Fun With Security Systems

[azurelunatic]

OK, great minds. Our heroine has just been presented with a new security system (on the house where she will now be living), and has only been told, "Remember, you’re always going to have to disarm everything before unlocking it," and, "Three bad tries and it calls the security company even if you do get it right after that."

She has been offered the manual to read, and has declined. (Heh, heh.)

What delightfully embarrassing mishaps can ensue with this new gadget? Keep in mind that this is a teenage kid, and her parents (her mother in particular) are the ones in charge of doing things with this security system, and the only command she's learned so far is the code she has to put in before unlocking the door from the outside.

Comments

[blackavar.livejournal.com]

Well, there are the obvious ones...try to bypass the system or get around a sensor and fail embarassingly, or even better-successfully bypass one set of sensors and get trapped someplace really embarrassing and be unable to go forward or back without triggering the alarm. Does our heroine wait until someone legitimate enters the code and *then* try to escape the embarrassing situation?

[lilerthkwake.livejournal.com]

I was staying at a friend's house over the weekend and got up at 5 a.m. to do my morning shift at McDonald's. I was careful to get dressed and put together quietly. As I was reaching for the doorknob to leave, I thought to myself, "Wow. They don't have a deadbolt here. That's not smart." And just as I turned the knob and cracked the door open--Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!--I remembered why they DIDN'T have a deadbolt. Her parents were totally understanding, but I was so embarrassed.

So, yeah...there's something a little embarrassing.

Also, at my previous job we had an alarm system that we would often trip. No biggie. Just had to call the alarm company to say, "Hey, it's me, oops, don't send the police." And to prove we actually worked for the company we had to give the access code, which is different from the de-alarming code and which is picked by the alarm people and not by you--hence, not easily remembered. Perhaps your MC could have this happen, and the police come and lead her away because she can't prove she lives at the house!!

Hope this helps. ;)

[azurelunatic]

That was a definite help.

More embarrassing than her screwing up with the system: her parents screwing up with the system. The dispatched team of deputies provide a useful deus ex machina for a brawl. Heh.

*From a security expert*

[apothsis.livejournal.com]

Since the question is what can happen, not how to break it, I can make the following assumptions.

If it is a Drywire (hard line) ADT type, Forgetting to turn off any of the house zones will cause the ADT patrol (or their subcontractors, if they are in an enclave, or the local police) to arrive, ask for proof of residence,and a password.

After 3 times of coming out,they start -billing- the account for each visit.

After 10 times, they will suspend the service.

You could have parties busted up, and yes, if there is nobody over 18 there, code or not, they WILL attempt to contact an adult.

Think about how much trouble that can be.

Re: *From a security expert*

[azurelunatic]

First off: thank you for your help!

Second, more questions:

If there is a fight in progress when the security company representatives arrive, especially if someone from the household opens the door and says that there is a problem, would there be breaking up of the fight and restraining the combatants first, and asking the detailed questions second? At what point might the security company call the actual police?

Also, what sorts of proof of residence is typically asked?

In this scenario that just unfolded in my plot, someone (the man of the house, actually) has forgotten to disarm the door alarm before opening it to admit the moving company. Near-immediately afterwards, after the security company is on its way to investigate a possible break-in, a brawl erupts between the moving company and the household; the older teenager (the one who would ordinarily be throwing wild parties) is the only household member uninvolved. I have her answering the door for the security company (would they knock or just barge in? I have them knocking) and giving her name, the fact that she lives in the household, and the security code that one uses to disarm the doors, and saying that there's actually a bit of a problem. Open door fully on the scene of a six-person brawl.

The security team restrains all combatants; by this point, they've called the police (somewhere in the process), and are intent on waiting to straighten out what looks to be a complex and tangled mess when the police arrive.

Is someone else in the uniform of the problematical moving crew likely to be restrained in the process just on principle, or if he's standing well back from the fray not looking threatening, would he likely be able to not be cuffed?

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

No alarm-monitoring service I've ever had sends "security" to respond to an alarm. The service makes a phone call, and if whoever answers doesn't give the correct "don't send the cops" password in ONE try, there will soon be a visit from Actual Police With Legal Jurisdiction Over That Address.

Just to clarify.

[azurelunatic]

If there's no response to a phone call (one phone in the house plugged in, perhaps, and no answer), that would mean a response team of some sort.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

First comes the Backup Phone Calls: call the homeowner's cell or work number, a designated neighbor, etc.

Next step: send the police.

Security firms that monitor people's homes don't seem to have their own in-house response teams.

[azurelunatic]

Cellphone's turned off, and he's not at work 'cause he's in the process of moving. Neighbors are too new to be designated. So. Send forth the deputies! (It's a small town.)

[azurelunatic]

Heh. OK, when the altercation is still in the verbal phase, the phone rings upstairs and no one answers. She brushes it off as "no one important would have the number so soon".

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

This works...and then 10 minutes (or whatever) later, the cops arrive to a "Domestic Dispute" in progress. With none of the participants prepared for it.... heh.

[azurelunatic]

Exactly.