If you were to take a stroll through the suburbia of Hurstville in Sydney’s south, you might stumble across a single-storey red-brick house that is more akin to a fortress than a home.
The California bungalow — which is covered in wall-to-wall security cameras, high fences and a large metal gate — has generated chatter on social media.
The house is covered in more than 20 cameras worth a combined total of $80,000. They provide vision of every angle of the driveway, the nearby busy street and even the next door’s driveway.
There has been much speculation as to the story behind the home and the reason for its intense level of security. Was it hiding a state secret? Or a vault of precious gems?
The truth is that it belongs to retiree Alex Saikaly and his wife Julie, who told news.com.au they had bought the home in 1991.
They picked it up for $160,000 and have lived there ever since. Although they love the house and the memories they’ve shared there, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
The saga which led to Mr Saikaly embarking on a security blitz spanning almost two decades began in 2005.
“I complained to the police after somebody in the neighbourhood started causing trouble,” he told news.com.au outside his home on a chilly October morning.
“He climbed over my fence, vandalised my fence with spray paint so I called the police.”
However, he didn’t get the result he wanted.
“But you know how the police are, they said they couldn’t do anything without the evidence,” he said.
“They said ‘we can’t help you unless you show us proof’. So I put two cameras up and (the person who he claims spay-painted his fence) stopped for a while before starting it again.
“That’s when I put up more and since then, (the vandalism) has stopped.”
However, that hasn’t stopped Mr Saikaly adding an increasing number of cameras and security modifications to his home over the years.
Besides the impressive number of cameras, there are sensor-triggered lights and steel gates with electric roller shutters on the garage. Not wanting to face the cost of having a security expert handle the job, all of this work was remarkably done by Mr Saikaly himself.
“If I had someone do this all for me, install the cameras and put up the fence it would have cost me around 30 grand,” he said. “I did it myself and it only cost me between 10 to 15 grand.”
Mr Saikaly and his wife were interviewed by the media back in 2016 and said they had spent $60,000 setting up their security.
Seven years later and the pair have spent an additional $20,000 in upgrades, bringing the total to half of the $160,000 they paid for the house back in 1991.
So if the vandalism stopped, why does Mr Saikaly keep investing in security?
He told news.com.au it’s important to keep your gear up to date.
“I buy the newest upgrades because all of these new technologies come out,” Mr Saikaly said.
“I buy the low voltage ones so my electricity bill hasn’t gone up as much as you’d expect. This is our home and we wanted to be secure.”
Mr Saikaly’s concerns about the area are not without basis.
The latest crime statistics from the Hurstville LGA show that while crimes like domestic violence, sexual assaults and drug offences are roughly on par with the state average — the area does have some concerning crime trends.
The rate of car thefts and robberies is almost double the NSW average, while home break and enters are also more common.
According to the latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2022 saw a rise in robberies in NSW with a five per cent increase from 2021.
In 2022, there had been 151,200 recorded victims of unlawful entry with intent in Australia, with NSW alone seeing a large increase in victim numbers at ten per cent.
