Perfect Cover for Home Burglar

"For Sale" Homes & Security Systems

If I ever need to make a living as a home burglar, I've got the perfect cover: impersonate a Realtor (complete with business cards), and enlist as confederates a "traditional" family (husband, wife, and 2.3 kids) to come along.

I unwittingly tripped across this strategy yesterday in the course of showing a Golden Valley home that -- yup -- had an armed security system.

After (hurriedly) calling the listing agent's front desk to get the code and disarming the alarm, I waited for the inevitable police squad car(s) to show up.

Which they did. Quickly. (One of the great things about Golden Valley, by the way -- very safe).

Seeing me, my clients -- and, no doubt, my license plate ("MyRltr") -- we all made some amiable chitchat, and the police quickly drove off, no more questions asked!

P.S: If you are a home owner selling your home and have a security system, there are about 37 reasons to deactivate it while your home is on the market.

Reason #1: it gives the impression that no one's showing your home (certainly true in this case: with all the drawn curtains, clutter, etc., it looked like the last showing was . . . 1998).