And Nobody Saw Me Do It....

This is a story of how useful a Smart Home can REALLY be. I mean for reals……

Towards the end of the summer on a Friday, we headed south in the car for the Central Coast for our annual college roommate reunion. While on the way, I placed a couple of product orders for upcoming projects knowing full well that by ordering on Friday afternoon, nothing would ship and arrive before Monday afternoon/evening when we were due to be back in town.

On Saturday we went to the beach with the roommates and all the kids for the traditional boogie boarding and associated mayhem. While lying on the beach under the umbrella, I thought I’d just check on our chickens back home. AND yes, we do have cameras in our chicken coop and run; if we haven’t blogged about that, then please stay-tuned. As I scrolled through the cameras at home I was surprised and disturbed to find there was a pile of packages sitting on the porch.

Apparently I am not the only smarty-pants out there. One of my distributors has started offering Saturday delivery! So here was a stack of valuables sitting on the porch and me hundreds of miles away. What to do, what to do, what to do.

I called my neighbor and asked if she would mind grabbing the packages. There was a lot of packages and they were heavy, so I couldn’t ask her to haul these over to her house or even around the back. Here’s what my Smart Home did.

1) I turned off the alarm remotely using our Alarm.com service – www.alarm.com

2) Next I unlocked the door using the remote access feature of the Control4 automation system and a smart deadbolt – www.Control4.com

3) I watched her move the packages inside the house. She even waved when she was done.

4) Of course I re-enabled the alarm and locked the door when she was done.

I looked around for someone to tell, someone who could vouch for this feat…..nothing! Come on! I was lying on the beach under an umbrella……