- This house in Hurstville, Sydney has 24 security cameras, 18 searchlights and two reinforced steel gates
- The single-storey fortress of 770 square meters also has shutters and bars on doors and windows
- It cost about $60,000, more than a third of the $160,000 they paid for the house, and took a month to install
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They say a man’s home is his castle, but with 24 security cameras, 18 searchlights and two reinforced steel gates, this Hurstville home looks more like a fortress.
The otherwise nondescript one-story red brick building on a quiet suburban street makes locals and passersby scratch their heads and wonder why anyone would need so much security.
Alex and Julie Saikaly bought the 770 square meter property on Australia Street more than three decades ago and their reason for over-the-top security is nothing sinister.
This house in Hurstville, Sydney, is perhaps Australia’s most protected suburban home
Alex and Julie Saikaly say they bought $60,000 worth of security because they don’t trust the people in their neighborhood, who they think are thieves.
The 2005 house before the massive security upgrade has shutters and a gate, but nothing else
“The people in this neighborhood are thieves, so we don’t trust them,” Ms Saikaly told Daily Mail Australia in 2016.
“This is our house and we don’t want to move, so we spent a lot of money on cameras.”
At a cost of about $60,000, the entire setup is more than a third of the $160,000 the couple paid for their home in 1991 and took more than a month to install.
The cameras cover all possible angles and can even see the neighbors’ driveway.
In addition to the cameras, lighting and steel gates, there are electric shutters on the garage and windows and bars on the doors to ensure that no one has any chance of getting in.
It has 24 security cameras, 18 searchlights and two reinforced steel gates
The cameras cover all possible angles and can even see the neighbors’ driveway
More cameras are not located in the front corner of the house, which itself has at least 10
Multiple cameras and searchlights cover every inch of the building
In addition to the cameras, lighting and steel gates, there are electric shutters on the garage and windows
Even their two trailers parked outside on the street are completely locked, chained together and secured with two heavy steel chains, each bolted into thick rings that are somehow embedded in the concrete gutter.
Michael Brilley, managing director of Sydney Security Specialist, said 24 security cameras for a single-storey house was “probably excessive”.
“You just need to cover the entire outside perimeter so that you have enough coverage so that every door and every window is covered,” he told the Daily telegram.
It comes as a Crime Stoppers survey found that 40 percent of Australians have been burglarized, just four percent while on holiday and none while still at home.
The otherwise unremarkable one-story red brick on a quiet suburban street makes locals and passersby scratch their heads wondering why anyone would need so much security
Even their two trailers parked outside on the street are completely locked and chained together
They are then secured with two heavy steel chains, each bolted into thick rings that are somehow embedded into the concrete channel
Bars on the doors ensure that no one has any chance of getting in
Mrs. Saikaly in front of their well-secured garage containing a modest brown sedan