Last weekend I was in the front garden when my next door neighbor called me over. Normally it is to moan about something arbitrary like a tree branch hanging over his yard which he could cut himself. No this time he was concerned about security issues which if you weren't in a gated community you would take seriously. We have armed guards and cameras at our entrance and anyone wanting to come in who is not a resident has to fill in a visitors book along with a photo of their driving license.
Lets just say security is the least of my issues living here having lived on the golf course for a number of years and you are the security. I was basically a guard for the years we lived there with the electric fence being cut weekly checking how quickly you would get it fixed. This normally happened on a Wednesday or Thursday night and I would be waiting for them if the fence was not fixed sitting in the shadows drinking coffee until sunrise. We were never robbed surprisingly with not even one attempt yet our neighbors were in double figures during the time we stayed there. One night I nearly caught them breaking in next door having thrown a brick through the sliding door glass. What saved them was I ran into my own sliding door and nearly knocked myself out and the noise I made cursing let them escape.
Back to my pussy neighbor who mentioned he saw torch lights at 1 am in the morning in my garden. I told him if it was Thursday night this was my son and I boiling the kettle on the outside gas fire due to load shedding. I then said I would not climb into my yard unannounced due to we have a Brock. Brock is 75kg's of pure muscle and has two sets of teeth that crush bone like butter. We have an armed response unit that would take around 3-5 minutes maximum if you needed any assistance and is a service which you pay for monthly. There are also 3 males living on the property and I don't and never have kept a regular sleeping pattern mainly due to never going to bed at the same time for security reasons. One could blame Hive I suppose, but the security and not going to bed at 10pm every night is the truth. If you have habits everyone who is watching you knows your habits and it is a security weakness.
The neighbor has now gone and stuck up an electric fence next to ours as though one was not enough. Normally if you have an electric fence down one side you don't need to add another one. These security systems are not cheap and he would have coughed up a good $3k for what he has had installed. This is overkill in my opinion as an electric fence is not required with the security we already have.
My motto when it comes to security is always be better than your neighbors as they will be seen as the easier targets then. In Durban we had a few run ins with a few burglars over a 6 year period and they always came out worse for wear. Both incidents involved thorn bushes and how they got away which is a punishment on their own considering one was a fall of around 5 meters straight through a dense thorn bush. The one attempted robbery in Johannesburg was an armed robbery and another dog similar to Brock denied them entry and why I am fond of these dogs so much. Brock was an unwanted stray mainly down to his size a she is a serious handful, but is a loved part of the family now.
Security is all about being vigilant and using common sense so seeing a torch light in the garden next door whilst living in a gated community would not and should not create panic. His first response should have been to notify the armed security team he has subscribed to if he had any concerns or contact myself immediately. Instead he just wasted $3K which is nuts.