Our house was burgled, and the police seem completely disinterested

[Earlybird]

Our house was burgled about 2 weeks ago. It happened during the day when no one was home. The alarm did not go off (despite being on). No one was hurt. The thief broke a window, and ransacked the master bedroom.

When the break-in was discovered, I called 999. The police arrived promptly. They dusted for fingerprints, but said thief appears to have worn gloves. Only my jewelry was taken - some had great sentimental value, some was quite precious. A full itemized list of stolen items was provided to the police on the day of the crime. Everything of significant value was insured.

The police filed a report. I was given a case number and told a detective would be in touch in a few days. I have heard nothing further from the police. Today (almost 2 weeks after the incident), I called to ask if a detective had been assigned, and ask why I had heard nothing. They had no explanation, but gave me the name of the detective. I left a voicemail for him early afternoon. He has not returned my call.

As upset as i am to have been burgled, I am beginning to be just as upset at the complete lack of communication from the police. Realistically, I know there is little chance of recovering the jewelry, or catching the thief.

AIBU, and what would you do if you were in my situation?

[Grockle]

Oh earlybird, I'm sorry. I'm not sure what to say - what do you want the police to do? I'm assuming if they have any info or news for you, they'll contact you?

When I was burgled, it was a case of them coming and taking a report and nothing else. They happened to find some of our belongings and returned them but there was never any information shared with us about what happened.

Are you and DD ok?

[StrawberryMojito]

The lack of contact is poor and you should call the detective again and tell him/her so. If you cannot get hold of him/her ask to speak to their DS or DI to express your unhappiness.

However, you are right in your realism...if the forensic examination wad negative, and there are no witnesses and no CCTV and basically no other lines of enquiry then the report is likely to be filed quickly (if not already). If it forms part of a series in the area and they catch the burglar they may question him about it but without evidence...you get the drift.

The best thing you can do is visit some local pawn shops/independent jewellers and see if you can see your jewellery. If you do see it, don't say anything to the jeweller, but inform the police who may be able to get CCTV and seize your jewellery back. Also if you have photos of it and it is distinctive, provide your detective with them for a similar purpose. They may have already circulated the description amongst other officers to keep an eye out when searching houses. If they ever do catch anyone for it, it is likely to be because they have found a distinctive and obviously out of place item of your jewellery when searching a house on an unrelated matter. However, don't have high hopes, sorry.

[ben5]

so sorry to hear about your break in. When we were broken into nothing was found and like you only had a number for insurance purposes.
However I did have an excellent police offer who looked after me very well. I was heavily pg. with ds2 and dh was away with the navy. He popped round once a week for 3 weeks till dh was hme and ds2 was born.
I never got anything back and was also told to check porn shops.
Good luck and hope you are able to have some kind of sleep. It does get easier with time

[heliumballoon]

Porn shops Ben?

[Charliebigpotatoes]

The problem is that most police units, detective led ones especially are ridiculously under staffed due to cuts. I agree someone should have been in touch however CID deal with everything from robbery through to rape and it's likely that as there appears to be no evidence you may well have been put on the back burner. It's awful being burgled, soul destroying, unfortunately from a police perspective if there's no evidence there's not a lot they can do. Try calling the detective again but remember they may not be able to tell you anything at all.
Hope you're ok

[PicaK]

So sorry about your burglary.

[flatpackhamster]

Charliebigpotatoes

The police units aren't understaffed 'due to cuts'. Plenty of staff, they're just either managers or filling in paperwork. Something like 90% of a front-line officer's time is spent on paperwork.

Sorry to hear about your burglary, OP. That's the reality of modern policing, though.

[pinkappleby]

That must have been horrible to find.

When we were burgled we had an initial visit (a neighbour had dialled 999 as had seen burglary in progress and we came home to Police there) and the next day forensics came but I don't think they found much. We had to go to the police station to get some things back about a week later. Then we heard nothing (but we didn't expect to) until months later when we got a long letter out of the blue saying a couple of lads had been convicted and giving basic details about them and their previous convictions etc, so stuff had been happening, we just hadn't been told about it.

