Local burglary, scared, ideas to prepare for self defence in a night time break in?

[AMalteserForYourThoughts]

I know that looking at stuff like this at 11pm at night is probably a bad idea...

Locally an elderly man who lives alone near to me had two men break into their home at night when he was in bed. It has totally terrified me and I was thinking what would I do if that happened to me.

So if you are in your home at night upstairs and the alarm goes off - what can you do to prepare for this situation?

After some googling around, it seems that

most likely best bets are a blinding high lumens torch to blind the attacker - a head torch I was thinking for hands free to keep by the bed if the alarm goes off.

I've also found some self defence sprays that combine a horrible smell to distract and confuse them, dye and uv for identification. But not sure that would have presence of mind or confidence to use it.

Rape alarm - but not sure adds to the house alarm.

Anyone got any other thoughts. I'm not sure that I would think to call the police first partly through panic and also partly because false alarms (spider over the sensor type thing) do happen.

Does anyone have any CCTV recommendations?

It's not something I've every looked into but I think I'd prefer a system where the feed is backed onto a computer in the house/ under my control rather than a subscription/cloud system. Does this kind of thing even exist?

I was just going to say, maybe this isn't the time to be asking this OP 😅. Muster up some happy thoughts and try to get some sleep. Side note: we have a lock inside the bedroom door and kids are still in our room so I don't worry. We'll move eldest into his own room soon and my first thought is of any burglaries. He has a lock in his room too so hoping one parent can at least get to each child and lock from inside.

I was just going to say, maybe this isn't the time to be asking this OP

@greenerfingers You are not wrong there. It's like reading those 'spooky alone in the house' threads a night.

OK. I'm going to try to go to bed. And put the alarm on.

Don't like it.

I need a lion. That's what I need.

People being attacked during a burglary is so rare in the uk its nigh on impossible to get stats.

So leave your insured stuff where they can get it, even though its highly unlikely you will be broken into, and sleep as peacefully as you can

Does it not worry you to have obstacles in the way if you ever need to escape? I would think in most of the UK a house fire is not much less likely than a break-in. In a fire those few seconds could make the difference to whether you make it out alive. I ALWAYS leave the baby gates open and make sure there is a clear path from everyone’s bedrooms to an exterior door, and I had our locks changed so that you don’t need a key in the inside lock to get out. Exterior doors and windows are securely locked and we have a robust alarm system, with keypads/panic buttons by each exterior door as well as our bedroom. But I would never put anything in our path that would slow us down if we needed to get out.

We live in an area with a high crime rate. We've decided that in the event of a burglary we don't care about losing stuff, we just want help to get here fast. So we all keep a torch and mobile phone by the bed. I sleep at the front of the house and have two loud personal alarms, I'll lob one out of the window on to a patch of grass and hope one of the neighbours will react (they always have done so far).

Self defense is a last resort. Keep something to hand if it makes you feel better, but if it comes to it don't just spray your attacker and expect that to be the end of it. They are still in your house and now they are covered in dye and angry.

I'm freaked out even more now...@theresastormcoming that's horrific.

We have CCTV, alarm and motion sensor lights - all because I had a burglary when I had my first home many years ago - I was out.

My advice is always have your mobile next to your bed and ring 999 if you hear something. Open your bedroom window and make a noise that would wake the dead ie rape alarm, fog horn etc until help gets there - basically to scare an intruder off. Leave your car keys visible, not from the window or on a hall table (thieves can hook them from the letterbox) - put them perhaps on one of your stairs, far enough away from your door, but visible if someone is inside.

Get crime prevention round to check your security - wise to be security conscious, but not wise to scare the bejesus out of yourself with worry.

Oh right! Blimey! Quite a feat in the middle of the night but I guess it makes sense!

I had the police here once after my car was stolen (no break in) and it had worried me being alone with a baby. They told me that the people who rob houses are cowards who will avoid confrontation in almost all circumstances. If you’re unlucky enough to be broken in to they’re more than likely going to run when they realise the house is occupied.

I live in a very safe area and we dont even lock the doors at night, but when I have been traveling and concerned I have had a aggressive dog barking youtube video prepped on my phone. The plan was to play it v loudly from behind my closed bedroom door if I was ever worried about a break in. I think it would take a brave burglar to risk the chance that it wasnt a real dog and open the door.

Keep your phone charged by your bed. If you need to call 999 and can’t speak dial 5.

Get a doorbell camera fitted.

For the vast majority of cases burglars want to avoid people.

