There's not really a lot of thefts where I live, the local web forum covers a fairly wide area which tends to make things look worse than they are. Most of the thefts are opportunists taking advantage of people's forgetfulness, while most of the car thefts are by organised gangs who steal to order. My house was burgled many years ago and several small valuable items were taken. We had an alarm system installed soon afterwards, quite a few houses in my road have alarm systems.