To feel a little bit creeped out..

[aloneathome]

Hello :)

So I'm really sorry in advance if this sounds crazy.. but I don't know what to
Think.

This morning, I came downstairs to let the dogs outside, to find the back door (goes into the garden) unlocked.

We don't leave keys outside / in 'safe places' or anything like that, and always lock doors from the inside before heading off to bed.
Nothing seems out of place, didn't hear any noises through the night that were alarming, and I am a very light sleeper so most things would wake me up.

The door itself was still shut, it's just the actual lock has been unlocked which I found quite unnerving 😳 as I was home alone last night (DP on a night shift and has only just got home)

When I came downstairs this morning, I noticed the utility door was ajar (always close all internal doors - don't know why! Just a habit - so this was also odd but again nothing out of place from what I can see so far. (Loft hatch is in the utility room in case this is of any importance)

Fast forward to now, working from home and I notice a couple of large handprints on the living room windows from the outside. Too high up for me to reach, and DP wasn't here last night as I say.
Rational me is trying to think 'probably been there for weeks, unnoticed' but at the same time I definitely haven't seen them and we had all of the windows cleaned 2 weeks ago.

Not sure what to think! What would you do? I will keep an eye, but more worried as to how the outside door was unlocked this morning 😩 we have had a spate of burglaries in the area so feeling a bit vulnerable as it is..

There’s an app called Presence which will record a snippet (you decide the length) when it detects movement. Maybe set that up for peace of mind if you can?

Dogs don't always bark. Long story but the police were worried about my neighbour so had to enter her house which was unlocked (one of the reasons we called the police) so they just literally walked in 2 of them, and the dog was cowering in the corner. It was terrified. When the officers came out we asked them why the dog wasn't barking and they said they see this all the time where people think dogs will bark at an intruder when in fact they are too scared.

(Neighbour was out shopping BTW )

Do you park keys on a shelf inside an exit door which has a letterbox?

Thieves pass a hook through the LB to hook the keys

Is it possible that one of the contractors on the site hid something illicit in your loft during the build, and has now used master keys or a key he has access to in order to retrieve it? That would explain someone having been in but nothing apparently missing.

I would log with 101 just because of the hand prints

But also get some bolts on the doors so that even if they have a way to open the locks the bolts prevent access

Where I live, the Police will give you a Crime Number in case you need it for insurance purposes, but will not normally attend .
You can get alarm systems that are more sophisticated than the usual upstairs/downstairs bedtime settings, & it might be useful if the dogs are allowed to wander.

Poor you OP. Hope by now you've called a 24 hour locksmith and arranged to get your locks changed (or done it yourselves)? Also get your security reviewed - it's very reassuring to know you've covered all the bases.

Lots of melodramatic leaps here. I doubt a burglar has broken in during the night without disturbing you or your dogs and then just not stolen anything. Unless your house is basically empty, why would they bother going to that effort without taking anything? I’m sure they’d at least take a set of keys to come back at a later date when you were out if they were casing it but to not take anything? Doubtful.

Far more likely you left the door open, we’ve all done it before and all felt convinced we did lock it too. Easily done.

Have you heard of "phrogging" OP? Probably an urban myth, it describes the practice of gaining entry into someone's home and living there undetected, often in the loft

I was burgled whilst asleep last year - woke up as they were trying to start my car and yelled at them so they ran. its made me hyper vigilant to any unexpected noise in the night or misplacement of stuff in the garden even though I've moved house!

Last week I noticed that there were only 5 chairs in the normal stack of 6 garden chairs - went outside and one chair had been placed next to the fence. If I hadn't already straightened up a wooden chair that was previously folded but had been opened out (hinges were very stiff and it was actually waiting for a tip run!) I wouldn't have thought anything of it . But now I'm suspicious that 'someone' has been into my garden and used the chairs to stand on to try and get into windows (burglars from last year tried to get into windows whilst standing on wheelie bins) or have got over the fence into next door. Or it could have been the window cleaner using my chairs when cleaning the top panes of the conservatory. Its a horrible feeling

Please do check the loft. A friend of mine heard a noise in the night and woke to someone coming out of her loft!
When the police inspected he had been living there for months, coming out when he thought everyone was asleep/out. They found food/cigarettes/cans up there. She was terrified as she has 2 young kids.

