What are the chances of a house burglary while away on holiday, really?

[CottagePieLaLaLa]

This time of year it's not unusual to see articles online with tips on how to make sure your home is safe from intruders while you're off to Cornwall/France/Spain/etc for a week of fun and frolic. Stop your milk delivery, use timers on your lights, get the neighbours to water your plants, etc.

But what are the chances of a house burglary, really? Luckily we've never experienced one and neither have our close friends. But a few of their neighbours have. So I'm now wondering whether it's getting more common and we should really make whatever effort we can, to burglar-proof our homes.

Interested in what other MNters have experienced...

& for the people saying 'nothing of value', if you have a chancer looking for quick sale stuff for drug money, they won't care about your assessment of the value of stuff in your house. A couple of bottles of wine they can flog in the pub will do with a fiver left on the side.

Been burgled twice in my life. 32 years apart. Once whilst at work. Once whilst sleeping upstairs in bed. They will burgle you when they want.

I have three dogs at the moment - my own two huge black Labradors - 35 Kg of fit working labs and also am looking after a friends large Doberman for 6 weeks. I have cctv, great neighbours and ring doorbell.

I have windows at the top of my windows open and I have bathroom windows open. I pity the person (the fool ) who tries to break in ….. they are trained and they know what to do

Two friends were both burgled while they were at home. I think if someone is determined enough they don't care if you're on holiday or not.

Managed to avoid burglary but got very close. Power cut to the house (by removing the main fuse - lucky they weren't electrocuted) to cut the power to the security cameras. We think they were scared off by next door's dog but the freezer was pretty vile when we got home 10 days later.

I've been burgled twice whilst on holiday

The security cameras now have a battery back up!!!

Once someone tried to break into my old house while I was in bed, I disturbed them by turning on the light in my room as I heard a loud noise. They had used something like a crow bar to try to force open the French doors. I lived at the end of a quiet close off another quiet road with limited lighting etc.

Our neighbours left their house at 4pm and it was burgled at 9pm.

Dogs too are supposed to be a huge deterrent.

Well the dogs wouldn’t be in the house if you’re on holiday anyway so not much of a deterrent in this circumstance.

We we’re broken into on a weekend away. Rented bungalow so no alarm / security measures.

Police said most burglaries are opportunistic, so they saw a house with no car / lights off and went for it. Climbed over the roof, brazen as owt.

I live in a third floor apartment so the chances of me being burgled are tiny. The windows are far too high to get into, so they'd have to gain access to the building which has a passcode and intercom system, walk up 3 flights of stairs (no lift) kick my door in and then carry everything back down all the stairs, with the possibility that my neighbours in the building would hear or see them.

Don't some of these measures make it more obvious the place is empty?

My neighbours park their car right up against the garage door when they're away. We have integral garages and you can access the house through them, so I understand wanting to make it harder to get in that way, but I see it and think "OK next door are away". The same when lights are coming on and off but curtains aren't closing.

DS is awful for leaving his big bedroom window open, but on a warm day, having all the windows closed does make it obvious the place is empty and a big window open probably makes it look occupied.

But you can't really leave your dogs at home when you go on holiday.

I agree that dogs are a huge deterrent from taking holidays though!

I meant if you are our shopping or asleep and the dogs are home, they are a big deterrent.

One time my parents' neighbour parked on my parents' drive when my parents went on holiday.

The neighbour's house was broken into and car keys taken, but the burglar couldn't find the car because it was on my parents' drive. The neighbours were really happy.

I’ve never known anyone have their house broken into. And honestly, I’d rather not know if I was on holiday, what are you going to do? We have buildings and contents insurance for that reason. We don’t have any of that nonsense like cameras or ring doorbell, just drives paranoia.

Unless the burglars are also dog thieves. Often dogs (and cats) are taken.

@MonumentalLentil

Literal cat burglary?!

Alexa has all sorts of interesting burglar prevention skills

We were burgled once when we were out at work. It's a really horrible thing to happen. I was a nervous wreck for ages afterwards afraid they would come back.
The advice i was given was make your house less attractive to burglars/more secure than others in the area.

We have five medium and large dogs who launch themselves at the front door when someone approaches our drive!

Happened to me a few years ago. I lived on a busy road and they still managed to jump over my garden gate, break my back door and steal all my jewellery. At the time we didn't have a burglar alarm but did have timer lights and security lights in the garden. They made no difference unfortunately.

I have house sitter cheaper than kernels

Kennels not kernels - never been short of people who want to house sit with them