The Bling gang

One plausible explanation for the initial success is the alarms were tripped but response from the CS may not been what we see on TV commercials for the big three.

Brilliant!

Holleywood is the same as any uooer class residential, except there's more money unless it's Nicholas Cage's house.

A "mansion" does not necessarily have a more sophisticated security system than any other home. And actually these people would tend to be business types or the home would be managed by business types. And they would only install the minimum system required by the insurance company.

Whereas a person owning a regular home might be more careless with their money. They might have additional security features installed which would not give them any additional break on their insurance rates.

And that is how the rich get richer, by watching their pennies.

TV is fantasy. The fancy laser beams and so forth they show in these "mansions" is a crock of hooey!

The reality is that the most sophisticated alarms are going to be in something like a beer distribution warehouse! (Other than government secret stuff.) Why? Because these get broken into the most! And insurance companies know this - thus they require an iron clad security system!

It all has to do with statistics, losses, and what the insurance company requires.

Back to the mansions... Even a basic system would be quite difficult for a "teenybopper" to get past.

I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Might want to look at employee theft... (Some of these "mansions" can have up to 60 employees working there!)

I upgraded my system to be fully wireless. It gave me more flexibility. I placed a motion detector in each room that has a door or window door. Even I can get to my alarm panel without tripping at least 2 motion detectors. I went the extra mile and placed smoke detectors in each bedroom, heat detectors in the laundry room & loft storage. I added it all a little at a time. Next thing I know, My Vista 50P has 47 wireless zones... :)

Jim Rojas

RHC: Bill, I don't know what you mean by "barking up the wrong tree". I'm not passing judgment here; just asking for comment hoping that someone who may deal with people like this could chime in and give us some idea about the actual type of security normally installed in a $5million mansion owned by someone with more money than they know what to do with. I'm in the business and there is no fantasy this end. I know what we install in homes like that up here, and our crime rate and risk is tiny compared to LA.

These young thugs were caught by security cameras in one of the homes. Presumably, video security would normally follow electronic security as an add on, and not likely be the only level of security in a home of this size and expense. Nor would anyone who had a home like this depend upon a stupid, largely ineffective basic "2 doors and a motion" free system by one of the large nationals. Homes like this often have someone who is responsible for care of the home on a contractual or even a "live in" basis, and I doubt very much if the owner would skimp on a basic security system to save a few bucks, given what he or she has to lose. On the contrary, I would expect it to be quite extensive, likely a full perimeter system, with video security as an add on..It is possible that as the investigation is underway, something like an "inside job" may be uncovered....

But the question still remains....how did these amateurs bypass any security system(s) present in these homes. Notwithstanding the stupidity of Paris Hilton leaving a key under the front mat (which likely meant she didn't arm any system in place either) surely at least one of these homes burglarized had a working system in place, and surely at least one of these systems was armed.

It's an interesting question.

There's no correlation between size or "class" of the home and the level of protection. My home doesn't qualify as a mansion but it's fairly large 3800sf (under air) and about the same total non-air conditioned space (lanai + garage). The whole place was prewired during construction but the original buyer didn't install anything at all. In fact, the place is plumbed for central vac and they skipped that, too. This was several years before my family acquired it.

All I care about is did they steal any Megan Fox, Scarlett Johansson or Lindsay Lohan sex tapes and when they plan on releasing them to the public?

And I suspect Paris Hilton was asking to be robbed, it's the only publicity the s**nk gets these days.

RHC: Ok, I guess I'm not going to get any serious answers or comments to this question....:)) Had people seen the show, maybe the responses might have been more serious, or at least in keeping with a security newsgroup....oh well...

Some of the biggest homes I've seen have the worst security setups I've ever seen, also those celebrities have tons of people going in and out of those mansions daily so those security systems usually aren't armed.

Sorry Robert, I haven't been paying too much attention. Been busy.

