This is a post I have wanted to share so many times, but always felt that by telling you about what happened to us, it may make us more of a target. Now that we have installed a home security system (more on that in a minute), it feels so liberating and I really feel like our story and our experience with Vivint Smart Home can help some of you. Deep breath. Here we go.
This video shares the initial details of what happened. Watch this first, then the rest of this post will make a lot more sense.
So there you have it. Our homes (yes plural) were broken into by dirtbags and it was so so violating and horrible and haunting. And it wasn’t until we finally got a security system with Vivint that I finally felt like it was safe enough to share our story.
I truly feel that by sharing what happened to us it may help some of you. I never dreamed that this would happen to us not once, but twice. Let’s start with our last home, the Peach and Purple Palace– a home we remodeled and loved so much. Our break-in happened on a Saturday in the the middle of the day, while Jon was home. I was pregnant with Ruby and had gone to a baby shower. Jon was raking leaves in the backyard. He left a side door open, as he was going back and forth in and out of the house, and to the front yard putting leaves in the garbage can. He said he walked to the front yard and there was a car, still running, parked in our driveway. He thought it was strange for sure, but thought maybe someone had run to our neighbor’s house. He walked back to the backyard then back to the front just as a young woman was backing out of our driveway. She smiled and waved as she quickly drove away. Huh, he thought. That was weird.
It wasn’t until I got home later that afternoon that we realized something was wrong. I walked up to our bedroom and the room was ransacked. Every drawer pulled out, my jewelry box torn apart. My medications from pregnancy raided. I went out and asked him if he had been looking for something and the light went off– we realized we had been robbed. I couldn’t sleep for weeks, so worried they would come back. It was so very violating.
Fast forward a few years and we were just about to move into our newly renovated home, the #Staggreno. We had hard wired the home for a security system with our last experience in mind, but hadn’t finished installing it. We hadn’t moved everything into the house yet, but all of our appliances had been installed, a few large furniture pieces had been delivered, I had ordered some decor and had it delivered, and our garage was packed full of all of our tools we had used to renovate our home.
Jon had left the house the night before around 2 am as he had been slaving away trying to meet our move in deadline. Around 6 am, a neighbor out on a walk told us they saw two contractors, they assumed, loading tools into their suburban from our garage. They smiled and waved. How kind of them.
At 7 am, Jon arrived at the house to find the front door wide open, and the house ransacked. They had loaded everything they could fit into their vehicle. They went through every bedroom and closet, even took the sheets off of Ruby’s bed that we had set up she she could take naps while I worked on the house or waited for contractors. They also took some time to get ice cream out of our freezer, then left it open so it melted all over our new hardwood floor. All of that is horrible, but it wasn’t the worst part.
We couldn’t figure out how they had gotten in. No windows were broken, just the side french doors damaged. How had they pushed them open?? The doors were dead bolted, and the way the doors were supposed to function, locked into the floor and ceiling, as well as to each other. “Supposed” is the key word there.
A representative from the company we had worked with for our doors and windows came out to examine the doors and told me it was his professional opinion the door installers (who were an outside company contracted to install the doors) had intentionally tampered with the locks so they could easily break in. I immediately remembered the day they came to install the door. It took them HOURS to “figure out” the lock. They said it was really complicated. Not true. Installing it the way it should have been installed was simple. They had removed one key piece of the lock so that instead of locking into the ceiling and floor, it only locked into itself so one strong push or kick, and the doors popped right open. We couldn’t believe it. There are people that dishonest? It was horrifying.
I want to tell you because we think we know who broke into our house that they were arrested and we got all our stuff back, but we have no idea what happened to them. The company they contracted with took it from there and then came back and said they couldn’t be sure it was them after all. Uh-huh. In fact, those scumbags could be installing doors to this day.
We fixed the doors and moved in, and still hadn’t finished up our security system when Vivint contacted me and asked if I wanted to share our decision to get a home security system with my readers. Um, heck yes! I want to shout it from the rooftops! It has been the best decision– one that has given me peace of mind, more sleep, and a feeling of security I now can’t imagine living without.
The system was so easy to install (more on that later) and the cameras are smart and discrete.
I want this collaboration to be informative and useful to you, so I’m giving you alllllll the details. What installation was like, how we use it, answers to questions you may have, etc.
And if you’re thinking of getting a security system, I’m so thrilled to share Vivint is giving an amazing discount to withHEART readers– $70 off a new system. It’s the lowest discount you’ll find anywhere. You can click HERE to be connected or you can call the toll free line set up specifically for my readers: 844-366-1008
This post is part of a series of videos sharing all about our experience with Vivint. Please let me know if you have questions. I can’t express enough how grateful I am our home is now secure.
We have had an absolutely horrible experience with vivint. The first two to three years…fine. Then we started getting false alarms, yet no alarm would sound, only police showing up on our door to then later send us a bill for them being dispatched, etc. equipment started not working and yet they want to charge an $80.00 service call to send someone out. On top of everything, it has been utter chaos to try to cancel service even though our service contract has been done for close to a year. We have now been trying to cancel for over 4 months..every month comes with a new reason that it hasn’t gone through.
I truly hope your experience with them in now way mirrors ours and am horrified to hear that these contractors/sub trades are doing such things! I also work in a similar field and would be absolutely devastated if anything of this nature happened to myself.