To ask if a burglar would bother with you?

[justhadenoughofitall]

Caveat this with I know burglaries are awful and this is a lighthearted take so don't read on if it could be upsetting.

Was on our way out and DH fussing about the double lock on the door and mumbling about not making it easy for burglars to get in, and it just struck me with 'WTAF would they take"?

We have an old TV, sofa is battered, no fancy kitchen devices, only good jewellery is my engagement ring that's permanently on me, everything is digitised and on iPhones which are with us, old laptop, no cash. I had this image of a burglar standing bewildered, shaking their heads feeling sorry for us.

Am I alone in this?

I've been burgled 3 times. I still get a sense of dread when I come home and put my key in the door and the last incident was 13 years ago.

It's not about the stuff. None of our stuff is worth much and it's all replaceable. It's about the dread of not knowing what you're going to come home to. It's about the police telling you to touch nothing. So you're sat doing nothing waiting for them to turn up (or not). Waiting gif a glazier to board up the window they smashed getting in. Finding shards of glass in unlikely places weeks later.

And on one occasion it's about the filthy cat shit they stepped in in the alley behind the house which they then trampled everywhere all over the house.

They’d be so diappointed 😂

Shit old laptops, except my work laptop but it’s still not fancy! Tiny 20 inch TV and a barely functional Kindle Fire. No jewellery of any significant value. Both have our phones, sports watches, and wedding/engagement rings on us at all times anyway.

This is why they are now turning to moped crimes where they snatch handbags or fight people for Rolex watches on the street in London. Homes just aren’t as appealing and are more secure but people still walk around with their blingy status symbols and have their AirPods in so no one hears them cumming!

Years ago when my house was burgled all they took was my painkillers and other medications from the kitchen.

We tend to have a bit of cash and the kids bikes would be a loss but only a couple of hundred each so manageable. The biggest thing would be jewellery as I have a gold heirloom which has huge sentimental value. Passport's would also be a big issue for us. We have 4 laptops but none high end. My biggest fear is them breaking in while we're in or while I'm here alone. Our house is expensive looking but we have relatively little of value and I do worry that's not obvious from the outside! We have CCTV and an alarm but they're not a huge deterrent round here, burglars in our area tend to wear balaclavas.

Im a single parent and would be quite traumatised if someone came into my house, I don’t think I’d feel safe again. But I also have nothing to steal, my tv is 3rd hand and about 10 years old, no other devices other than our iPhone and my smart watch which are always with us, unless the burglar was burglar bill and had an interest in tins of beans and toothbrushes then I’d think they would be very disappointed.

Someone broke into DP's brother's house when it was being renovated and stole
the fireplace.
Next door heard all the crashing and banging but thought the builders were working late.

The one burglary we’ve had was an opportunist one and entirely our own fault. We’d left a downstairs window open on a warm summer evening. My laptop and handbag were taken. We were asleep in bed upstairs with bloody useless dog. This is going back about 18 years. My handbag contained my phone and cards and about £20 in cash and was found in a nearby hedge a couple of days later. My phone was a pink and rose gold, very girly Nokia and when the detective who came round tried the number it was answered by a very gruff sounding male!

About 20 years ago my brothers house was nearly robbed. It was in an expensive area and all the houses are pretty secluded. My SIL was a teacher and came home early (usually no one was home until 5:30 but that day came home around 3:30) and found someone trying to force the back door. She asked what he was doing. He said something about the wrong house and ran off. It was only afterwards she realised she was lucky he didn't attack her or anything (or she didn't arrive home 10 minutes later).
They installed an alarm that weekend.

We are the scruffy house in the close so hopefully bypassed

We don't have much tech that's portable only my laptop and ageing tablet. DS has a desktop but it would take ages to unravel all the cables

The only thing I have of any worth is the stereo but good luck with tucking that under their arms ( I know if burgers really wanted it they would take it)

Obviously it's all insured but we do have the odd sentimental items and of course the impact of knowing someone had been through your things

Actually I used to say burgers would only want to take the technical gear (jackets and socks)

My Grandmother was burgled despite having very little of any value.

They took her kettle!

Any burglar entering my house would probably think someone had beaten them to it!

This reminds me of our neighbour who came back from the local shop and her little Jack Russell didn't come to meet her - he had a 20-something man pinned against the fence in the back garden! Neighbour called the police who miraculously came and 'rescued the burglar (after quite some time) 😂

I have some valuable tech stuff but it's big and heavy so would be a struggle for anyone to move it around or take it. But I also have 6 mastiff dogs of a guarding breed, so any stranger who got in the house certainly wouldn't be getting out again. I do wonder about the legal aspect if my dogs injured or killed a burglar, but surely when the dogs are in their own home and protecting from an intruder then they wouldn't be at fault?

if some breaks in, I’ll help them look for valuables 😅

I was burgled twice 40 odd years ago when I lived in a basement flat in Glasgow. Had nothing of any value, suspect they were looking for cash, jewelery etc. so had very little stolen.
On the second occasion I came home to find a stray cat curled up on our sofa (he'd come in through the forced window). He stayed, I think we did quite well out of that. 🤣

My friend was burgled , they just took an old phone. However , they ruined the front door and the hall / stairs carpets.
It's not what they take it the hassle of sorting it all out.
And it was quite a busy time of day (school run) so they were quite brazen.

Same here. No cash at all, no jewellery (even my wedding rings are cheap/no diamonds etc). No expensive tech. My house is full of baby and toddler toys and books.

From my knowledge, you are more likely to get burgled if:

-It’s obvious you’re away on holiday
-It’s known that you may have lots of jewellery in the house eg because of your culture
-You have a nice car

This is one reason I am ok with never having a nice car.

And rather than burglaries, the most common issue around my area is bike thefts and car thefts of keyless cars.

Oh this is more of an assumption but I imagine older people may be more of a target for burglary as they are still more likely to have cash. We are in our 30s and have barely used cash for a few years now. I keep £1 for shopping trolleys.

My burglar would be utterly confused by the piles of crap everywhere - I'm confused, and it's my crap! They could scoop stuff up, but they'd disappointed by their spoils 😳

It sounds awful but we'd be likely overlooked by burglars;we live in an area with a large number of new largish houses and lots of Asian families;they'd be looking for gold jewellery and the keys to the beautiful cars on the driveways.

Good.

My car has been broken into twice. I keep it completely empty. There was nothing to steal.

my house on the other hand would be like breaking into an electronics / hardware / art supply store. Between my art studio equipment and Dh’s tech, they would be wishing they had brought a truck. Though it’s possible a burglar wouldn’t know what they were looking at and understand the value. Thankfully we have good insurance. We also have obvious motion sensor cameras on all approaches and entrances to the house.

Nope. I reckon it's more likely my place would be vandalised as we genuinely have nothing of value. The television is so old it wouldn't be worth nicking, 2 old iPads and I do t have any jewellery as never been bothered by it. I'd always expect extreme vandalism as they would be too disappointed at the crappy contents of my house

I often think that. A few days ago I was walking in a hurry, and this elderly guy came up behind me and kindly said "oh, your bag is open'. My rucksack pocket was indeed unzipped. I laughed and said "well anyone who robs me is gonna be dang disappointed'.
My house is on a really busy thoroughfare with lots of foot traffic, but we have big spikey railings. Thank god no-one has tried, but yeah they would be wasting their time. The front of my house looks pretty shabby too, so we look like the poorest house in the street (prob. accurate) lol..