Came home tonight and disturbed burglars
Discussion
Now I’m f
king wide awake and wired.
Long story - the facts.
Home at 21:05 - put key in front door, doesn’t open. Shoulder door as it sometimes sticks. Definitely not opening. Live alone, why is bolt in from inside, confused for a minute.
Go around back, back door open, hear noise , really clear now. This is London by the way.
Now, very good decision time.
I back away from house , still suffering a smidgen of confusion about did I leave it open, shock right ?
Fought every urge in me to go in alone. My GF lives few doors down, run down, get her to grab phone dial 999 but don’t press button until I’m sure.
Run back , and see them legging it out of house. 3 of thes. Give pursuit - no idea what I would do if I caught them.
Then car zooms alongside me , and asks is I’m missing a safe. I say yes! (I’m guessing at this point it’s not a xo-incidence) He Zooms off after them.
Local guy, bouncer saw them chased them and they dropped it.
Thank fk. Car and bikes keys live in there.
Police brilliant and swarming in minutes. 3 cars and a van.
House ransacked to fk - but short of a Gshock nothing missing.
They had gone through every drawer, every pocket. Sofa had all the swag laid out on it.
There are more specific details which i’ll hold back for obvious reasons.
Rather scary to be honest and clearly looking for car keys. Left 3 laptops, PS, Alexa all sorts of st.
Genuinely makes me want to move house.
Happy didn’t meet them face to face.
It would not have ended well for someone.
king wide awake and wired.Long story - the facts.
Home at 21:05 - put key in front door, doesn’t open. Shoulder door as it sometimes sticks. Definitely not opening. Live alone, why is bolt in from inside, confused for a minute.
Go around back, back door open, hear noise , really clear now. This is London by the way.
Now, very good decision time.
I back away from house , still suffering a smidgen of confusion about did I leave it open, shock right ?
Fought every urge in me to go in alone. My GF lives few doors down, run down, get her to grab phone dial 999 but don’t press button until I’m sure.
Run back , and see them legging it out of house. 3 of the
s. Give pursuit - no idea what I would do if I caught them.Then car zooms alongside me , and asks is I’m missing a safe. I say yes! (I’m guessing at this point it’s not a xo-incidence) He Zooms off after them.
Local guy, bouncer saw them chased them and they dropped it.
Thank f
k. Car and bikes keys live in there. Police brilliant and swarming in minutes. 3 cars and a van.
House ransacked to f
k - but short of a Gshock nothing missing.They had gone through every drawer, every pocket. Sofa had all the swag laid out on it.
There are more specific details which i’ll hold back for obvious reasons.
Rather scary to be honest and clearly looking for car keys. Left 3 laptops, PS, Alexa all sorts of s
t. Genuinely makes me want to move house.
Happy didn’t meet them face to face.
It would not have ended well for someone.
Thanks chaps - the safe is one of those Halfords ones - and although hidden not very hidden and not locked down. Just didn’t want to leave spare car/bike keys lying around.
I shall be changing that.
It’s easy to be all tough and say I wish I’d caught them, but I’m glad I had the sense to not go charging in.
My thought was if I get stabbed or beaten up, nobody would find me. I’d said goodnight to the missus etc.
So even though I didn’t put her in harms way, she was a little down the road with her phone on the 999 button it was good decision.
Plus the whole acid thing in London.
Scumbags really aren’t they.
Police were chilled . Put it down to opportunists but I’m not so sure. They way the place is, it feels like it was targeted. Maybe paranoid.
Definitely buying the bouncer a bottle though. Getting the safe back has saved me a lot on keys for car and bike replacements.
I shall be changing that.
It’s easy to be all tough and say I wish I’d caught them, but I’m glad I had the sense to not go charging in.
My thought was if I get stabbed or beaten up, nobody would find me. I’d said goodnight to the missus etc.
So even though I didn’t put her in harms way, she was a little down the road with her phone on the 999 button it was good decision.