[HecateTrivia]

porn shops. I much prefer that to pawn shops.

I'm sorry you were robbed, Earlybird. My parents have been burgled a few times. My mum says what's hardest to deal with is the invasion of your space. I know it's cynical, but I think they write off the crimes they think they don't have a cat in hell's chance of getting a result on, and just do the paperwork. They should talk to you though, make you feel like it matters that you were burgled.

[Longtalljosie]

Hmm - when I was mugged I was told to call a number if anything came up I thought was important. When the list of places they'd used my debit card came up, it included a petrol station. Since they all have CCTV I thought that was important, and rang to tell them so, with the time of the purchase.

The police woman who answered the phone said "don't you think we have more important things to do?" and hung up on me.

Lesson learned...

[mumblechum1]

We were burgled a few years ago and tbh didn't call 999, just the non-emergency number. The bobbies came and fingerprints were taken, a crime ref. no was given and that was that.

tbh I didn't expect anything more than that; burglary is more of an insurance issue than anything else, I certainly didn't expect the police to contact us again unless for some extremely unlikely reason they caught the people red handed burgling someone else and they confessed to ours

[mumblechum1]

Burglary ime was a nuisance but not exactly traumatic.

[thebody]

We were burgled last October.

Police were very sympathetic and professionsl. Caught our burglars with the help of our CCTV tape, kept us informed and are now on remand awaiting trial which we have been invited to attend and make witness statement.

We are west mids. So impressed with the police.

[Lizcat]

Sorry to hear about your burglary. IME 2 weeks is very short for them to have achieved anything without forensics. We had an intruder in our house asleep on our sofa arrested by the police, but it still took 6 months before they had evidence that he had intended to burgle use to prosecute him. We were then burgled last September and lost a very significant amount of jewellery (enough to make them think it was a national gang) and we were advised that 90% of these cases they do resolved, but it is not uncommon for it to take up to 3 years when there are no forensics and it is often when they eventually make a mistake somewhere else and are caught that they ask for other crimes to be taken into consideration.
We were advised that currently nearly all of the jewellery is being sold on to cash for gold outfits and is melted down within 24 hours of being stolen. Which I know doesn't make you feel any better, but I wouldn't waste my time in pawn shops. Our only hope is that one of the items stolen is an almost unique high value watch that they will eventually try to sell on and we provided the police with the serial number so they probably will be caught then.

[anewyear]

Mumblechum
so glad your experiance wasnt traumatic.

My freind was alone in her house with her newborn, 4 days after being sent home after a CS, when someone broke in thro her patio doors..
He threatened her and the baby with a knife..

[likelucklove]

After working with the police, it frustrates me with their lack of updating the victims on a case!

I'm so sorry it happened to you When you finally get hold of someone, be it the detective investigating it or their superiors, quote the [http://www.cps.gov.uk/victims_witnesses/victims_code.pdf Victims Code] starting from page 6, which states they are required to inform you of every change in the case. This is enforced by the CPS. You could also contact the Police Complaints Commission if your really unhappy, I've had great help from them in a couple of cases when I worked with Victim Support.

I hope you get answers, if you need any help feel free to PM me, I did quite a lot of dealings with police complaints and burglary.

[likelucklove]

Victims Code

Hopefully this will work (I'm on my phone)!

[samandi]

The police woman who answered the phone said "don't you think we have more important things to do?" and hung up on me.

WTF?!

Sorry about your burglary OP. YANBU to feel that the police should at least respond to your communication, even if there is little hope of recovering the items.

[squeakytoy]

The best thing you can do is visit some local pawn shops/independent jewellers and see if you can see your jewellery. If you do see it, don't say anything to the jeweller, but inform the police who may be able to get CCTV and seize your jewellery back.

The best thing to do IS go to the shops, but you will need to ask. Photographs would be a great help too. The stuff is not going to be on sale in the window as they have to keep it for a certain amount of time, and also it is more likely to be sent to auction than resold in the shop.

