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?

During the day at some point.

we were all out at work/school.

they went through the side door into the garden (don’t remember if it was locked now or not), smashed the glazed panel in the kitchen door to get in. Using a broom handle they found in the garden.

they took an Xbox (it had been given to DH as a birthday present), then they left through a downstairs window.
We had locked all doors and removed keys before leaving the houses they were expecting to find keys in the back door.

they knew what they were looking for and had gone straight to the master bedroom searching for jewellery. Had gone through the dressing table and taken out an old phone box (then thrown it in disgust when it was found empty). They’d searched the wardrobe too took out my prayer book, looking for valuables.

I hope they got glass shards in their arse from climbing in through the smashed door.

Apparently they had worked down the street, during the week! Police said they were looking for jewellery (hah chance would be a fine thing). And they suspected that houses had been observed to see when they’d be empty.

It was leading up to Christmas so I suppose it was a good thing (we don’t celebrate Christmas being Muslim) it was our house not some poor family with Christmas presents under the tree, apparently families had their presents stolen.

This thread is awful, I’m so sorry for everyone who’s ever been burgled, it must feel so vile to know some scumbag was in your home rifling through your belongings.

It's never happened to me (touch wood) but my ds once went to work and when he came back,he'd been burgled

They smashed a window to get in and the only thing they took was a can of beer

Turned out,it was the druggie friend of his dog walker (whos an old school friend)-hed broken in as ds and the dog walker had a bit of a disagreement and this lad wanted revenge for some reason

By the time it happened they'd made up and ds had a lot more on offer than just a can of beer but Oddly nothing else was taken

Previous house, a burglar used our bin to climb over the side gate and smash a window. I never leave the bin out now and wince when I see others do it.

In 1989 we were moving from one area to another, quite a distance. We'd got most stuff packed into boxes and went to the new place to do a couple of odd jobs. When we got back, the house was pretty much empty, someone had turned up with a lorry and taken it all. The front door had been forced. We lost stuff that had sentimental value, but were buoyed by the fact that we had good insurance, so everything got replaced. Much of what was stolen was cast-offs that we'd been given by family. The washing machine had just stopped working, the vacuum cleaner was about 30 years old, the microwave was also ancient and so on. It was certainly shocking to find nearly everything gone, but in some ways, the burglars did us a favour.

My partner got broke into over Xmas when he was away looking after his Nan when he was getting divorced. He came back the day after Boxing Day so he could have his Xmas with the kids to absolute devastation. They had been in every single room and taken all the kids wrapped presents, they had been in every drawer and trashed the place.
They got in by smashing the back door, the police reckon they were in less then 12 mins. Lots of the street got done over a few weeks.
There was no way to hide it from the kids and it was so upsetting for them all.
I hate people who think it's a victimless crime.
Police were okay but did say they knew they wouldn't find anyone and didn't.

Fully burgled x1. Attempted burglary x3

The full theft happened at 10am. Smashed through a patio door with a big rock from the garden. I only worked mornings so they knew my routine, came home with 8mo DD at 12.30pm to find a PCSO blocking my drive and everything of worth cleared out and a traumatised dog with bloody paws from walking in broken glass. It was awful. The thieves (from 30miles away) were caught as the getaway vehicle was id'd in a fuel station theft but let go in our case due to lack of evidence.

We stepped up security after that, full alarm system, cctv, garden sensor notification and all entries to the house needed to get through 2 locked doors.

Attempt No1. Someone hopped our fence and kicked in the UPVC door bottom panel (who knew they were so easy to get into?) and got into the (integrated) garage. The alarm went off straight away and they scarpered. No idea what they wanted? DH reinforced the panel in the door to avoid a repeat.

[The following happened after we got a desirable car, both times our DDs were staying elsewhere so their bedroom curtains werent shut, it may have looked like we were out]

Attempt No2. 4 masked scroats in trackies 2.30am on Saturday night (DH and I asleep), caught on CCTV, took 5mins but knocked through the lock on our front door, got into the porch. Gave up when they got to the next internal locked door. First I knew about it was when our front door was opened and had the lock missing. They had successfully stolen the same car in the next street that night.

Attempt No3. 4 months after the previous attempt, they came armed with a blowtorch and melted the garage door lock. It woke DH, the landing light went on and they scarpered.

