My Homemade Burglar Alarm By: Brad Barkau

During my highschool years, I was employed by the local grocery store, then known as Lefty’s IGA. The store had experienced several burglaries over a short time period. Commercial burglar alarms were uncommon back then. In my spare time I came up with an idea for a homemade burglar alarm.

At that time, telephones were rotary dial, rather than key pad. The key element for my invention was the fact that if a number was partially dialed, the circuit would remain open indefinitely, and dialing could be completed at any time thereafter.

The store and warehouse were separated by swinging doors, directly opposite from a wall mounted telephone. I attached monofilament fishing line to the top of the doors, across the ceiling, and to the telephone. The telephone was then dialed to my home number, but the rotary dial held in place at the last digit by inserting a match stick between the finger stop on the dial and the finger hole in the dial. This match stick was tied to the fishing line when set.

Anyone passing through the swinging door would immediately pull the match stick from behind the finger stop, allowing the rotary dial to complete dialing the number. In order to identify the call when it came to my home, a loud ticking clock was left next to the telephone receiver, leaving no doubt that the call originated from the store. Caller ID did not exist back then.

Each night for several months I set the alarm. Finally, in the middle of the night, we got the call I was waiting for. I was too young for a driver’s license, so my dad quickly drove the two of us to the store after calling the local police. While we were walking around the store perimeter the burglar jumped off the store roof, virtually into our laps. We gave chase across the parking lot and had a brief scuffle, which was made all the more exciting by having my 12 gauge shotgun in the middle of the scuffle. The visual would have been comical to see, because that particular night an ice storm had covered the parking lot with a thick sheet of ice, making the scuffle look more like slapstick comedy.

Our burglar originated from Collinsville and did serve prison time for the burglary. When my dad heard that a plea bargain was being considered, he lobbied the State’s Attorney for this jail time, considering the effort we went through in making the apprehension.

I thought that my idea might be of interest to other businesses, but evidently was never used again, because I never received any inquiries. Telephone technology was eventually changed, so that now a partially dialed number quickly results in a closed circuit. When this change occurred, my invention became completely obsolete. Down the drain went my hope of having a valuable patent.