TYPE 1 — MOST COMMON
The opportunist
Sometimes carrying tools, sometimes not, this intruder is simply looking for the path of least resistance. They'll try every door and window, looking for the one that was left unlocked or ajar. If everything's secured, they move on to the next property rather than force their way in. This is, by far, the most frequent type of intrusion attempt we see, and often it's a vagrant or unhoused individual looking for shelter or an unattended space, rather than someone targeting your property specifically.
What actually stops them
This one's the simplest: lock everything, every time you leave. The opportunist isn't looking for a fight — they're looking for the one door you forgot. A monitored alarm system that confirms every zone is secure before you leave takes the guesswork out of "did I close the back window?"
Real footage of an opportunist taking pallets from an open, unattended warehouse parking lot.
TYPE 2 — DESTRUCTIVE, NOT CALCULATED
The reckless smash-and-grab
No tools, no plan, no patience. Where the opportunist walks away from a locked door, this one won't. This intruder smashes the nearest glass entry point and, if nothing happens next, starts working through every cabinet, drawer, and room they can find. If they get away with it once and never hear an alarm, they'll often come back.
What actually stops them
You can't out-think reckless, but you can out-last them. A loud, immediate alarm turns what could be a 20-minute ransacking into a 1–2 minute smash-and-run before they bail. The goal isn't preventing every entry attempt — it's making sure they're gone before they find anything worth taking.
Real alarm footage of a reckless smash-and-grab attempt — the alarm cuts the encounter short.
TYPE 3 — RARE, BUT HIGH-STAKES
The professional
Far less common than the first two, but the one worth designing hardest against. This is the intruder behind the organized, transcontinental burglary crews that have made headlines targeting homes across the country in recent years. They come prepared: hidden cameras to surveil your comings and goings ahead of time, bolt cutters, wire cutters, crowbars, WiFi and cellular signal jammers, and often more than one person working together. Their standard playbook is to kill power at your exterior electrical panel first, then jam WiFi to blind wireless cameras and disable wireless alarm sensors before ever touching a door.
What actually stops them
The professional's whole plan depends on cutting your power and your signal. Beat both, and their playbook falls apart. Cameras with active deterrence lighting and their own backup battery keep recording and flashing even after the power's been cut — showing them, immediately, that killing the electrical panel didn't work. A hardwired alarm system, not wireless sensors, can't be jammed off with a WiFi blocker. And a dual-path communicator, reporting over both a telephone or internet line and a cellular backup, means that jamming one path still leaves the other reporting straight to the monitoring center. A crew that planned around cutting power and jamming signal, and finds neither worked, is a crew that leaves.