@Namechange8471

Please do check the loft. A friend of mine heard a noise in the night and woke to someone coming out of her loft! When the police inspected he had been living there for months, coming out when he thought everyone was asleep/out. They found food/cigarettes/cans up there. She was terrified as she has 2 young kids.

aloneathome Wed 09-Dec-20 11:30:58 Thanks all, DP has been up to the loft and nothing unusual up there / just some paperwork of floor plans dated from when the house was built.

From what you say, it sounds like you had an intruder, who left without causing much damage.

Is there any possibility that someone working on the remaining house, maybe on site for the first time, opened your back door in error early this morning, walked in, went 'whoops!' and walked out again? (having perhaps tried to look in, or adjust something external, by looking in through the window / climbing a ladder and happening to touch the window?).

That, or a would-be burglar who was disturbed by a sound, or didn't find what they were looking for.

I'd check carefully to ensure nothing is missing, inform the police, change the locks and have a word with the manager of the work on the other house.

It's not at all surprising that you didn't wake up. People can be very quiet.

Could it be a faulty lock on the french doors? Plastic doors can often have weird locks that slip out of place- we had french doors in our old house where the key could turn around 100 times and still not lock! We only realised when I 'locked' the door and immediately went back out into the garden and realised I didn't have to unlock it. If you're concerned about those doors and can't change locks immediately consider putting a large piece of furniture in front of them or tie something around the handles from the inside? We've put really loud jingly hanging heart things by our weakest doors so we'd hear someone coming in.

Loads of people on the estate of new builds near my village have had problems with their french patio doors "locking" but actually not catching properly and being unlocked all night. Just crappy cheap doors installed by cheapskate builder. Some of their back doors also starting same problem now too.
Worth testing to see if they are really locking and holding properly.

Thanks all, checked the house nothing out of place, loft is fine nothing strange up there, not sure what to think! I will get the locks changed - got someone coming over tomorrow to do that!

I agree with the previous poster who suggested that you may have veered from your usual routine without realising it. It is possible and because you do it routinely, you may even have a false memory that you did indeed do it last night.

The minute someone mentions loft hatches I think of the man in the loft in Luther!!! DONT SEND YOUR DP/DH INTO THE LOFT!!!!!

I woke this morning in a panic as I found the back door unlocked (recently we found our back gate was open and some bits by back door had been upturned as if looking for a key)
I know I locked it last night 100% sure.,..thankfully we have senses on the door and a camera - both showed no door opening. BUT the camera showed me going to lock the door...then distracted by bloody cat!! So even though I was 100% sure ....I didn’t lock the door!!!

OP.

Personally, when we do a repetitive order / process time and time again it can get to the point where we disassociate, we think we have done it but we are actually are remembering a previous occasion. It's really common with locking doors specifically (and driving to places we frequent often too).

I would get a chain lock for the door as well. Can you borrow a go pro / wilflife camera from anyone for the night?

Get an Amazon blink camera for the back door. And some new locks. And better locks!

I do think someone's been in. If your DH cant reach the hand prints then they must have been climbing something. Is there a window above that window that they could have been trying to look in? Maybe you half woke up and they scarpered but you dont remember? My husband has full conversations with me early in the morning that I dont remember.

Definitely change the locks for anti break in ones. And hang noisy stuff up. In hotels I put a glass on the door handle so if someone presses it down it smashes.

I would recommend a guard dog, we have a rottie, she's a family dog, but she protects our house fiercely, she hears the slightest movement of the door, footsteps down the driveway and can smell if there's someone in the house (we know this because she once went full guard dog hunting an intruder when a visitor had left their suitcase upstairs without her knowing, she sniffed it out like a champ!)

If you’re going to use the house alarm make sure it’s been changed from the default one first if you haven’t already.

Definitely change your lock