Someone was in our house last night.

[worried91]

Am so worried and confused about what happened.
1am- DH and I go upto bed, dd1 has popped out to pick up her boyfriend from the pub and bring him back here and dd2 has just arrived home from work. Younger dc have been asleep for hours.
5am- I hear a phone vibrating in the house and what sounds like an alarm, dh puts his ears to the older dc's doors but thinks it's coming from downstairs. Goes down past the (closed?) front door and locates the phone down the back of the couch. Knocks on oldest dd's door and throws the phone to her sleeping boyfriend saying he'd left it downstairs.
8am dd2 goes downstairs for a drink and the front door is wide open. I hear her coming up to check on the little two who are still asleep in bed.
At this point I start getting concerned so go into dd1s room and her boyfriend says the phone isn't his! He thought dh had got confused about who he was giving it to at 5am so just put it under the bed and went back to sleep.
Dh insists the door was closed when he walked past it at 5am (Yale lock no handle so when it's not clicked closed it swings wide open so I believe it was closed)
Back door is locked with the key in the door and the conservatory has an added locking system over the original lock that hasn't been moved.
We live in a nice area, we are on the edge of town with fields all around so you wouldn't walk past our house going anywhere else iyswim, you'd have to be deliberately coming this way.
We rent our house (moved in 18 months ago) so we don't know who all had keys before us which stupidly never crossed my mind until this morning 😕
Nothing seems to have been touched, my bag is over the end of the stairs, the cars and keys are all there and no laptops etc are missing.
I've no idea why anyone would have come in, lost their phone on the couch then left again without us hearing anything.
I'm worried that the person must have still been in the house when dh went downstairs then left the door open when he went out.
The only other thing to add is one night a few weeks ago dd2 came in at 1am then I went out at 5am and the door was wide open. I told her to be more careful when she came in and she insisted that she had closed the door properly but now I'm wondering if someone has done this before.
We've phoned the police who are coming out at some point to talk to us and pick up the phone (phones locked with a gaming picture on the Lock Screen) and will be going to B&Q to get new locks but I feel so on edge wondering what's been going on 😔

fairylightsandwaxmelts

MrsLargeEmbodied
surely it could have been lost in the couch for ages?
The OP says the battery is almost full, so it must have been lost recently.

Even if they're not being used, iPhone batteries don't last longer than a few days

A few years ago we had the whole of our house remodelled. The only things in the living room were the tv and a brand new sofa,( we hadn’t got our furniture out of storage yet)

The floors were engineered oak wooden floors so no gaps in floor boards etc.

Dh went to make coffee leaving his phone on the arm of the sofa.

When he returned with the coffee his phone had disappeared. We looked everywhere. Upturned the sofa. Hands down the sides, I rang his number but even though it usually rang out there was nothing.

Dh had to get a new phone.
5 years later I found his phone. It was found in the middle of the living room floor and it still had battery.

I can only think there is a parallel universe. What other explanation could there be for an iPhone battery to last that long

I’d have thought the OP involving the police and talking of lock changing would have made anyone brining someone back to sleep, own up.

@Kennykenkencat

fairylightsandwaxmelts

MrsLargeEmbodied
surely it could have been lost in the couch for ages?
The OP says the battery is almost full, so it must have been lost recently.

Even if they're not being used, iPhone batteries don't last longer than a few days

A few years ago we had the whole of our house remodelled. The only things in the living room were the tv and a brand new sofa,( we hadn’t got our furniture out of storage yet)

The floors were engineered oak wooden floors so no gaps in floor boards etc.

Dh went to make coffee leaving his phone on the arm of the sofa.

When he returned with the coffee his phone had disappeared. We looked everywhere. Upturned the sofa. Hands down the sides, I rang his number but even though it usually rang out there was nothing.

Dh had to get a new phone.
5 years later I found his phone. It was found in the middle of the living room floor and it still had battery.

I can only think there is a parallel universe. What other explanation could there be for an iPhone battery to last that long

This story needs its own thread!

@ENoeuf

Or : door is unreliable and phone belongs to someone who lost it when visiting ages ago.

Still charged after all this time?

" Even in rented properties we have done this and then just put back the landlord's original barrel when we move out."

Possibly a breach of contract as your landlord may need access in an emergency.
I'm surprised to hear changing a lock is cheap. When I locked myself out with the keys in the door, it cost me 70E, but I'm not good with my hands so could never have done it myself.

