[infraredcalvin]

In my opinion a DOG is one of the best defenses... preferably a big one.

i got robbed the day after i moved into my new house, still convinced it was by my warranty rep from the builder (and i work there too...) anyway afterwards the builder installed a hard wired alarm system (DSC???). has worked well for over 7 years... when it's been set off - dogs, wife (sheesh), the phone rings within 30 sec, if no answer, the cops are pretty quick to respond in my area. the monitoring company is what makes or breaks it. be sure to contact the local pd and ask them, they might have some info on systems that tend to cause more false alarms, but typically it's user error.

there are some cool systems out there that have cameras, etc and you can check from an iphone/internet.

sorry to hear about that crap, i still get worked up about mine...