To ask if you’re ever been burgled?

[CherryValley5]

Edit: Typo in title - should obviously be you’ve!

Really just looking for anyone who might have experienced something similar to see if it’s right for me to be worried about this situation escalating..

In the early hours of the morning we had intruders in our back garden, peering into our back door (which thankfully had been locked). DD’s bedroom is directly above - she saw the security light come on and heard movement on the gravel however she just assumed that it was a fox or badger walking through the garden as this is quite typical. She looked out her window and was shocked to see three middle aged, well built men standing there, looking around and conversing with each other in thick Irish accents (we’re northern Irish, they definitely weren’t local - DD is convinced they were travellers.)

She panicked and rang me from her bedroom - I immediately picked up the phone, slammed all of the lights on and ran downstairs. This must have spooked them as they ran and fled in an old run around car which was sitting across the street. DD videoed them but it was too dark to see the registration plate.

I rang the non emergency police number and they quickly attended. Perfectly pleasant but spectacularly useless - suggested that the men in question could maybe be undercover police officers doing a search of the area (??) and went on their way.

I’m worried that we’ve been targeted and that they will come back for more. There have been unmarked vans ending up at the house over recent months asking for scrap metal or if we are willing to sell our cars- we live at the dead end of the neighbourhood so it’s impossible for somebody to just be doing a casual drive by. I’m currently divorcing so it’s just DD and I in the house, I wonder if they’ve observed us and know it’s an easy target. It’s the marital home so is very large and I suppose would look desirable to a potential burglar (unfortunately for them we have nothing of big value..) To make matters worse we have building work going on at the moment so there is no back gate or means of securing the back garden… Sorry for the rant - I feel like crying!!

We were burgled once while out at work, we lived in a lower ground floor flat at the time which was sat back from the street. We were pretty naive at the time as we lived is a 'nice' area in London so really didn't think it would happen. In that same flat we also had a few attempts at our front door while we were sleeping, then actually came back the next night to try again. Also had men in our garden trying our shed another time and using our garden to get into others, I had a newborn at the time and heard something outside thinking it was foxes, I checked the cameras to see 3 or 4 men outside my bedroom window climbing our wall. We don't live there anymore thank goodness but the feeling has never left me and I still am very wary and do worry about it happening again.

We had building done last year and for months there was only sheets of wood as the back of our house, I didn't sleep very well then dreaming about burgers getting in.

Maybe they were trying to figure out if the house was empty if all lights were off and the property is in a quiet area.

My grandparents were burgled once when they were on holiday, my dad went round to water the plants etc.. and found the property turned upside down and all my grandmother's jewellery gone from her jewellery box, amongst other things taken. Burglers were almost definitely monitoring the row of bungalows before targeting my grandparents when they went away.

My street was targeted by what we can only assume was one r more gangs last winter. Burglaries/break-ins started Oct (as soon as it started getting dark early), and occurred every 2-3 weeks. Always between 5-7pm - ie after dark, before people assumed to be home. Thing was. Lots of people were home - working or kids home alone after school. Went on until April ish. I even walking in on a couple robbing my neighbours (thought the cleaners had set their alarm off again). We’re in an affluent street (houses = £1.2-2m), mix of elderly, home-working professionals and lots of kids. We back onto a railway line and are near a station. Lived here for 19 years and apart from the odd attempt, nothing like this. Always felt safe until last year.

We are now very nervous again, now its getting dark again. We draw all the curtains at night, leave lamps on, and have gone all out on a ring system that would alert us if anyone entered the house. Kids (16/19) have been told to hide all valuables - lap tops, ipads etc, all go in boxes under the bed so that are not grab-able, nothing of valuable left ‘out’ on the ground floor.

I’m not bothered by the ‘stuff’, it’s insured, but the kid’s homework/revision notes/college applications make the tech valuable if they’ve not backed it up properly; similarly my PhD notes. It’s just the need to know the kids and my spaniels are/will always be safe.

I think rising crime is absolutely an issue at the moment (no bobbies on the beat, they rarely come out immediately, assumption that if you are comfortable you have insurance so who gives a fxxx… no thought to vulnerable kids and adults that occupy even so-called posh middle-class properties. Make my blood boil, frankly.

We had the table laid ready for fish and chips. We came home from the chippy, I was first around the back, to discover our patio doors were wide open and the lights were on. We had disturbed them, as our Apple PC was in the kitchen and my jewellery box. They stole my work phone, an iPod and our TV.

I was very scared, we were both very shaken and upset. It was horrible to think someone had been in our home, in my bedroom etc.

I wouldn’t have thought that they’d perceive us as being away from home, no. My car was sitting on the drive and the building work is external and only really visible from the back of the house - you wouldn’t be able to drive by and see it.

I’m so sorry to hear that - all sounds really unsettling, especially for a teen! DD isn’t a fan of being home alone at night so I suspect this is not going to help her fear..

Yes, at my parents' house when I was still living at home. I think I was about 19 or 20. It was a 'friend' from down the road my brother and I had grown up with who'd gone off the rails and he came in through my bathroom window (upstairs), rifled through my stuff and nicked some weed (!), then stole my mum's engagement ring from down the hall. The family was out and I'd left my window open, I think he might have been watching the house for a while. I also have a strong suspicion he'd been breaking in before and had even ordered himself a credit card to my address under my name. I still feel violated knowing he was in my bedroom and going through my belongings, I was trying to remember if I'd left those knickers on the floor, whether he'd read my diary etc... it seemed worse as I knew him, though I have nothing to compare it to.

