Re: What if a burglar breaks in and short out the wire on my keypad

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike wrote:
> Just a thought. What if somebody were to get into the door with the
> delay ? Get to the keypad while there is about 30 seconds to enter the
> code. Lets just say that the keypad is removed and the power wires
> were twisted together. Now the system is not yet in alarm. Maybe the
> person I was talking to has no idea of what he was talking about.He
> was saying that the main board would be frozen in it's last state
> which was waiting for a code to be entered. Right now my keypad is
> close to the door. I am trying to decide if I should have it moved to
> the hallway.
> On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:05:03 -0700, "Crash Gordon"
> <webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Wouldn't the alarm go off by then?
>>
>> In addition to what the others have said; some alarm systems have supervised
>> keypads.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Mike" <mlgreve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:6nnsv2pdl603b0mtep310m2g594jqp041v@xxxxxxxxxx
>> |I have always wondered what would happen if someone were to break in
>> | to my business and rip the keypad off the wall and short the wires
>> | together. Would,nt that disable the alarm system? I tried this one day
>> | and it seems to lock the system up.
>>
>


Shorting the wires together on the keypad will trip the circuit breaker
or blow the fuse for the keybus or aux power supply.  In a lot of
systems (GE included) these two circuits are "common" to each other.
With no power to the motions or glass break detectors, the switches
integral to these units will "open" which will cause an alarm on those
zones (if the system's armed).  The communicator will activate to report
the short on the power circuit which by the time the receiver at the CS
answers will also transmit the alarms from all the zones with powered
devices.  There is NO WAY for a thief/burglar to defeat your alarm
system by ripping the keypads off the wall UNLESS you have a system
where the the common control is integrated with the keypad.  In that
instance, you are truly "SOL".  If a thief is able to reach your keypad
without tripping your system (either through a perimeter, interior, or
delay zone), you have some serious "issues" to discuss with your alarm
company (and more particularly the individual that "designed" the system).