To think I might have been burgled?

[Kittensat36]

Having a bizarre and upsetting 48 hours. Just need to vent really.

Got up yesterday morning and was preparing to leave for work when I realised that my handbag was not in the hall. It normally sits on an ottoman I have, which is about 10 feet in. I know it was there because I remember taking my phone out of it the other night to send a text

Had to have an emergency day off , expecting to find it any minute - my flat is very untidy, but I expected to find it at some point. I even checked the washing machine in case I had taken it into the bathroom and scooped it up with the washing I was about to do.

But how on earth did it happen if I was burgled? The front door was shut, the back door was locked and the only open window opens onto a secure garden (and you would have cross my bed to get in).

I have to say that my bag is not the only thing that has disappeared over the last couple of weeks. My pill container for my meds disappeared from my living room, I thought that the cats might have bapped it somewhere, but they aren't talking. A batch of paperwork is also on the missing list- a receipt for a large purchase I made recently and a prescription for flea meds. All highly useful (not), but a bit odd as laptops were in the same room and were left untouched.

A ring doorbell/cameras would have been useful and I will have to get some. But I have nothing now. I suppose that if they put something through the letter box, they might have been able to get the door open, but isn't that a bit risky in the middle of the night? Wouldn't it have been easier to get in while I am at work?

Thank goodness for my marvellous upstairs neighbour lending me some cash, or I would be really stuck.

Got to go to work to sort out getting a new workphone and getting my locker broken into to retrieve my work kit. Then sorting a new barrel for my front door lock...

Thanks for reading my rant.

Could anyone have a key?

Might sound silly but have you checked the car? Have you tried ringing your workphone?

If the house is secure then it's more likely you have moved it somewhere, although ring doorbell/changing the lock barrel is a good idea for peace of mind.

I didn't think so, but maybe. A trusted neighbour does, so she can feed the cats, but maybe someone else does that I don't know about (previous spare key holder perhaps.)

Just been on YouTube an looked up how to change the lock - it looks easy enough. So I will do it later today

If you'd been burgled, unless you've left a door unlocked, then you'd know how they'd got in.

Unless they used a key.

Always take your handbag to bedroom. I put mine in my wardrobe and hide it under some stuff!

If the place is very untidy as you say then it seems like you might have just misplaced stuff?

You say the front door was shut and the back door locked? Was the front door locked, or just shut? Dipping is really common, where thieves go along a street usually at night, trying every door handle and grabbing whatever they can find quickly while the household is asleep. Typically it's things like car keys, bags phones etc that go but it can be really odd things too (5 old coats and an umbrella?)

Every night you hide your bag in your wardrobe under a pile of stuff? That sounds incredibly excessive and over anxious.

In OPs case since her home is messy it’s likely just misplaced, particularly as it’s not the only thing. I doubt someone stole the other random items on other dates.

My dm was once called home from work as her front door was open and the police thought her home had been ransacked.
It hadn’t, it was exactly how she left it. 😂
However her nasty ndn who complained constantly about everything got a telling off from the police as dm was frightened to slam her front door when leaving and it hadn’t clicked shut properly.

People who call everyone else 'over anxious' could do to focus on whether their approach to life and it's problems is perfect.

Is putting the handbag somewhere really any more 'over anxious' than buying a ring doorbell, for example?

When you find your handbag in your messy home or somewhere you forgot maybe you should invest in a tracker or something for it?
….and some adhd medication maybe 👌
I hope this is what had happened anyway and in a few months you will laugh about it.

I don’t call everyone else over anxious, I call people hide their belongings in their home every night before they go to bed over anxious.

I think if your house is that untidy you think you will find it at some point, then the overwhelming odds are no one is breaking in and stealing these things, it’s just you’re losing them under the clutter.

She’s not just putting her handbag somewhere though, she’s hiding it every night. In her own home. So yeah it is way more over anxious.

This. I would have a good hunt for your handbag in the flat and, as pp have said, ring the phone.

An your work tack the phone in any way or tell if it's being used?

Do you think someone might have enter d the flat while you were asleep and taken it or whilst you were out?

My mum had someone walk in and just take her handbag from the hall once. The front door wasn't locked though.

This happened to my MIL this morning.

She lives alone and fell asleep in the living room and woke up in the early hours to see someone walk out of the living room.

She has an emergency alarm in case she falls and pressed it and they called the police. DH arrived and the police have attended and all of the drawers upstairs were all open.

There was no sign of how they got in, no damage to the doors and all were locked and all of the windows are closed.

The only thing that was taken was her handbag which was next to her in the living room.

Maybe there's some new kind of master key that thieves are using? Get a dead lock as well as the Yale type lock.

I don't overly fret about security but sometimes think a decoy handbag downstairs might be a good idea. Some cash, old bankcard with £1 on it and an old key. Depends what the thief is after, really. My old laptop is downstairs, I could leave it out temptingly 🙂

Think you need a good clear out, @Kittensat36. I need to do my bedroom so I'll join you!

My neighbour had someone come into the house at night and take her handbag while they were all asleep. It completely unnerved her. Have you got something simple like a door chain you can use at night?

She's hiding it because she's aware some people break into homes during the night.

I expect you have funny ways too.

How did they get in? The problem with this case is that there are no signs of forced entry.

I'm sure I've seen advice to keep bag/keys somewhere other than the bedroom in the hope a thief would take them and leave rather than enter a room where you are sleeping.