Keeping Your Home Secure

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Home security system sales are sky-rocketing, but they can cost a pretty penny. But some are suggesting using your car alarm as a way to protect yourself inside your home.

The idea is circulating through emails and on blogs and recommends people leave the remote for their car alarm on their night stand. That way if you hear somebody breaking into your home, the email said you can click the panic button to sound your car alarm.

The belief is the noise from your car alarm would scare the intruder. Greg Goodman, who sells and installs car alarms, said this is just one more reason all cars should have alarms.

"I never thought about using a car alarm or panic button as some sort of deterrent for a home invasion. I think it's a wonderful idea keeping it on your bed side, using it, grabbing it and having it make noise in two or three seconds," said Greg Goodman, owner of Alta Mere, an auto accessories center.

But while Goodman likes the idea, he also said it shouldn't replace a home alarm system, and Scott Anderson, whose business Total Home Control Inc. installs home alarm systems, agreed.

Anderson said home alarms can notify the police and get your neighbors attention. That's not likely with a car alarm.

"If a car alarm goes off in your neighborhood, they're less likely to hear it because a home alarm, the sirens are a lot louder," said Anderson.

The only way Anderson can see using a car alarm is in addition to a home alarm.

"The more noise you can make the more will notice what's going on, so they basically will see if there is something you need help with," the home alarm installer said.

If people are considering using this idea, NEWS 9 tested the idea with several different cars. The alarm only goes off for about 15 to 20 seconds before it stops.