The Cost of a Break-In

What we pay, and pay for, in order to feel safe

On my little family’s first stop on our car trip this weekend, to see old friends with a new baby in West Philly, we had to share billing with several uniformed members of the police. The night before, someone had broken into our friends’ house. Nothing was taken; our friends, W. and H., who were asleep upstairs, heard noises and their going downstairs to investigate apparently spooked the would-be thief into running out the door.

The cops’ investigation into the break formed a surreal backdrop for our visit. “How was labor?” I asked W., who had to pause to answer the door for Detective #1. “And how’s he sleeping?” W. asked me, as she answered the door for Detective #2. I never saw any of the cops leave, although they must have, because otherwise it would have been like a clown car in there since they just kept coming, easily six of them, trooping in one at a time to listen to H.’s retelling of the story and to take the intruder’s dirty fingerprints off of the window ledge. “This is Philly,” one of them told W. apologetically, “so you’ll probably hear from us about what we find in about six months.”

H., a curious type, asked each of them what he thought H. and W. should do going forward. Invest in a security system? A dog? A gun?

W. is a doctor as well as a mom. She told H. flatly that they weren’t buying any firearms. Still, H. wanted to know what the cops recommended. “It’s legal here,” he told me. “To shoot an intruder.” To kill one, even. That doesn’t mean it’s advisable, I told him. He shrugged. He knows. He knows better than I do: for a project for work, he once flew around the country interviewing victims and public health experts about gun violence.

But it’s different when it’s your house, your family, your infant son. It’s an emotional decision, not a rational one: you want to be able to protect what’s yours.

The cops shrugged too. “Sure, get a gun,” a couple of them said. “A dog’s better,” one said. A dog’s more expensive in the long run and neither W. nor H. has the time to be a responsible pet owner. What about a security system? Those can work. And at least your kid can’t accidentally use the security system to shoot someone. I could tell from the way H. was behaving that a buying a gun would make him feel like he was doing something in a way that installing a security system wouldn’t. That he was striking back against the fear, refusing to appear passive in the face of a threat, like President Bush after 9/11.

“It’s an illusion,” I told him. “You’re paying for the illusion of safety, that’s all. A gun actually puts you in more danger.”

“I know,” he said. But isn’t safety always an illusion?

“Get a camera,” said one of the detectives.

“A camera?” H. asked. Philly’s finest didn’t know it, but H. is a filmmaker and a photographer. He speaks camera. Certainly he speaks camera better than he speaks gun.

“Yeah,” said the detective. “Angle it in plain view at the back door and put a couple of signs outside making it clear to possible trespassers that they’re being recorded.”

H. seemed to like the idea of shooting someone without, you know, shooting him. “Okay,” he said. And then: “What about a baseball bat?”

POTENTIAL COSTS

According to US News, here’s how all these different potential costs could stack up:

• Home security system

Most companies will offer installation specials as low as $99, but start-up costs for all the equipment could run between $600 to $1,200 says Robert Siciliano, a Boston-based personal security consultant and spokesperson for BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com, a home security review. After buying the security system equipment, you’ll have to pay for monthly monitoring, which can run from $15 to $100, but the average price is $30. Most home security systems require one to three-year contracts, although some companies, like SimpliSafe, don’t require any.

“Just make sure you always keep your alarm on. Always,” Siciliano stresses. “When you are home, away, during the day and night. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

On the plus side, you may save money on your insurance by buying a home security system; some industry experts say you’ll save anywhere from 20 to 45 percent.

• Actual dog, $1800 a year
• Electronic Watchdog, $62-$80
• Actual camera, $65-$375
• Fake camera, $10
• Actual gun, $90-$300
• Fake gun, $8-$50
• Baseball bat, $150-$350

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