Are my windows secure or am I paranoid?

[ILoveJoeBrown]

Still arguing with the family about how secure our house is when we are out!

We have 3 kidults all still living at home. I have lost count of the arguments we have had, when we come home [eg yesterday after a 4 day break away - DH and me on our own] to find all the upstairs windows wide open [it's hot] and no-one at home, apart from our little dog and our ES who is always in his room in the back of the house with headphones on, so he can't hear!

We are forever telling them to shut their windows when they go out, but they simply don't believe that anyone would be able to break in to steal anything. Our YS's ex-gf leaves her back door open all the time and has never been burgled, etc etc. We can't have restrictors on bedroom windows [due to building regs], but we do on the downstairs windows.

We have tried the "it's our house, we pay the mortgage and the insurance and if anything does get stolen while the windows are left open we won't see a penny of any insurance claim - so it's our rules", but they just scoff and say we are paranoid. Are we?

[Toodeloo]

Of course you are right. Tbh I’m cruel that way - I’d nick everything from their rooms only if they did it again and pretend to be shocked to have been burgled.

[NachoNachoMan]

Do you have anything that a potential burglar could climb on to access your upstairs window such as a roof, conservatory, a shed, a drain pipe or ladders stored in the garden? If not you're probably okay. I'm sure when I do the insurance it only asks about having locks on accessible windows e.g. downstairs or above something that could be climbed up or on to.

I don't think paranoid is the word (I won't leave mine open when we are out either FYI) but probably overly cautious! Not that it's a bad thing 🙂

[Bluntness100]

What’s a YS and an ES?

[GreyishDays]

Elder and younger son?

[JoanJosephJim]

I would absolutely pretend that a burglar as come in through the open window into their room and remove all their tech and anything they value.

Of course people break in through open windows and open doors. The police ran a campaign on an estate I used to live on because people didn't lock their front doors meaning thieves were opening them and nicking handbags and keys for cars from halls. People kept saying but we live in a nice area and the police said yes that is why you are being targeted.

[AmelieTaylor]

My front upstairs windows stay open all summer& half the day or more in the winter 🤷🏻‍♀️

Small amount of grass, pavement, grass verge then road - so not right on the road, but not set too far back either.

Back ones upstairs are visible by the neighbours, I'm on one end, but 6 houses together, they'd have to be bloody brazen!

When we're out the downstairs ones all get closed, but when home, they're all wide open.

I like in a fairly nice, but not 'posh' area in the SE, but I've lived all over the place and I've pretty much always done that.

So, I think you're a bit OTT, but as you say - your insurance, your rules. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Okbutnotgreat]

I live in a really nice small town kind of place but friends have been burgled when they’re in their living room and someone has opened the back door and helped themselves in the kitchen. That said I leave my doors unlocked the majority of the time and the windows upstairs are always open unless we’re away for longer than a day. We’re lucky though that we have no passing traffic or pedestrians so it does feel safer.

[ILoveJoeBrown]

We live on a main road [albeit with a wall around 2 sides], have a little yappy dog and a noisy parrot, and I suppose the added bonus is that we are all in and out of the house at very unpredictable times, so a burglar watching the house could never be quite sure if anyone was in or not? Esp right now when we are all wfh.

If we are downstairs, we always have the back door shut with the patio door often open so the dog can come and go, but that can't be seen from the road.

Maybe I am being a little paranoid, but I was burgled years ago when I lived alone in a ground floor flat - it was during the night and I was in the flat asleep at the time! I woke to find my work stuff gone and the kitten hiding under the sofa [he was all I was really worried about tbh so I was relieved when I found him!]

[Whatthebloodyell]

I would happily leave my upstairs windows open all day. I tend to think that most burglars are opportunistic thief’s who would try the back or front door at night, but not scale the front of your house, in full view of the street, during the day.

[PigletJohn]

I have been in a house that was burgled by a person using a drainpipe to get in through an upstairs open window.

Took jewellery and money, went through drawers, pockets, handbags. Only stuff that would easily fit in pockets. Police said several other local houses done the same evening.

[ILoveJoeBrown]

I guess I'm extra paranoid right now, as we had a recent aggravated burglary the next street up, where the whole family was in and they actually hospitalised the poor Mum after whacking her over the head with a crowbar and breaking her arm in 4 places!!