We got rid of the car after that attempt and we are extremely security conscious now. Locks, alarm, sensors on windows and doors, CCTV, video doorbell, garden sensor. Internal lamps are smart bulbs that come on at sunset every day. Loud yappy dog.

Another one. Where I work there's a tool room in the barn, which is solidly built and has steel doors. Someone tried to get in one night, using an angle grinder. We think they then used one of those cameras you can put through small gaps before deciding whether or not to go further. There wasn't much in there at the time so they left without causing further damage. Security is now much improved with cameras and a new alarm system.

I haven't been burgled at home, but many years ago DP and I had our apartment broken into on holiday abroad. They stole all my clothes and left his behind (I won't comment any further on that🤣) They also stole all our alcohol, our travellers cheques and some cash. Not our passports thankfully. I spent half of the holiday with my arse squeezed into a pair of DP's shorts and a long t shirt to shield the public from this potentially shocking sight.

We only had our holiday stuff stolen and it wasn't our house and I still felt absolutely awful. I honestly can't begin to imagine how devastating it must be to have your own home burgled.

Living in central London years ago. They got in through a tiny, basement kitchen window that had bars. The police reckoned a child had been put through the window then opened the back door, bloody Dickensian. That upset us more than the items (stereo equipment) being taken.

Also burgled in the countryside, half a mile off the main road. Brand new bikes taken the night they were brought home. Now that was scary, felt we were being watched.

Was about 30 years ago, in a student house. Early January but seem to remember term had started. We were out at a friends early evening but left no lights on. They broke a cellar window and someone small got in that way, and opened our back door with the nearby key.

They took our rented tv, my brand new microwave that I had got for Christmas, a tin of my jewellery and a cheap gift camera from a catalogue free gift. They left my expensive SLR camera.

We realised something was wrong when we came home to all our lights on and the front door bolted from the inside. Boyfiend of time kicked the door in but the burglars had left.

I was most worried about my pet hamster, which they hadnt touched. They slashed my lord of the rings poster but left the Indianna Jones poster next to it untouched. They did leave dirty footprints in our bedding and had clearly riffled through my underwear. All went in the wash.

More concerningly, we backed onto a green area of a city which was busy even in winter. No one saw anything. Even more telling was that in the 2 streets where we lived, 40 student houses were burgled over a month period but none of the long term non-students were touched.

First time about 30 years ago when I was a student. They kicked the front door in while we were asleep and took two bikes and a laptop bag that happened to be in the hall. It was over in a flash, they were gone by the time we’d got downstairs.

Second time about five years later, same house but I was working and had a lot more worth taking. They broke in through the back door while we were out at work and bolted the front door so we couldn’t get back in and disturb them. They took the TV, DVD player, video, stereo, all the DVDs, loads of CDs…

Tbh though, given the area’s reputation, two burglaries in the 13 years I was there wasn’t bad going.

Twice, kind of..
The first time we were due to move house the following day and we were doing the removal ourselves with a hired van. The afternoon / evening before, we had loaded the van up with all our furniture except for the beds and everything else, including clothes.
Got up the next morning to find the van and all our wordly goods gone!
The police never caught them and the van, with our furniture etc was found blazing merrily away around twenty miles away.
The second time was in the middle of the night, in the home we moved into.
They had forced the back door.
They didn't get anything that time as we always lock the interior doors on the hallway side ( bungalow ) at bedtime or when we go out, so the only room they can access is the one they broke into, unless they want to wake the entire street up by kicking at the solid wood interior doors.
Now we have metal shutters over the rear windows and doors, CCTV and good lighting.
Someone has attempted to break into my daughter's house twice in the last couple of weeks in the early hours. He was picked up clearly on her CCTV and an arrest has been made. Apparently, he's been successful at burgling other properties nearby.

I have never been burgled fortunately but I am always worried about coming back from holiday and finding that we've been burgled.

I'm also worried that we do not have any jewellery which means they will dig and dig and not find anything so they were probably ransack the place.

I have bought some very cheap jewellery to keep in my bedroom drawers.

We always set the burglar alarm downstairs while we were all asleep in bed upstairs.

3pm, they jumped a 6 ft fence and smashed a rock through our double glazed doors at the back. Glass absolutely everywhere. Stole all of my jewellery and uprooted most of the bedrooms. Faces seen clearly on a ring camera but they weren't caught. Police sadly only turned up over 24 hours later because of the high volume of other crime scenes they had to attend to. We live in quite a busy residential area so I was very shocked.