A few years ago the Hawkins County 911 dispatchers received a telephone call from a cell phone and got a big surprise. They happened to overhear what was supposed to be a private conversation between two men making plans for a burglary they were about to commit. The discussion went on for so long – 40 minutes – that the deputies were able to discreetly arrive at the scene of the crime that about to take place and observe the pair of suspects. One was reported to tell the other they would make their move just as soon as “that cop moves.”

The sheriff’s sat on their hands and waited while the culprits broke into a trailer home and came out with a refrigerator. They hung around for a while waiting to be picked up by their accomplice in the getaway vehicle. The police apprehended them after a short chase on foot.

The cell phone in question was discovered in a nearby creek and is apparently the type of mobile device that automatically dials 911 when the number “9” is held down. It seems that one of the burglars was carrying the phone in the pocket of his jean packet and pressed the number by accident on the device that ended up foiling his best laid plans.

Of course we all know this is a fluke incident and it is a very good idea to take all the precautions available to prevent your home from being targeted for burglary. Intruders look for easy and quick access with no home security equipment that could give away their identity or draw attention to their actions. The best kept secret is not really a secret – burglar proofing your home is wise for preventing your valuable possessions from being stolen.

Apparently the suspect may have not set out to commit a crime but after drinking a few beers and then swallowing some pain medication not prescribed for his own use, he lost control. The man was caught on surveillance camera outside the home in a well-kept community in Slidell, La. The footage shows him taking a bath naked with a garden hose in the driveway. He then smashed a number of windows in the home, entered and ransacked the house. He cooked himself a snack in the victim’s kitchen, took another bath and left wearing only a bed sheet.

The suspect says he does not recall how he got there in the first place and has very little memory of the ensuing events. Despite his alleged memory lapses he was lucid enough to disable the alarm system in the home, although he missed out on the video camera. There is a possibility that he was suffering from a medical condition at the time. Regardless of the man’s condition it was not pleasant for the family that lived in the home to learn of the events of the evening.

This may not be a description of an average home intrusion. Most burglars have the mindset to get in and out of your home as quickly as possible without being detected. They plan to take no more than a few minutes to grab your purse, credit cards, wallet, cash, cell phone and easily accessible jewelry. They will take a few seconds to scope out your home for a potential return visit to grab the items they don’t have time to take now. This can all take less than 10 minutes. Using a home security is frequently the only barrier between a criminal and your valuable possessions.

But as is often the case when crimes are made into acceptable, almost glamorous activities especially when heart throbs like Brad Pitt play the bad guys, the movie set off a series of Ocean’s 11 type burglaries in the neighborhoods of the rich and famous a few years after it was released.

The real life burglaries that began to take place happened in the elite Beverly Hills areas of Los Angeles and were perpetrated by a gang of criminals working in cooperation to terrorize and rob some of the city’s most famous celebrities and tycoons.

In 2007 the LAPD announced that the gang of two, maybe three intruders forced entry into Brentwood, Beverly Hills and Bel-Air homes. They made off with over $7 million in jewelry, cash and books.  The actual names of the all the victims were kept hush-hush, but there was some information made public.

Duran Duran guitarist, John Taylor and his wife, Gela Nash-Taylor reported a safe being stolen from their home. The mansion of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw was targeted while they were out of town. $500,000 worth of cash and goods were taken from the home of basketball star, Cuttino Mobley. The home of the former head of Paramount Pictures, Sherry Lansing was hit along with a top executive from the Disney-ABC Television Group.

The burglars were careful to leave very little evidence on the scene to allow the police to track them. Video surveillance cameras at an Encino estate captures images of two muscular, well-built men for a brief instant that was not enough to reveal their identities. The prowlers target unoccupied homes with an exceptional level of knowledge and sophistication.

Home security systems can be custom designed to outsmart even the wiliest criminal mind. The best security companies can assess your premises and determine the ultimate methods of protecting your family and property using state-of-the-art technology. They are familiar with the way a burglar thinks and know how to sidestep even their most determined efforts to breach your security.

The response from our city after this latest incident, among many other recent ones, is to say that urban areas need to band together and hire their own security. I don’t think that’s good enough, police protection in our neighborhood is a joke. Everyone needs to have security systems installed. If my neighbors would have had surveillance cameras set up they would have been able to see who these guys were and it possibly may have lead to an arrest. There are many home security systems out there. I currently have ADT Home Security and I am very satisfied with their service. The signs in my yard alone are a great deterrent to any thieves thinking about robbing me. I’m also alerted every time an alarm goes off and when it does law enforcement is dispatched to my home. I would advise all home owners to go with a home security service like ADT Home security.