Should I report this using the online police tool? Is it too minor? Google AI says I should so they can build a local picture/data
Last night my dog woke me at around 2.30am, barking his head off. He sleeps in the dining area which is on the first floor and open plan to the kitchen. There is a balcony outside with stairs down to ground, so kitchen door is “accessible”.
I settled him and went back to bed. My bedroom window was open and I thought I heard someone going down the balcony stairs and a little cough. Wasn’t sure and I went back to sleep.
This morning a gate was open. We always close them carefully to a) keep the dog in and b) keep sheep out (we’re rural), so I was worried that there had actually been someone there on the balcony last night who’d disturbed the dog.
Getting worried, I looked for signs of tampering, and it seems that someone has attempted to pick both the kitchen door lock (on balcony) and the utility room door lock below. The locks are damaged. They still work from the inside, but can’t get keys into them from outside.
Now this may not have been last night… it might have like that for a long time and gone unnoticed, and there was nothing other than an accidentally left open (by us) gate last night. However someone has definitely tried to get in at some point.
This is a huge worry. There is always at least one car on the drive, usually two, so whoever it was doesn’t care that they may run into people! Also, one of our DC is in hospital some way away, so DH and I have to go and spend one night every so often, leaving (just turned) 17YO DD alone in the house! Don’t want to do that now!!
We are in a low crime rate area with few burglaries and break-ins generally.
Thanks for any thoughts on this.