Grrrrr!....Trespassers & More Trespassers!!

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Hello BP community!

I closed on a flip property 3 weeks ago. The first day we arrived at the house, we found one of the secondary bedrooms locked. I had my boyfriend jump through the window from the exterior (which was wide open) and come and unlock the door. After entering, I found a ton of cigarillo wrappers with tobacco everywhere. Obviously, first sign somebody had been in there smoking weed. I cleaned that up and locked the window.

We demo'd everything all week and left the house on Friday afternoon around 5. We made sure to close and lock all the windows. Come Monday, we found the backyard patio full of the same stuff: cigarillos and tobacco. The back patio door looked like someone had used a knife to attempt to open the door. Cleaned that up and called ADT.

ADT comes out next day, takes over the old system, installs a Safeguard and that's that. Tech was a bit sketchy but thats besides the point. That entire next week was fine, no problems. Everyday we left, we locked the windows and set the alarm.

Left Friday for the weekend, return Monday to find another surprise. Someone had somehow pried open the only window with only 1 lock on it and moved all my chairs, which were outside on the patio, into the dining area. I'll let you guess what I find around the little formation of chairs? Yup, same stuff. And on top of that, they yanked the motion sensor off the wall and cut like 10 wires in the alarm panel.

Obviously, at this point I'm really pissed. So I call ADT, tell them what happened, and they said the tech that installed the Safeguard did it improperly because the alarm should never go offline even if the wires are cut. I mean really? Ugh, so frustrating.

Thankfully, we never leave anything behind other than cleaning supplies and a foldable table and chairs!

...The neighborhood isn't terrible but it isn't great either.. There is a group of teenage boys I've seen like 3 times smoking down the street but I'm not sure why they would break in to another house to do what they do in plain view during the day time.

Does anyone have any suggestions of other methods I should try or stories of similar experiences? I've looked into the cameras but I have a feeling if I invest in that, they will just find a way to destroy that too! Obviously ADT will be coming out again to fix the alarm but at this point, I'm not even sure that will work!

Thanks in advance for all responses!

[Dawn Anastasi]

This may be a stupid question, but did you report this to the police? Also have you introduced yourself to the neighbors and given them your number (also a small gift to entice them to watch the property)?