[MiseryBusiness]

I'm very sorry this has happened to you. I hope the police have some answers for you soon.

Mumblechum - Burglary can be very traumatic. Friends of mine were broken into in the middle of the night. DH heard some noise, went downstairs and was knocked out with a bat. The intruders then went upstair and threatened my friend with violence and rape unless she gave them everything of value. All this with their 2 month old DS in the room.

They had to move house because they couldnt bare to live there anymore so I wouldnt say burglary is not traumatic.

[Earlybird]

Thanks to all who have posted with sympathy and advice.

I have spent a great deal of time since the burglary dealing with the aftermath - meeting with alarm company, meeting with insurance agent, meeting with another alarm company for a 'fresh set of eyes' on our existing system (its' vulnerabilities and how it might be improved upon), meeting with the company who will replace the broken glass, etc. I am due to meet with a company about how to better secure our garden gate.

So on a practical level, the burglary has dominated my activities/schedule. And it has very much dominated our lives on a psychological level - all the whys, hows and what ifs. And I must confess, I feel quite nervous every time I leave the house (and return).

Someone asked what I expected the police to do - practically, i know there is not much. But at the very least, I expect a phone call from the detective to introduce himself and explain how the process will work (or not work, due to lack of 'hard' evidence). Perhaps some tips about anything I might do to protect myself/our home in future. Perhaps some information about crime in the area, and whether or not this method of burglary (avoiding alarm system, etc) is commonplace. Maybe some information about how they will contact area pawn shops regarding the jewelry, what they will say, and the possibility (or not) of recovering anything, etc.

Basically - I am looking for information, communication, perhaps a bit of sympathy/hand-holding. As a single Mum who lives alone with dd, I want to feel as safe as possible in our home. Now that our house has proven to be vulnerable, I am afraid it can/will happen again - and feel anxious that next time we may be at home.

[MissFaversham]

I'm so sorry to hear that you've been burgled. It's happened to me twice over the last few years

I'm also not sure what you want the police to do. They will only be in touch if they have any new information to give you.

You will be sent some bumph from victim support who you can call.

You can also ask the police to send round an officer who deals with security to check over your house and advise on any blind spots further security measures to help you feel safer.

[5madthings]

first sympathies, as its horrible we were burgled when ds2 was a tiny baby, it was during the night and thankfully they didnt take anything of value, that was only because ds2 woke and i got up to feed him and me moving about upstairs and baby crying disturbed them and i saw them run out of the front door, well the back of them!! what did make me laugh was on their way out they grabbed the bag hanging on my pushchair, it looked like a handbag so am assuiming they thought money..purse etc when in actually fact it was my nappy change bag and simply had babyclothes, nappies, wipes, bibs, you know all that thrilling stuff! and they actually went up the road tipping it out as they went, so i took some small pleasure from thinking how PISSED off they were to discover the bag only had baby stuff in it and my lovely postman found all the contents some streets away and recognised it as mine (he often saw me with pushchair and bag) and brought it back, the police took it away as evidence for a bit and did the same as you dusted for fingerprints etc and not much else could be done.

they did offer a counselling service, victim support tho nad also said they could have someone come round to help give suggestions on how to make the home safer, so i would be asking about that actually!

oh and many many months later i got a visit from the police to say that they had arrested two men who had been commiting lots of burglaries that fitted the same sort of pattern as ours and they had admitted to breaking into houses on my street, so the chances were it was them. so just because it doesnt seem like they are doing anything they keep records etc and look for patterns of similar crimes etc and there is work going on that you dont know aobu or see etc and you may find that in the future they come back to you and say they caught someone and very occasionally they do manage to recover jewlerry etc, have you given them photos or identifying info about the stuff taken?

and i agree wtih local pawn shops etc keep an eye out and if you see your stuff then phone police, on the non emergency number tho :)

(((and a hug as you need itt)))