Plus the whole acid thing in London.
Scumbags really aren’t they.
Police were chilled . Put it down to opportunists but I’m not so sure. They way the place is, it feels like it was targeted. Maybe paranoid.
Definitely buying the bouncer a bottle though. Getting the safe back has saved me a lot on keys for car and bike replacements.
Beware those cheap safes, they can generally be bumped open with a swift smack on the top whilst twiddling the handle. You can stop this by booting them down then adding a shelf above, or if you need one decent safes that are a lot harder to bump can be found for not a lot of money.
But on the happy note, glad your ok chap, possessions can be replaced, people can’t.
But on the happy note, glad your ok chap, possessions can be replaced, people can’t.
Really sorry to hear that fella, know exactly how you feel as it happed to me beginning of the year.
Only advice I can give it go out and get a decent alarm fitted, I’ve got one I can set at night while in bed that has shock sensors on window and motions detectors ect. I also went a got myself cctv cameras one internal and external. Then just went round and made everything as secure as possible.
It’s a horrible feeling knowing some scummy has been in your home. My wife and kids a E still uneasy if they hear a noise a night.
Hopefully they are caught or just wiped of the face of the earth.
Only advice I can give it go out and get a decent alarm fitted, I’ve got one I can set at night while in bed that has shock sensors on window and motions detectors ect. I also went a got myself cctv cameras one internal and external. Then just went round and made everything as secure as possible.
It’s a horrible feeling knowing some scummy
has been in your home. My wife and kids a E still uneasy if they hear a noise a night. Hopefully they are caught or just wiped of the face of the earth.
Edited by Jack Mansfield on Thursday 1st February 09:00
mat13 said:
Beware those cheap safes, they can generally be bumped open with a swift smack on the top whilst twiddling the handle. You can stop this by booting them down then adding a shelf above, or if you need one decent safes that are a lot harder to bump can be found for not a lot of money.
Got me thinking- if they were definately after car keys, hide the safe with the 'real' keys inside, and buy 'spare' key fobs from ebay. Don't program them up but leave them easy to find inside the house. Hopefully then they'll waste their time trying to get the car started / open and then give up ?
LordLoveLength said:
Got me thinking- if they were definately after car keys, hide the safe with the 'real' keys inside, and buy 'spare' key fobs from ebay.
Don't program them up but leave them easy to find inside the house. Hopefully then they'll waste their time trying to get the car started / open and then give up ?
Now that is rather clever ...Don't program them up but leave them easy to find inside the house. Hopefully then they'll waste their time trying to get the car started / open and then give up ?
Back in April 2010 I came down stairs at around 7am holding my then 14 month old son, as I opened the front room door I noticed how chilly it was. My first impression was that we'd managed to leave a window open. You're right about the initial confusion. It took me a couple of minutes to realise what had happened.
Whilst myself, my wife and our little boy were asleep, somebody had levered open our patio doors (with a spade out of the garden) and gone through every drawer and cupboard looking for the keys to my shiny Subaru Impreza STi. They didn't find them but pinched my laptop and took 20 quid out of my wife's purse (having strewn the contents of her handbag all over the garden).
The frightening thing being is that we lived in a three storey town house. We were asleep in the main bedroom on the top floor, whilst my little lad was on the first floor. Had the scrote gone looking round the rest of the house the first person he would have found would have been my little lad.
It turned out that the scrote had been out all night stealing high powered cars driving them until he saw something else that he fancied and taking that. He pinched an RS6 from down the road and when the police recovered it my laptop was sat on the back seat.
Overall we got away quite lightly. The house wasn't ransacked (he had just had a quiet look through cupboards and drawers for keys), nobody was hurt, I got my laptop back and the insurance covered the new patio door and the money from my wife's purse.
We put the house on the market in September 2010. Much of that decision was driven by the break in. It's a horrible feeling.
