you spend some time thinking about what to do when your alarm sounds before it goes off, you will be in a much better position to make the right choices when the real thing happens.

The first, most obvious thing to do is to determine whether the alarm is going off because there is a real emergency or whether it has been tripped by accident. Perhaps someone is working with the control panel or a child is playing with it.

If it is a false alarm, simply turn the alarm off and set it back to the desired setting. Check with your monitoring service to find out how long you have before they consider the alarm an emergency. You may have 30 seconds or so to turn the alarm off before your monitoring company considers it an emergency.

If the alarm is real, consider the following list to help you make the right decision quickly when your alarm sounds:

1. If it is a fire alarm, leave the premises immediately. Your monitoring service will contact the fire department for you.

2. If it is a burglar alarm, decide whether you can get out of the house safely. Press the panic button on your system if possible. If you cannot get out safely, cooperate with the offenders until help arrives.

3. If the alarm is your carbon monoxide detector, leave the home and contact 911. Do not stay in the home, because you can be overtaken by the dangerous gas.

Best Security Products can help you choose a Honeywell home alarm system that will protect your family. Are you ready for peace of mind? Give us a call or email us at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com

When you think about home security, landscaping probably is not the first thing that comes to mind, but your landscaping plays a huge role in the security of your home.

The first thing to keep in mind is the fact that burglars like to hide. They like to hide while they are planning their break-in and they like to hide as they actually enter and leave your home. If you have large landscaping around your home, you are making it easier for them.

Large bushes and trees up close to the house, especially those near windows and doors, make it convenient for burglars to burglarize your home. Additionally, taller landscaping items, such as trees and trellises, offer the burglar a way to break directly into an upstairs window or balcony door.

This does not mean, however, that you cannot have landscaping close to your home. You certainly can! The secret is to make the landscaping unfriendly and uninviting to burglars.

Firethorn is a good home security landscaping choice. While this plan has white flowers and colorful berries, it also has a stem with thorns on it that can discourage burglars. If they have to fight their way through thorns to access a window, they may decide it is not worth the trouble!

The Blue Pine is another plant that, with maintenance, can be kept to a desirable small size (so burglars will not be tempted to use it for a hiding place), but it has needles which would be very uncomfortable to tangle with!

It is important to remember that high on the priority list when a burglar is choosing a home to burglarize is how quickly they can get in and out of the home and how much trouble it will be. The harder and more uncomfortable you make it for a burglar to rob your home, the less likely he will be to stay around and put forth the effort.

Best Security Products can help you choose a Honeywell home alarm system that will protect your family. Are you ready for peace of mind? Give us a call or email us at 1-800–988–2378 sales@bestsecurityproducts.com

As a business owner, you know firsthand the threat shoplifters pose against your business. Retailers lost a staggering $44 billion in 2014 due to shoplifting.¹

Why is so much money lost to shoplifters? Shoplifting is an easy way for people to steal from you. They have open access to large amounts of inventory, and you and your employees can only watch so many people at once, while also doing your jobs.

And while there are some common traits that can help you identify a shoplifter (for example – they are watching staff more than they are looking at merchandise, they stay in obscure areas of the store and they avoid eye contact), not all shoplifters are easy to spot.

You can, however, do a lot to protect your business from loss due to shoplifters. Here are some tips:

1. Install a video surveillance system. Security cameras go a long way towards not only discouraging shoplifting, but if you use high quality cameras, the video footage can help law enforcement to identify and catch the shoplifter.

2. Install convex mirrors in your store. These mirrors will aid you and your employees in seeing corners and aisles more easily.

3. Hire a greeter. Having someone to greet visitors as they come in can reduce shoplifting. Walmart discovered that shoplifting was reduced by as much as 35% when they had greeters.² This same person can be tasked to speak to customers on their way out of your store as well. Some stores are now having the customer present their receipt to the greeter. This dual contact with an employee can be a powerful deterrent against shoplifting.

4. Station attendants at dressing rooms. If your business has dressing rooms, hire attendants to monitor the number of garments that customers take into and out of the dressing rooms.

^{1 http://losspreventionmedia.com/insider/shoplifting-organized-retail-crime/shedding-light-on-retail-theft-statistics/
2 http://smart-retailer.com/growyourbiz/retailmanagement/reduce-your-chance-of-theft/}