"Not as expensive as having an insurance claim denied because you don't know how many people might have keys to your house"

Nobody can ever know for sure unless they've just changed the lock so this would everyone's claim invalid.

I think your dh interrupted a burglary.

Either someone with keys or someone who got in some other way (check windows and other doors) and was attempting to use their phone as a torch but, in the dark, pressed the wrong button causing it to ring/vibrate alerting you and dh. When your dh came downstairs they hid, dropping the phone in their haste.

Your dh took the phone upstairs preventing the burglar from being able to retrieve it and he scarpered out the front door without any loot (that you have noticed so far) knowing it was only a matter of minutes before dh would realise that it wasn’t his phone. He didn’t realise dh would suspect the boyfriend and he could have had another couple of hours of looting. He pulled the front door behind him not closing it tightly and it had swung open for dd to find in the morning.

The police will get fingerprints and identification from the phone and it will, most likely, be someone known to them.

Case solved.

Shouldn’t keep key in any door, if would be intruder breaks in they can open the door! Might invalidate any insurance you have.
Nice areas get broken into too

Most likely explanation is that your DD or bf picked up the phone by mistake and the door didn’t quite catch and the wind blew it open.

Did you check the catch on the door?

@Gwenhwyfar

" Even in rented properties we have done this and then just put back the landlord's original barrel when we move out."

Possibly a breach of contract as your landlord may need access in an emergency.
I'm surprised to hear changing a lock is cheap. When I locked myself out with the keys in the door, it cost me 70E, but I'm not good with my hands so could never have done it myself.

It's not, as long as the tenants keep the original barrel it's legal.

Interesting.
My front door lock also sometimes don't shut properly and the door are wide open until someone goes past them and shuts them.

When I first rented a flat on my own, the landlord used to get so pissed on nights out occasionally that he'd return thinking he still lived here. He'd lived here for years himself and then rented it to pals who let him crash on the sofa after that, so he'd forget and come and try and crash on mine also as it saved him a taxi home.

My brother also has quite a few friends who just crash on the nearest friends sofa after a night out instead of getting a taxi home, even if they haven't prearranged it or been on a night out with sofa owning friend. There's been quite a few incidents of sleeping off the worst of it in the wrong house etc.

It may be that the previous tenant has got drunk came into the house ( thinking it was his home) on auto pilot, panicked and left when he got his bearings / sobered up and then sneaked back in for his phone!
This happens quite frequently so could it be that?

i think @Threeboysandadog has got it right.

When I interrupted a burgular op it took me about 3 days to realise they’d nicked the penny jar. They’d left my handbag and car keys and a bunch of other obvious stuff. have a really good look round there might still be something missing that you haven’t noticed.

@Kennykenkencat

fairylightsandwaxmelts

MrsLargeEmbodied
surely it could have been lost in the couch for ages?
The OP says the battery is almost full, so it must have been lost recently.

Even if they're not being used, iPhone batteries don't last longer than a few days

A few years ago we had the whole of our house remodelled. The only things in the living room were the tv and a brand new sofa,( we hadn’t got our furniture out of storage yet)

The floors were engineered oak wooden floors so no gaps in floor boards etc.

Dh went to make coffee leaving his phone on the arm of the sofa.

When he returned with the coffee his phone had disappeared. We looked everywhere. Upturned the sofa. Hands down the sides, I rang his number but even though it usually rang out there was nothing.

Dh had to get a new phone.
5 years later I found his phone. It was found in the middle of the living room floor and it still had battery.

I can only think there is a parallel universe. What other explanation could there be for an iPhone battery to last that long

That is freaky!

Did your daughters or boyfriends go anywhere near the couch or go straight upstairs? I think the door is dodgy as shown from before, and the phone was accidently picked up in the pub

Gaming picture on the lock screen
A friend of your DCs or the boyfriend.

If it was something to do with the boyfriend ie he had let a friend in, why would he admit the phone wasn't his and hand it over to the OP instead of keeping quiet, taking it and giving it back to whoever it belonged to?

Surely he would be incriminating himself?

@Gwenhwyfar

"Not as expensive as having an insurance claim denied because you don't know how many people might have keys to your house"

Nobody can ever know for sure unless they've just changed the lock so this would everyone's claim invalid.