In my experience, you can just chalk it up to ..... they don't arm their systems. I'm guessing, but, I guess it's just because they DO have so much money that they can always replace what is taken. I have clients who have minimal or don't even have theft on their homeowners insurance. When mentioning that they can get a discount on their homeowners insurance, I've been told that they're "self insured" what ever that means. If they ever DO use their systems it's when they're out of town. I'll usually get the phone call the day that they're leaving when they discovered on the way out the door, that they couldn't arm the system. I'll be given instructions on who to contact while they're away to "repair" the system. That usually turns out to be something like replacing a magnet on a basment door that was probably knocked off 3 months ago by some maintenence worker or something. Or, ,maybe they had a power failure and the keypad was telling them that as they walked out the door but they just didn't know enough to press the reset button. A hundred dollar service call is acceptable to them. After all, they have the system for years and I only have to come every once in a while when they're going out of town. That's resonable as far as they're concerned. Only a few of my clinents have "extra" security. They mostly have their doors and windows and some PIR's or glass breaks. Nothing over the top.

I had a client a number of years ago, Doctor, lived in a 8000 square foot house. Just a basic alarm system. Lady of the house never put her jewlery away. Always laying on her dresser. She leaves the house while the landscapers are working. Doesn't lock the doors. Leaves the sliding glass door open in the master bedroom. Later on that evening she discovers $ 60,000.00 dollars worth of jewlery is missing. Couldn't prove who did it ..... so it went to insurance and she got most of the money returned because it had been appraised and listed with the insurance company. Go figure.

The alarm is just something that they put in, "like a vac system" while the house is being built and of course "it would be foolish not to have one" ( even if they don't use it)

If anyone does vac systems for wealthy people, how many times do you think the problem with them is ...... THEY DIDN'T EMPTY THE F...... ING BAG!!!! The owner never uses the damn thing. The cleaning lady just vacuums. She doesn't even know where the hell the vacuum is. All she knows is that the dirt gets sucked into this hole in the wall. Empty a bag? Hell no! They just think that these people have so much money that the dirt just blows out of the house, straight to the city dump. If it doesn't work it's probably because they didn't pay the vacuum bill.

RHC: You know, in thinking about it Jim, I believe you may be right on the money. And these "stars" were so busy with everything else in their lives that matters so much more to them, they likely thought even less about their home security than the Doctor's wife you mentioned in your post.

I did a takeover this morning of a system that I had originally installed several years ago, that the original owner had sold when he and his wife split up. So this morning I go there thinking I just have a bit of paperwork to do, retest the system to the station and retrain the new homeowners. This is in a $1.5 million home of about 6000 square feet, with loads of high end electronics and other "toys" that could have been stolen. When I get there, I find the system is totally unusable, due to broken basement window contacts, tamper problems on some of the motions and smoke detectors, and programming problems with the entry doors. It appears the panel had suffered an electrical surge quite some time ago, and scrambled some of its memory settings. The new owners told me that the original owner had NEVER used the system from day one and just let all these problems slide....no calls for service....nothing.

So yeah, even with a high end system, if the client doesn't use it, what friggin good is it....and btw, the original owner never put up even one of my company warning stickers on the home....???? I guess I'm so conscious of all the systems I put in, making sure that all the components are the best quality, and all work well to provide the best quality coverage I can, that I sometimes forget that the weakest link in the "system" is usually the homeowner.......

Go figure !!!!

There is no set way of protecting/securing these homes. The systems would range from no system at all to the most fancy sophisticated things you could imagine.

It is what I call the "Space Shuttle Syndrome". People don't install security unless there is a problem. If there is a problem, then they install a minimal system. If there are more problems after that, then the money will be forked out for additional security measures.

And as you get into the more expensive homes, there will always be people there 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Totally different system - one designed to alert the security people who are always there.

You might get a celebrity with a stalker problem. Then they are going to have 24 hour armed guards and anyone "jumping the fence" will be detected instantly. And they might be driven around in an armored vehicle with a specially trained driver and a car following with security guys.

But no one wants all this security. They want to be able to go to the grocery store or shopping or to a restaurant like normal people and not be bothered. They only add security as they are forced to so.

Another way to do this is "hide in the open". Look normal. Don't go driving around in a Rolls/Armored Suburban/limo, rather drive around in a VW bug, old dented Chevy, or other non-descript vehicle. People will see them and say "You know you look like so and so?". Then they say "Ya I hear the all the time!".

Armored Suburban for around $125,000.00...