I guess I question what good a security system is - does film of a theft get your stuff back? Does an alarm bell keep the burglar from taking your flatscreen away with him? I'm tempted to mount a few phony cameras and bogus alarm company stickers, but it seems like you would want to get stickers from a company that does business in the local area.
What do the board members do for security when away from your home and what is your thinking? Suggestions?
Put yourself in a good defensive position and call 911.
These guys are all rare as can be. They exist, and they are out there enough that we are treated to plenty of news stories about their deeds, but they are rare. We're not into winning-the-lotto /struck-by-lightning kind of rarity, but close.
I think it's very difficult (and very expensive) to secure an unoccupied home. Nosy neighbors are probably the only reliable deterrent.
It would be far more zen to be able to rise above the need to protect one's possessions. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, it's just stuff. If we can't stand to have it burned in a fire or soaked in a hurricane, let alone stolen, then we shouldn't have it in our home.
We just lock our doors & windows but we don't have any real security precautions. (As far as you can tell, anyway.) Alarms and lights have proven to be more nuisance than support.
About five years ago, after the latest round of insurance-premium increases, we took a look around our house and canceled our personal-property insurance. Since then we've been slowly getting rid of the excess and, in general, not upgrading to the latest & greatest. I hope that we don't look like targets. The most valuable things we own these days are our wedding rings, and the next-most-valuable things are longboards. A thief coming into our house for jewelry or electronics would end up leaving a $20 bill on the kitchen counter.
If a home invasion comes in our front door, I'd much rather be scampering out the back door rather than scrambling for my firearm. Unless you're a professional, I think the latter can all too easily lead to a false sense of security and bravado. My weapons training is shoot to kill, and I don't want that on my conscience as long as I can run away fast.
We've lived in a home near a busy street, and we had the typical teen burglary through our jalousie windows while we were at work. Window bars discouraged them from returning, but the house's location was the real attraction. Now we're at the end of a cul-de-sac on a neighborhood street that's nearly 1.5 miles from the nearest busy road. I'd like to think that burglars would feel uncomfortable having to drive so far in and so far back out.
As for the feeling of having your privacy and your personal space invaded by strangers, I got over that at USNA and in the submarine force a long time ago. The whole concept is an illusion in the first place.