They usually call a monitoring centre, who then call the police, who then take a note that they were called, sit back, and have another cup of tea.
To actually get any kind of police response, you have to have a specially certified alarm system, and there have to be multiple sensors triggered... and even then, they'll take a note that they were called, sit back, and have another cup of tea.
See the recent Hatton Garden raid as a case in point.
Depends on where. When ours went off while we were out of town, the neighbors were treated not only to the horn sounding in the dark ours, but to the sight of policemen inspecting the outside with flashlights and guns in hand.
It does. I've had mine go off after I left for work because I didn't close the door soon enough. Got a call from the Minneapolis PD that it was secure, but if it happened again within a year, I could expect a fine.
Better than what happened to a friend of mine though. Her dad was a well-known doctor in a small town and let them use his house while he was on vacation. She couldn't remember the code when the alarm went off, so multiple cop cars showed up surrounding the house, police with drawn guns, etc. (he had notified them he was leaving on vacation) coming inside to arrest her and husband until she was able to convince them that she was his daughter and allowed to be there.
How many normal houses in the US have an alarm system? I cannot think of a single friend of mine who has an alarm system. Some live in Chicago, some live "in the country".
I guess I remember a friend's parent that had an alarm system, which oddly was one of the few houses I know of that was broken in to. I think the burglar cut the alarm wire on entry and got a bunch of stuff.
A surprising number of them do. I lived in a house that came with one because the previous owner was a woman who often worked very late and was nervous about coming home alone at midnight. I signed up for the monitoring because it was only about $25/month and homeowner's insurance gave discounts because of it.
My uncle does, not by choice but because his house was robbed about ten years ago, and the insurance company refused to renew his policy unless he installed one.
We do, and many of our neighbors do. We are in a fairly quiet neighborhood of Washington, DC, but there are holdups now and then, auto thefts, and burglaries.
They usually call a monitoring centre, who then call the police, who then take a note that they were called, sit back, and have another cup of tea.
To actually get any kind of police response, you have to have a specially certified alarm system, and there have to be multiple sensors triggered... and even then, they'll take a note that they were called, sit back, and have another cup of tea.
See the recent Hatton Garden raid as a case in point.