To be worried about my sister and the face at the window.

[WhataMissMap]

My sister lives in a large house at the top of a longish drive in a very quiet residential area.

She was sitting watching TV with her curtains open, this evening. She often does this as she is not overlooked by neighbours.

She happened to glance up to see a man staring at her through the window. She jumped up and he ran away.

She then saw two men running away down her road. She switched the lights off and watched from a bedroom window. The two men appeared again and stealthily walked back up her road keeping close to the hedges and started to approach her house. They must have caught sight of her in the window and they ran away.

She is really frightened, I live a few hundred miles away and obviously can’t get to her tonight. I wonder was it an attempted burglary or a peeping Tom or a silly prank. I wonder how seriously we should treat this.
She is alone with her teenage son. It’s a very low crime area.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

I once saw two men who went from house to house looking in windows in our street. They retreated down the front path of our house when they saw me. They returned later and burgled a car in the road.

I’m a fairly long in the tooth cop and i’ve never heard of the ‘owl’ thing. It’s a bit like the whole fear of chalk signs - even budget criminals use mobile phones.

For the OP, most useful thing to as is probably what type of car does your sister have? Most sleeper breaks or creep breaks are to take vehicles and, due to the advances of tech, you can’t do that without keys. Lots of sus circs do have innocent explanations - drunkness, lost people, people just being idiotic. It tends to happen very frequently. Burglars really do prefer empty houses and no people to disturb and can often be thwarted from opportunism with basic crime prevention of locked doors and windows, cctv and dogs.

If she has a high value vehicle she may need to take more significant precautions as the incentive is higher.

"most break ins happen between 5 and 11pm"

The leaflet from my local police (suburban London) informs me that 'most break-ins happen during the working day'. I guess there's no safe time.

The open window doubtless attracted attention. It would be ridiculous to suggest we never open a window. But make sure they're closed when you AREN'T in the room.

Oh! I hope all is okay! X

@WhataMissMap please pass on to your sister the details of this wondrous little device I've found, it's a plug socket from wilkos, costs about £3 and it's called "light me up" you plug it in, move the lamp away from the plug as far as you can, and it initially comes on for three hours when it senses darkness, and then a further five times at completely random intervals throughout nighttime hours, so essentially it looks like someone getting up to go to the toilet or see to a baby etc. I've got two, one downstairs and one upstairs and I've had them plugged in just under a year. Brilliant.

I've got to say that with the apparent current lack of police interest criminals seem to be running rife and don't seem to care. We live in a nice, quite area. Not posh but a nice village with very little crime until recently. Over the past year the 'petty ' crime seems to have soared. And these criminals seem to not care as our police are so stretched. Two local stations I've been closed and the next closest is a 30 minute drive. We're having regular updates about criminals just walking along the road, in the middle of the day and trying people's cars and front doors even when there are people in the house. Car keys get taken and bags or purses that are left near the front door or hanging on a coat hook in the hall. Works vans are having the locks drilled out and tools stolen. The police don't even bother to come out when you call, they just give you a crime reference number and tell you to claim on your insurance. It seems it's classed as 'low level' crime! It's no wonder the criminals are being so brazen.

One rule of home security is to close the curtains or blinds when the lights are on in a room facing the road, this was drummed into us living among the military years ago.

I've recently got the blink cameras and can highly recommend them as so easy to set up and connect to your phone if anyone is worried about security but like me crap at DIY lol

My guess is that the man at the window was looking in the room to see what, if anything, was worth nicking.
Having been caught out, police coming and security being upped they will probably be moving onto an easier target. (unless there was something of major value to draw them back).

Look at the crime figures for your area to see which time of year burglaries happen,, ours shows some in winter and some in summer when people tend to be away. Of the ones we received a note for from the Police, one was around 9.00 pm and one around 4 - 5 pm, however where we lived previously there were a lot of early morning ones, while people were asleep so you just need to be vigilant all the time.

As for the Ring doorbell, read the reviews carefully, they are not all good. We tried one, twice and returned it twice. Our broadband speed is excellent but there was a time lag on it which meant that people were walking away before we knew they were there. It doesn't work for everyone.

We have lights on timers and also an automatic blind. This means that lights go on and off regularly and the blind lowers in the evening and raises again in the morning. Means the house looks lived in when we are away.

