Heh, funny story. I used to bug my mom all the time to get an alarm.
Well, at our old house, I woke up in the middle of the night for some reason. I lived in the lowest level. I look, and the back porch sliding door is open (the curtain in front of it was blowing). I look to my left, and the door to the garage is wide open. I freaked ut and shut both, then ran in my closet toting my curling iron. Fifteen minutes later, I figure I overreacted and went back to bed.
The next morning, my mom asks me if I left hte gate open at the top of the steps (my sister was a baby at the time, and she got that after my sister fell down the steps-another funny story). I said no, and asked if Dan was out late last night smoking a cigar (no). I was confused, so I go look outside, and sure enough, there's a CD lying on the ground. I yell, "Hey mom, we were robbed," then went to school. Found out they left everything on the side of the house (except of course, my jewelry), and the cops think I scared them off. We had an alarm installed by the end of the day.