Re: Writer needs info on burglar alarms

["Aegis" <lordaegis@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Tim Walters" <tim.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d660bm$ac$0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> I'm writing a story set in 1988. One of the characters has to break into
> someone's house. He's not a burglar, but a professional architect who's
> kept
> abreast of the latest developments in household security. The alarm he has
> to disarm is up-to-date at that time. But he needs not only to deactivate
> the alarm, but also to conceal the fact that it's been disarmed.
>
> If it's an infrared heat detector with a four-digit disarming code, it
> would

Why would you disarm a fire detection device (heat detector)? ...not that
I've ever seen an infrared based heat detector... Easy to bypass: keep the
ambient temperature below..I dunno..135 degrees Fahrenheit?

> also be helpful if, after disarming the device once, he could now work out
> what that code was so as to break in again more easily later on.

Set up a small camera outside the window (or a camera with a VERY large lens
across the street) zoomed in on the the keypad, then he knows the code. When
he goes back, he just needs to hope the guy didn't change the code (like
that EVER happens). If he has top secret connections, he can have MILSAT do
high speed photo runs of the area and then just zoom in (books and movies do
this all the time... like the CSI episode where an ATM camera image was
enhanced enough to see a reflection of a face in the victim's eye... Ok...
yeah... A $4,000,000 camera in a $3,000 ATM that's holding $10,000 in
cash...)

>
> Thanks in advance for any help.
>
> Tim
> (For e-mail s u b r u b)
>
>
>