Who has ever been burgled? And how?

[Martacus]

Who has ever been burgled? What did they take? How did they get in? What time of day - or night - was it?

Twice.

Both times by a relative. When was an addict and he needed a fix.

One time he literally kicked the front door in. On a terraced street in the middle of the day. And yet no one saw or heard a thing..
Stole everything of value.

But that was 20+ years ago and he's dead now.

Via a defective skylight in a property I was renovating. He was trying to get at the letter box as he was setting up a benefits fiddle at the address. He fell through the roof and neighbours caught him trying to escape. It was an empty property awaiting planning permission. I reported the matter to the council and DWP who prosecuted him some months later.

We were burgled a couple of years ago, they broke in by breaking open the back doors whilst we are all asleep upstairs.

They took my dh laptop bag (laptop was actually charging somewhere else). And my canvas tote bag full of tat I'd made/bought at a Christmas fair.

Insurance was brilliant, sent out an emergency locksmith to fix the back doors within 2 hours. Police were brilliant, arrived quickly but there were no prints to CSI. They had to take detailed notes of what was taken and its value - wooden christmas tree ornament value 50p, Christmas cards value £1.50, table decoration thing value 75p, Christmas bracelet 50p, etc. I think my purse had less than a fiver in it.

Im not sure if burglars were disturbed and ran away, or if they realised our house was full of toddler toys and we actually own nothing worth stealing...

The main grumble i had was needing to cancel all my bank cards, replace driving licence, membership cards, etc. It was all rather a lot of admin.

Haven't been burgled since, not sure if thats because we added security lights to the back or if we're on some "its really not worth robbing that house, they don't own anything good" burglar watchlist

As a child my mother would regularly go out for the night leaving my sister (11) and I (7) home alone. One night we were burgled, they took our tv and video. This was early 90s, and nope it didn't stop her leaving us.

Once a few years back. We were out, early evening, still light. Smashed back door window and we had stupidly left key in lock. Took everything he could carry but we didn't have much of value. He got caught but never charged.

Came in the back door when we were home, student home of 5. Took a bag and purse off the kitchen work surface.

We were burgled although they broke in to our integral garage rather than the house. They removed the security light and stole a motorbike. Had a strong suspicion that it was the dodgy son of a neighbour.

At uni in a shared house.

They pushed a credit card in the gap between the door and the frame.

Took bikes, TV, VHS recorder and a walkman.

I was in my room and thought my flatmates were just being noisy.

A bit of a worry when I found out. My boyfriend put a big padlock on my door after that. He was a keeper so he's my husband now.

Yep. Through front door - took car keys (and car) and a handbag. I was semi awake in bed early hours of the morning and heard noise downstairs. I thought one of the kids had gone downstairs to find me or get a drink. Then I heard the front door close quietly. Irony is car was practically on empty, so I'd gone out especially to fill it up that night to avoid petrol queue in the morning. Police were there really quickly. We got the car back a few months later. The cameras we had never got round to installing before that are now installed!

We stupidly left the key in the back door they poked it through and grabbed it through the cat flap and let themselves in. They took £40 cash and a bottle coke. It was during the night whilst we were upstairs asleep. We've put in deadbolts and key hooks nowhere near the doors ever since.

While we were asleep upstairs. I heard a noise, thought it was one of the dc going to the loo. When I didn't hear the usual sound of them going back to their room, I got up and saw the front door wide open. Still half asleep, I called to dh that the front door was open. By this point I was halfway dien the stairs. The burglar ran out of the living room and out the front door. Very scary. He didn't get much, probably because I disturbed him.

Daytime, kitchen window lock weaker than we thought, cash ( inc lots of foreign notes that my husband had for work travel) my jewellery. Ignored electronics/tech - police sent SOCO next day who took some footprints on windowsill and who said electronics rarely taken now.

LV insurance response helpful and speedy.

Kitchen window now strong, monitored alarm now required by insurance company.

Years ago - I lived in a tenement flat alone, and it was during the day when I was at work. They had kicked the door in. Took a big sports bag and stuffed it with things like CDs and DVDs, a jar of change, and not much else, but there was a second sports bag lying abandoned so they possibly got disturbed. The police said it was probably junkies looking for stuff that was easy to carry.

Per pp the insurance were brilliant.

Once; it was very early morning/dawn. They let themselves in through an open downstairs window. It took us a few days to realise we had been broken into as they only took small things.

Our first clue was our little lurcher getting upstairs. She used to sleep in the dining room but we just assumed we had not closed the door properly when she came bolting into our bedroom one morning. That same morning my fags vanished but I just thought I had misplaced them. Over the next few days, we noticed more and more things missing (old tech that had been on my work desk to repair/football season tickets/kids purses full of change/pocket money/dd's digital camera) and then next door was broken into and it all fell into place.

They caught someone who used DH's season ticket but they claimed to have innocently bought it from someone in the pub.