I don't know how many people move into a new home and unwittingly invalidate their insurance by all sorts of means.

I'm thinking about my own experience of the part of an insurance claim where you have to demonstrate forced entry in order to claim for burgled goods. Saying, 'oooh, anyone could have a key and let themselves in' won't normally cut it for a valid claim on regular contents insurance.

Honestly, barrels are cheap from B&Q and places like that. Just for the peace of mind ...

Police have been and collected the phone and spoke to us all. They said they wouldn't be taking finger prints as nothing has been taken.
Dd and her boyfriend were there while we were talking to the police and said they came in and went right up to bed. Bf had picked up pizza and drinks so they went up to her room to eat it.
We've not had anyone in the house that I can think off for a while. Dds friends say hello then either sit in the kitchen or go to their rooms to chat.
The police said they don't know what will happen to the phone so we're no further forward.

@thisplaceisweird

When you rent a house, always change the locks, keep the original locks and then change them back when you leave!

Hope it's resolved OP, scary but doesn't sound sinister as they've not taken anything

There is no general right to change locks and exclude the landlord from the premises without cause (and even the 'cause' is up for debate on whether it's justifiable). Changing the locks without permission could mean the tenant is: Breaching the terms of the tenancy agreement.

I'm guessing the Yale lock is sticky and not fully closing. A gust of wind or it moving with pressure is opening the door. Not sure about the phone

@Redcrayons

Most likely explanation is that your DD or bf picked up the phone by mistake and the door didn’t quite catch and the wind blew it open.

Did you check the catch on the door?

This is the conclusion I came to also.

@FortunesFave

It's something to do with DD and her boyfriend. Either he or she has accidentally brought someone else's phone home and doesn't want the other to know...or along those lines. And I'm another one who is astounded your husband opened the door and threw the phone to the sleeping boyfriend! That's weird! Why didn't he just turn it off or something normal?

@FortunesFave it was an alarm going off. Most people who set an alarm for 5 am do so because they want to get up at that time - therefore taking the phone to them is helpful. Turning it off isn't. OP has already explained her DH didn't literally throw the phone at the BF's head!

@worried91

Am so worried and confused about what happened. 1am- DH and I go upto bed, dd1 has popped out to pick up her boyfriend from the pub and bring him back here and dd2 has just arrived home from work. Younger dc have been asleep for hours. 5am- I hear a phone vibrating in the house and what sounds like an alarm, dh puts his ears to the older dc's doors but thinks it's coming from downstairs. Goes down past the (closed?) front door and locates the phone down the back of the couch. Knocks on oldest dd's door and throws the phone to her sleeping boyfriend saying he'd left it downstairs. 8am dd2 goes downstairs for a drink and the front door is wide open. I hear her coming up to check on the little two who are still asleep in bed. At this point I start getting concerned so go into dd1s room and her boyfriend says the phone isn't his! He thought dh had got confused about who he was giving it to at 5am so just put it under the bed and went back to sleep. Dh insists the door was closed when he walked past it at 5am (Yale lock no handle so when it's not clicked closed it swings wide open so I believe it was closed) Back door is locked with the key in the door and the conservatory has an added locking system over the original lock that hasn't been moved. We live in a nice area, we are on the edge of town with fields all around so you wouldn't walk past our house going anywhere else iyswim, you'd have to be deliberately coming this way. We rent our house (moved in 18 months ago) so we don't know who all had keys before us which stupidly never crossed my mind until this morning 😕 Nothing seems to have been touched, my bag is over the end of the stairs, the cars and keys are all there and no laptops etc are missing. I've no idea why anyone would have come in, lost their phone on the couch then left again without us hearing anything. I'm worried that the person must have still been in the house when dh went downstairs then left the door open when he went out. The only other thing to add is one night a few weeks ago dd2 came in at 1am then I went out at 5am and the door was wide open. I told her to be more careful when she came in and she insisted that she had closed the door properly but now I'm wondering if someone has done this before. We've phoned the police who are coming out at some point to talk to us and pick up the phone (phones locked with a gaming picture on the Lock Screen) and will be going to B&Q to get new locks but I feel so on edge wondering what's been going on 😔

Do any of you take part in or are apart of any classified information, company research and development projects ? Anything related to national security or military and defence ect ?