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Original poster

Someone is trying to get in to our house

263 replies

piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 13:36

....it started in summer. I came in through the door, shut it behind me and put my keys down on the side. Went to go out later and the keys were gone. The car was still there on the drive. Two days later Iwa idly scrolling through Facebook and saw them on our local towns lost and found type forum. They had been found on a bus in an area of town that I have never been to.
We had a lot of people doing work on our house last year after a huge house fire. Any number of them could have copied the key.
We changed the locks and although very freaked out, just kind of carried on as usual.
A few months later dh was away with three of our kids. I was at home with dd1. We distinctly heard someone try they handles on all three our our exterior doors. The dogs were going off it. We were terrified. We called dh who thought we were winding him up. We told the police who said there was nothing we could do bar put a camera up. We duly installed a ring doorbell.
A few months passed with no incident until this past few weeks. Dh and I both laid up with Covid. In the lounge with the blinds shut. Someone aggressively knocked on the window right behind us. When we looked there was no one there and no one showed up on the ring camera (which shows the whole front driveway).
And now today. I'm
Wfh and I could hear someone rattling the side door handle. Dogs going mad. I thought it was dh back early and not taken his key. Went to look-no one there. Dh is at work still.
Ring camera is charging up so not on to check.
I am now pretty nervy when in the house on my own. I'm going to work from Starbucks this afternoon.
We have a sort of granny flat thing in the back garden which I daren't look in.
The police basically said just keep your doors locked.
What else can we do?

OP posts:
Original poster
piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 19:17

Sorry to all those that have been through this sort of thing. It really is horrible. Dh is away for work for two weeks end of Jan/beginning of Feb and I'm already worried about it :( I have the kids with me 18 yrs old to 9 but dd1 (18) would be no use at all 🫣

OP posts:
Sirian · 15/12/2023 19:18

This happened to me a couple of times several years ago. It was a drunk who was convinced his friend lived there.

Shithole101 · 15/12/2023 19:25

piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 14:33

We changed the locks after the keys were taken. I think someone entered the house to take them yes as I always shut the door behind me due to dogs.
No cleaner or anyone else with access/a key.

I've checked the attic and the side crawl spaces and I do that every few days now as it's made me so paranoid :(.

I'm going to get dh to check the granny flat. It's locked. But we didn't get he locks changed on that when the main house locks were changed as it was so expensive. Now I wish we had so that will be next.

I didn't know that you could jam
The ring door bell camera. That's made me feel even worse!

So was the door shut but unlocked? Otherwise how would they get the keys? Also how did they manage to get the keys with dogs in the house ?

Nikee20 · 15/12/2023 19:34

Get blinds in the kitchen and CCTV asap.
Hope you’re okay, go with your instinct. It doesn’t feel right, so get what you can sorted.
The keys on their own would really freak me out!

Silverstoat · 15/12/2023 19:34

Do you know who the previous owners of your house were op? It's possible they could still have had keys to all the doors.

My df lived in his last house for 35 years. His neighbour knocked on the door in tears once because all of her jewellery had gone missing and she wanted to know if his cctv had captured anything. There was no sign of a break in so she blamed her teenage son in the end who ended up going to live with his dad back in Syria. A few years after they left, we learned the thief was the grandson of the family that lived there before them. He'd kept a set of keys for over a year then gone in and burgled them.

Whowhatwherewhenwhy1 · 15/12/2023 19:37

We had similar. Turned out it was an elderly gent who had lived in our house thirty years previously but who now had alzheimers and would wander ofd and get list and invariably end up back at our house which in his mind was where he lived.

CointreauVersial · 15/12/2023 19:40

Small (but easy) suggestion - get yourself a spare Ring battery, so you never leave it offline while the battery is charging.

Copperoliverbear · 15/12/2023 19:42

I'd move.

Copperoliverbear · 15/12/2023 19:43

I'd check the granny flat incase someone is staying there, but check with your husband and take something with you for protection.