First time was 2016. They removed a whole window Inc frame. Took car keys, car, bag, purse etc. Car was 3 days old but had a tracker so it was recovered along with all cards save debit card which was used to make the maximum number of contactless payments in the same shop. Bank repaid it all. Police were not interested. Second time was also 2016. Removed our shed doors to steal a bike. Third time was 2022. Burnt out locks with blow torch but tripped alarm then scarpered. Cost us £2,000. We now have drive posts + anti-snap locks. I hate hate hate thieves.

Both times the police/CSI attended in the early hours but kids slept through which was a silver lining.

These stories are interesting.

I have now removed the key in the inside of the back door!

I got burgled once at lunchtime, when I was out at work. They broke the door down - could easily have been seen so it was brazen. They didn't take anything but were disturbed by downstairs flat so I think they quickly ran.

Many years ago. They took the glass out of the kitchen window which had been installed incorrectly many years before ( they just took the heading off and the glass came out 😡) .
took tv , video etc. unsurprisingly.

the thing that really upsets me to this day is that the police took the large board that my dad had painted for the farm he made for the kids , because it had a footprint on. It wasn’t returned and neither was the evidence used. I don’t care it didn’t go anywhere. I’d expected that but they could have given it back !

Came home from work at 6pm and the house had been absolutely ransacked. They got in by licking the bottom panel out of our upvc door. They took everything, it took me a moment when I walked in the house to realise the curtains were shut and then the tv was gone. They had emptied fitted wardrobes in our rooms and you couldn't see an inch of floor. It was awful I'll never forget that feeling of not being safe in my home. We got a new rock door fitted and an alarm which helped, but we don't live there anymore.

We were burgled when I was little, our neighbour saw the burglar but assumed it was my dad moving stuff into his van the neighbour was a really lovely elderly lady who just couldn’t see very well so she thought it was my dad, I vividly remember her crying in our kitchen because she felt so awful! My parents didn’t blame her at all, I should add.

About 12 years ago when DS was 4, we were burgled in the middle of the night. We didn't lock the door from the inside so they put something through the letterbox to pull the handle down.
They took a laptop, my handbag, ipod and our car as they had the keys. Must have pushed it off the drive as we didn't hear anything.
I felt awful afterwards. So stupid to leave the door unlocked! And it was really not nice to think that they'd been in the house while we were all asleep.
We got the car back, I found my handbag (minus purse) dumped in an alley down the road and the insurance covered the rest. It was actually really upsetting to get my handbag back as they'd rifled through it and dumped my personal items, including photos of DS in the dirt.
Police came and took fingerprints but no idea if they ever caught them..probably not!

20 years ago via patio doors. Took my engagement ring, my nan's watch and a pillow case. I was devastated as they went through my then new born baby's drawers. I washed every piece of clothing as couldn't cope with them touching my baby's things.

Not burgled but our first flat was broken into while it was getting renovated. We had builders in working on it and they were leaving their tools in the flat overnight. Police’s theory was that someone had been staking out the flat and working out that there were tools being left in there overnight. The burglar(s) clearly knew exactly what they were going for - four pieces of expensive equipment nicked, they left all the cheap stuff. It was so brazen - they actually removed the back door off it’s hinges. Our upstairs neighbour claimed that they weren’t aware of anything because they were just so used to the construction noise.

DH had a less charitable theory that it was actually the upstairs neighbour as he was one of those ‘very friendly to us but seemed quite dodgy’ types (it was a bit of an ‘interesting’ area!) Other friends suggested that it might have been our builder himself doing it for the insurance payout, but I didn’t like that idea, he was a really nice guy.

Police attended and brushed for fingerprints but found nothing which reinforced their theory that it was a fairly professional job. No one ever found or charged or anything.

It did make me feel a bit unsettled when we first moved in but I was reassured that they were only after the tools and our meagre belongings wouldn’t have been of interest. And upstairs neighbour always told me that if I was home alone and screamed he’d immediately run down with a crowbar 😂

Twice.

Once they basically kicked in the door of my flat and stole my jewellery. Reported but no one was ever caught and I lost a couple of items inherited from my Nan.

Second time, they broke in for my husband’s car and in the process of searching for the keys, stole other jewellery and a toy remote control helicopter (of all things). That time they climbed over a neighbour’s wall and smashed our patio door with a crowbar.

Once. I had three small children, two so small they couldn’t walk. We lived in a second floor flat. All week I had been spotting people outside on the street (no through road so weird) and then one day I was in a huge rush to get my eldest from school and was carrying two babies in my arms. I saw two strange men lingering on the street as I got in the car to drive off.

when I got home the door was booted in and my stuff was gone. Obviously I arrived home with the little ones so had to hold my shit together. We weren’t allowed back in for 3 hours so ordered pizza and sat in the front garden.

we lived in the “posh” part of our borough then… and I was shocked I suppose. But I grew up in a rough area of north London so not THAT shocked if you see what I mean.

i kind of kicked myself because I knew the people on the street looked dodgy as fuck but I told myself, don’t be judgemental, look past your unconscious bias. Nah I was right.