I had this while living in the US when my blinds were not working properly and allowed ppl to see in. Turned out to be a peeping Tom who got off on watching women go about their daily business, but this could easily be more dangerous. She needs to close her curtains always once it's dark, and get security advice. And yes the police must be told.

Motion sensor spot lights back and front. Also if possible a camera fitted high up either on wall or through a window. Good ones about £80 and these can be checked via mobile phone. As others have posted infirm the police if this incident. If tv was on anyone outside would see flickering of screen so whoever was up at window definitely meant to be there probably as a distraction whilst others had a look round to see if access. I live in what the police class as a very low risk area but there has been the odd suspicious act/person over the past year. Times are a changing I'm afraid. Up your security will at least give you peace of mind.

Hanging a couple of coat hangers on the handle makes a quick “alarm” on a door if you need to improvise one. Also having a trip hazard a short distance from the door e.g. laundry basket or any everyday object that would make a noise if fallen over/moved. Useful as interim measures until you can get security sorted.

We have the right to defend ourselves here and it keeps rural homes/farms safer.

It's really not safer though is it Gone: the murder rate is much higher in the USA than the U.K. Because, surprise surprise, the bad guys get guns too.

As others have said she needs to take this very seriously. Many years ago my uncle lived in a large house with 3 other very successful businesses men. It was the late 80s and they did throw money around. It obviously caught someone’s attention too.
One day one of the guys was at home alone and 2 police men knocked at the door. They said they had been alerted to suspicious behaviour nearby and were just checking everything was ok.
They were let into the house without hesitation and the next thing my uncles friend remembered he was tied naked to a chair while the house was ransacked.
The so called police had hit him on the back of the head and were emptying the house! They had been watching the house for weeks waiting for who they considered to be the weakest to be alone also knowing they had several hours to take what they wanted.
My uncles friend was then left unharmed thankfully but tied up for a further 6 hours before the rest arrived home.

My point being take everything seriously and with caution. With hindsight these men had been seen hanging around but no thought was given to them. This might just be the first time your sister has spotted them.
I’d insist on the police coming very visibly to the house and also she invests in a good security system.
Hope all works out well

We live rural and this type of thing fills me with dread.
Tell her to call the Police and they will be able to give help and reassurance. Good luck and I hope all is okay x

She needs to make sure her windows and doors are always locked when she is in the s house so no one can sneak in . This is the reason I won't live in a field 😬😬😬

Terrifying. I’m alone during the week as my husband is working away, but I’m not rural. I check the doors and windows about 50times because we had an attempted break in a few months ago. The police said most of the theft in the area was opportunistic when people had left doors unlocked.
I hope the police have been to see your sister!

I don't think Police are ignoring this sort of crime. I think there has to be a degree of practicality in terms of allocating limited resources. In lots of the burglaries for car keys or walk in type offences there is no cctv, no witness, no forensic opportunities (even the most hapless criminals know enough to not leave fingerprints). The way in which the offenders are caught are not about deploying officers - investigations are based upon analysis of ANPR, crime pattern analysis and matching patterns to offenders. It's different for a crime in action - that's an immediate response.

I've posted about this before, but a simple Google of mine and DP's names brings up that we are directors of a company, our home address and the fact that there is an awful lot of cash in our business account.

I think it is really bad that these things are so publicly accessible. It does worry me.

Momdeguerre - thank you for your comments. I shall pass them on to my DS. They probably were after her car. She has nothing else of real value in the house. Her TV is a small one and she uses an elderly iPad and not a computer.
I’m so happy to think I don’t need to be suspicious of Owls hooting too!

Norfolkenchancemate - thank you I’m going to buy some for myself and my DS.

Thank you everyone for all your helpful comments. I have passed them on to my DS.

Someone mentioned taking a hammer to bed. Please don't advise your ds to do this. If she did hurt or kill someone with it, it would be seen as premeditated.

Take a heavy duty torch instead. A big, thick rubber one. It does the same job but is something that a person could reasonably be expected to have by their bedside (unlike a hammer).

What was she watching on TV? Could it be that someone was passing by and saw his favourite program and decided to stop and catch up as well?
OP, so many burglaries around these day. I would invest in a few spy cameras.

@Norfolkenchancemate Any chance of a link to that light? I've had a look on the Wilko webpage and can't spot it - and it's exactly what I could do with...