OK, I have had a few pm's about how to do this yourself. I will respond to pms, call those that pm'd me and help them first. I will post another thread with the info needed for those that want to have a non-monitored system, alarm only.

Yes, there are times when crooks clean out the whole house, but do you think that they knew nobody would be home for awhile? I'm sure they did, as professional burglars do case homes. But most burglaries are quick, in and out deals, usually from someone in the area, as has happened with this thread originator.

My preference for home defense is a shotgun, short barreled, as you cant miss, and the prospect of the shot going thru sheetrock is slim. For personal protection, cant beat a series 70, 1911 .45cal..... I have owned many handguns, and my Kimber 1911 cant be beat. Always reliable, always feeds right, and I have had magazines with ten rounds in them constantly and have not lost spring resilliance. Buy good mags, and you wont have spring set problems..... i.e. Kimber, Wilson combat, Chip McKormic....
I personally reload, so I go with a .458 cal 185gr hornady XTP, Unique powder 7gr, about 1100-1200 fps muzzle velocity. Doesnt overpenetrate as .45's tend to do w/ a 230gr ball ammo. More than doubles its size when it hits, talk about a flying ashtray!!