Car Keys are right near the front door on the bottom step. Take them and f off !

You can buy a door wedge for the inside of the door to stop it being opened from outside. Perfect for bedroom doors instead of a lock if you live in a rental or don’t want to put locks on. Google Safety Door Wedge alarm. I used to travel for work and didn’t like staying in hotels on my own, these wedges helped me sleep.

Ring do a camera with lights and alarm siren. We had some teenagers who bully my son come banging on the door once when they were drunk. I switched the alarm siren on, they jumped out their skins and ran off. you can set off the siren from an app.

Ring doorbell.

Phillips Hue lightbulbs which work with your phone and Alexa. If you hear any sounds from your bed, turn on all the lights.

We plan to play Welcome to the Jungle really loud on Alexa with all the light bulbs turned to red of we get anyone in the house.

indoor Ring camera to get any good footage of their faces

Decoy handbag: filled with an old purse, expired bank cards and less than £10 in change. Add in some random bits to make it look like your bag. Hide the real one that is in use. The fuckers will run off with that and by the time they realise it is no use, they will have left.

Always leave your car keys out of sight and reach, but somewhere they will look before coming upstairs to demand the keys.

I would love to go all Home Alone and Chuck a jar of marbles down the stairs but in reality I will be using my phone to turn on the siren, the lights and call 999.

love the “Alexa, Intruder Alert” voice command on YouTube where it sets up all sorts of things. We are working on getting something similar, just need a robot vac to come out and start attacking their ankles whilst making barking sounds. That’ll confuse them 🤣

A dog.

Meant car keys out of sight and reach of the front door, but easy to find. We leave ours on the second step up, so they can have the car and piss off it in. We are insured. Cars can be replaced people cannot.

If a burglar actually gets into your house through a window or by kicking the door in while you are in the house, don't even think about trying to spray him in the face or hit him with a bat - you will come off worse. Usually there will be two of them. if you're in the house alone and can't get out, HIDE and be quiet until they've gone. Don't try to fight them unless you are an absolute beast, and even then, you don't know what weapons they are carrying. My last landlord was a farmer and I rented a cottage from him next door. He got burgled by two men and tried to fight them off. He was as hard as nails but ended up with serious injuries and they still took all his stuff. Think in advance where you would hide. My spot is the back of the wardrobe where I keep a dumbphone charged up. My other spot is a bathroom cupboard.

I never understand people saying they take their handbags/keys upstairs to bed with them. Like others upthread, we were advised by a police officer neighbour to always leave car keys, bags etc. downstairs and visible.

I'd want someone to find money and keys asap and get out fast, not hunt around the house for anything.

If there no children to think about then
lock inside the bedroom door
Push your bed infront of it
Get in the cupboard
Call 999
Hold pepper spray on your hand and be as quiet as possible

Ring doorbell - affordable and records movement outside.

When I lived on a rough council estate I slept with a cricket bath under the bed, not the most sensible thing but it made me feel safer. Now I would look at having cameras in each downstairs room so if you think you have heard something you can look without going down. I would also have an alarm set to cover the downstairs at night, make sure you have the latest locks on all doors & windows, a protective case to keep car keys in if your car is keyless entry & a tracker on your car, I have seen people using something as simple of one of those Apple tags hidden in the car.

Not to scare you the police will take fucking hours to come out whilst a break in is going on

Ive been there, luckily the knobs didn’t know about the dogs that didn’t bark to start with and stood guard over them and scared the bejesus out of them.

the police took 3 hours to come out I was bloody fuming and then the cheeky fukkers that broke in wanted to sue us for our dogs causing them stress.

I saw red and said I should of told them to eat you then as they are raw fed. Coppers swiftly removed them.

if feeling brave vases every where to throw at them it’s legal
bats are not unless you’ve the ball
hairspray allowed
pointed combs not so much as they are classed as a knife??

dogs help immensely too. Mine are trained not to bark unless I say so or I’m in danger and then I do one word command or a hand action. Funnily enough I’m given a wide berth when walking them unless your a kid and they’ll go can I pet em.

If you're worried about false alarms then get some CCTV. You can get systems where you can check the cameras on your phone.

I don't live in the UK. Our neighbourhood is fairly safe but there was recently a burglary where the whole family was tied up. Was there anything about the house near you that got broken into that made it an attractive target? In our neighbourhood the houses targeted are always ones that have an easy egress route for the burglars - the ones that back onto the forest and the one I mentioned backs onto a golf course.

I'd like a dog but it's not practical for us.