Evilcold · 15/12/2023 19:50

Get some interior locks to make secure rooms that would buy you enough time to call for help if someone did get in. Maybe strong locks on the bathroom doors and a stopper inside to make doors harder to force open. Ask a security company how to do it.

I was home alone once when someone tried to break in (rural, suspect a robbery). Phone was in the car. I yelled upstairs ‚Matt get the police now. You got their number plate. Call Mark he will be here in minutes‘. Anything to make them think I was not alone and help was on the way. They left, police were not interested even though there had been a spate of burglaries. Realized I had no secure room to run to, as the only interior locks would come off with a kick.

Mrsttcno1 · 15/12/2023 19:58

100% get proper cctv cameras, motion sensor lights and some of the “smile, you’re in camera” signs. In our area about a year ago we had loads of bother with people trying car doors, trying everyone’s front doors and then going into back gardens and trying back doors, people taking things from gardens and garden sheds, most of us had ring doorbells but that didn’t put them off at all so we had footage of them doing it all. We then got cctv cameras put on the front back and side of the house and (touch wood) we’ve only had one incident since then!

Original poster
piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 20:10

The people that had our house before moved to the next town over. They were quite high profile in the area by all accounts as the man was some sort of Stunt man (!) he did Hollywood films and such. But I don't think they were Dodgy. But who knows?

OP posts:
Original poster
piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 20:16

Dh has been to see our neighbour who had some sort of security company. He's sending a man round on Monday to price up cameras , an alarm and a gate.We won't be able to pay for it til the new year. So until then we will just have to wear it and lock everything and hope for the best.

OP posts:
Reliy · 15/12/2023 20:19

piscofrisco · 15/12/2023 20:16

Dh has been to see our neighbour who had some sort of security company. He's sending a man round on Monday to price up cameras , an alarm and a gate.We won't be able to pay for it til the new year. So until then we will just have to wear it and lock everything and hope for the best.

I’d also get some independent quotes too from recommended people. Maybe past experience has left me too jaded but I wouldn’t have a neighbours company involved!

EmmaEmerald · 15/12/2023 20:23

Sorry for crazy long link.

Charlize43 · 15/12/2023 20:23

Is this the same one knocking on the door?

hellsBells246 · 15/12/2023 20:27

Odds are it was a potential burglar trying their luck - knocking on windows, trying doors - but it does sound worrying - especially if they have a doorbell jammer.

Zanatdy · 15/12/2023 20:33

That sounds so scary. My ring doesn’t pick up 100% of people coming and coming. It often picks my dog Walker only coming back, or only collecting, whereas she’s obviously done both. She has to walk right in front of the camera which is in the centre of the door so it’s a bit random

PurplePansy05 · 15/12/2023 20:34

I think I'd move. I wouldn't want to live like this.

I'd be thinking previous owners had something to do with drugs or somebody has a vendetta against your DH or you and is trying to make your life miserable. I'm sorry, OP, not nice at all.

SophiaLaB · 15/12/2023 20:48

Get wired cameras and a hard drive which you can watch for your phone/iPad through an app. They will record so you can watch back on the separate cameras.

ThreeTreeHill · 15/12/2023 20:51

Was it the same set of keys taken off the table that were found on the bus?

If the door was locked surely someone would have to have had keys in order to break in to steal another set of keys? Is it a yale style lock you could easily pick?

If it was an elderly person surely they wouldn't disappear so quickly or would be identified om the ring doorbell?

You need better CCTV than a ring doorbell.

It sounds like someone messing? If you were trying to break in you wouldn't knock on the window.

QuestionableMouse · 15/12/2023 20:53

Put a rape alarm on your gate so it when it opens the alarm goes off! Would give you some warning and might just scare the buggers off!

(just don't forget and set it off yourself!)

muchalover · 15/12/2023 20:55

You can also get motion sensors that you could put around the perimeter and in the granny annex. You can set different alarms so you know where the alarm alert is from.

I would also get motion sensor lights. Big fuck off ones. And ones you can turn on from inside so they can't block them.

It's likely kids but still scary as hell.

Buttercup176 · 15/12/2023 20:55

My money is on the neighbour so he can sell you an expensive security system!