Whilst myself, my wife and our little boy were asleep, somebody had levered open our patio doors (with a spade out of the garden) and gone through every drawer and cupboard looking for the keys to my shiny Subaru Impreza STi. They didn't find them but pinched my laptop and took 20 quid out of my wife's purse (having strewn the contents of her handbag all over the garden).
The frightening thing being is that we lived in a three storey town house. We were asleep in the main bedroom on the top floor, whilst my little lad was on the first floor. Had the scrote gone looking round the rest of the house the first person he would have found would have been my little lad.
It turned out that the scrote had been out all night stealing high powered cars driving them until he saw something else that he fancied and taking that. He pinched an RS6 from down the road and when the police recovered it my laptop was sat on the back seat.
Overall we got away quite lightly. The house wasn't ransacked (he had just had a quiet look through cupboards and drawers for keys), nobody was hurt, I got my laptop back and the insurance covered the new patio door and the money from my wife's purse.
We put the house on the market in September 2010. Much of that decision was driven by the break in. It's a horrible feeling.
Do you have an alarm? If not I would buy one.
If you CBA to do a proper alarm look at something like Smart Things.
Their starter kit is basically a WIFI alarm with global access via their APP.
You can set up notifications etc.
You can also buy a camera that will work with it. You can set the "alarm" mode to arm when your phone leaves the house.
HTH.
http://www.samsung.com/uk/smartthings/kit-f-str-ki...
If you CBA to do a proper alarm look at something like Smart Things.
Their starter kit is basically a WIFI alarm with global access via their APP.
You can set up notifications etc.
You can also buy a camera that will work with it. You can set the "alarm" mode to arm when your phone leaves the house.
HTH.
http://www.samsung.com/uk/smartthings/kit-f-str-ki...
Forensics on way - police have been excellent.
All good advice. Hard to know for sure but if opportunists they were very lucky in the way they’ve got in.
Seems almost too lucky.
Then I guess they were unlucky that I came home in middle of it.
Everyone was lucky there wasn’t a confrontation. As I said I had time to get to GFs place a few doors down and return to see them legging it.
That had given me time to prepare and compose myself.
It could have all gone very wrong.
Think I’ll rent the place out and move to the countryside where having the odd modestly nice thing doesn’t make me a target.
I definitely fked Up though. They used my own ladder (the cheek of it) and the safe had the keys (luckily got back).
That certainly won’t be where I keep things in the future.
I also have CCTV in garage which trigger my phone on motion sensor. They hadn’t got that far so it didn’t go off.
Why I don’t have any in the house for a few hundred quid is madness.
I guess that you don’t realise the weakness until they’re exposed. Lucky escape - it’ll be Fort Knox from now on.
Please everyone check your parameters
All good advice. Hard to know for sure but if opportunists they were very lucky in the way they’ve got in.
Seems almost too lucky.
Then I guess they were unlucky that I came home in middle of it.
Everyone was lucky there wasn’t a confrontation. As I said I had time to get to GFs place a few doors down and return to see them legging it.
That had given me time to prepare and compose myself.
It could have all gone very wrong.
Think I’ll rent the place out and move to the countryside where having the odd modestly nice thing doesn’t make me a target.
I definitely f
ked Up though. They used my own ladder (the cheek of it) and the safe had the keys (luckily got back).That certainly won’t be where I keep things in the future.
I also have CCTV in garage which trigger my phone on motion sensor. They hadn’t got that far so it didn’t go off.
Why I don’t have any in the house for a few hundred quid is madness.
I guess that you don’t realise the weakness until they’re exposed. Lucky escape - it’ll be Fort Knox from now on.
Please everyone check your parameters
I’ve recently installed internal and external Netatmo security cameras. The face recognition and immediate alerts by phone operate really well and are adjustable. Easy to install, reasonably priced. Can recommend:
https://www.netatmo.com/en-GB/product/security/
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tec...
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tec...
https://www.netatmo.com/en-GB/product/security/
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tec...
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tech/smart-tec...
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