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.

My sons, when present, are huge rugby and judo players, and Thai kick-boxing champions, both of whom can - apparently! - kill with their bare hands (!!) so I wouldn't worry too much. But I used to write for an insurance company, and our advice was always to make it difficult for thieves to get in: plant prickly stuff round your borders, lock sheds, garages, and outside gates, check access points, don't have vegetation obscuring your windows so you can't be seen from the road, and fit locking windows and mortice locks on outside doors. It all helps.

At 8, 5 and 3 (and disabled) mine aren’t quite at the ‘killing with their bare hands’ stage yet 😊.
Oh of course I make it difficult for them to get in in the first place, that obviously goes without saying. But once they’re in, they’re welcome to my handbag.

Do any of your neighbours have a ring doorbell or CCTV you could ask them to check for you? If your flat is untidy then maybe try getting a room in order each day. You never know what you might find.

I think since you admit your home is very untidy and it’s extremely unlikely you’ve been robbed on each occasion those random things have gone missing (plus they would be weird things to steal) I think the most likely thing is your bag and the other stuff is somewhere in your house. Have you had a good, thorough tidy up?
I know you say you remember where your bag was because you took your phone out, but if your front door was unlocked and there are no signs of forced entry I don’t know how likely it is you were robbed. As others have said perhaps someone else has a key? Good shout to get the locks changed just in case

@Emmz1510 OP updated to say her handbag was found in the street and handed back to her by neighbours, so she was burgled.

Good shout changing the locks OP, it's what I do whenever we move to a new house. DP has never been fussed but does it anyway, but I don't like not knowing who could have a key without us knowing! We also have a full security system we can monitor remotely with motion sensors, cameras front and back, an alarm and a box as a deterrent. We've never had any trouble but it's good for peace of mind, and hopefully would deter any would-be burglars.

sorry if PPs have said this but CHECK YOUR CARBON MONOXIDE ALARM.

Read the bloody thread

I'm curious if an animal, such as a raccoon, could have been involved. OP mentioned having an open window.

Glad it's near sorted now @Kittensat36 🙂

I'd be so lost without my handbag.

Sleepwalking!
I thought someone had been in my house, years ago. Drawers had been pulled right out and placed on the floor. Didn't make any sense that someone would've done that and not taken anything. Came to the conclusion that I must've done it myself, in my sleep. Has happened several times, since (various behaviours, in different houses).
Most recently, a steak knife went missing from the draining board overnight. Annoying, as it was part of a boxed set that my parents brought back from living in the States before I was born. Worrying, because I never have found it, and where the heck did it go? I was watching the local news the next day, with everything crossed that someone in my village hadn't been stabbed to death overnight...