I fervently wish burglary was treated as a serious crime and not some minor misdemeanour, it can lead to real trauma for the victims and have a very long-lasting impact. It makes me extremely angry that half the time it's not even investigated at all, and if by some miracle the culprits are charged they're almost certainly going to get some pathetic little non-custodial sentence which leaves them entirely free to keep on burgling.

Not personally but know a few people who have been and can understand how violated you must feel.

My DGM took the dog out on a lead for a wee one night and Ddog kept running to one part of the garden and barking like crazy. As she adjusted to the dark, she realised there was a man crouched at the back of the garden. Turns out he was the look out for the people burgling the apartment above DGM's. He yelled we've been seen and ran past her, and around 5 others appeared from upstairs, they all ran off. They'd cut her phone line so she couldn't call the police.

And then there's my parents neighbours - they've had the house burgled I think 5 times now and the garage broken into more times that you can count. (One of the house break ins, the cutlery drawer was removed and tipped out whilst 7 people were asleep and apparently heard nothing!) The dad was the local neighbourhood watch coordinator for many years.

We were burgled last January - husband confronted them at 2am as they were rifling through coat pockets looking for car keys.

Things we did to help us feel safe:

Anti snap locks fitted
Security lights front and back
Verisure monitored alarm - best money we spent cost a bit to have installed and then about £40 a month - luckily never needed but did give us peace of mind

Yes! We were away at the time. Not sure if it will reassure you, but the police said most burglars are in and out within a few minutes. They look for tech, cards, cash.
Hopefully they won’t come back as you putting all the lights clearly scared them; I can see why you’d be worried though. It’s horrible to feel you’ve been targeted — especially if you’re there. I’m not saying it was great coming home to discover we’d been burgled, but if I had to choose, I’d much rather NOT be there when it happens…

Once as a child - my mum had left some rings on the kitchen windowsill when washing up. Someone jemmied open the window and climbed in . They took our video recorder too (showing my age 😂)

Once as an adult - we’d been at a family party, DS was only about three. On the way home our neighbour called, the burglars must have split up, one was in our house and the other trying to get into his. They smashed a patio door to get in ours. It was early evening and our neighbour had only nipped to Sainsburys. The one he disturbed jumped over the fence, alerted his mate, and they drove off in my car. That was found abandoned the next day.

They didn’t get much but they’d found some ikea bags in the understairs cupboard which were all laid out, so presumably they were planning to clear the place. They nicked a wash bag out of my sports hold-all and emptied my Percy Pig in it, and took two bottles of beer out of the fridge. The bedroom was ransacked but thankfully they hadn’t found my jewellery.

It was only a couple of days later when I fancied a glass of wine I discovered they’d stolen my corkscrew, presumably to open the beer, the absolute fuckers.

Amazingly they’d left the key with my car that saved me some money but they took my scrabble K key ring. So there’s probably a burglar out there called Kevin or something that’s responsible.

im a cop and when a colleague turned up I burst into tears on his shoulder 🙈 it was awful and the mess took ages to clear up.

We also had a shed broken into at a different house, they took a case of beer. They seem to like our alcohol 🙄

We had a man knock on our door at 11pm one night a few years ago. Confused as we didn't usually get visitors at this time, we turned the hallway light on but didn't open the door and looked out the window instead and he walked across the road and just stood there and then walked off. 4am that same night I was the only person awake as I used to naturally wake up at this time but I heard a "Hello Hello" coming from downstairs. He had managed to get into our house using a screwdriver and had taken our car keys and left to try starting one of the cars. Also locking us in our house. It was a scary experience as we had no idea if he was alone or if he was carrying any weapons and why it was our house he chose to break into.

Oh my goodness - just reading that I have chills! How terrifying for you all

Yes on holiday, someone stole all our skirts, shorts, underpants and bottom half of bikinis but left the rest 🤷🏻‍♀️

We had an attempted break in at our old house, and my car broken in to, it made us very security conscious - and we have since moved.

Even tho they never got into the house (the police believe they were after the cars) we felt very vulnerable and our children were a lot smaller so I became very anxious, moving has helped but not massively as we are rural so there has been lot of farm thefts.

We have front and rear camera with lights, ring cameras and an alarm a wired one and a ring one and a very big barky dog who is being protection and scent trained

OP could you ask the builders to put something up to block the side entrance - even if it's just some plywood or an old fence panel with something behind it. At least it would make some noise if someone attempted to move it/ delay them.

When I'm home alone I hang a cup on the back door handle. Means that the cup would drop and make more noise if someone managed to break the lock and push the handle down. I also sleep at the back of the house with the small window open a little, again just so I'd be more likely to hear if someone was on the patio/trying to break in.

Hope you and DD manage to get some sleep tonight- if it's any comfort I don't think they would come back so soon! X

The thing that struck me was that you said you had no back gate due to building work. We had 2 attempted break ins and the police came on a follow up support visit to advise us on how to secure the property. They said cameras did not discourage burglars (they wear hoods etc so not bothered apparently). But the police said they reckoned it was our lack of secure gate to the back garden that was making it attractive as it gave burglars a quick and easy escape route.

We got a big high gate and fence and no ones tried since. Cost about £1k though so not cheap.

It worked for us and so feels like money well spent for the sense of security. Is there a way you can get a makeshift gate/fence whilst you are having building work?

I’m sorry you and DD are having this experience.

A several years ago we had our house broke into early hours New Year’s Day, our child was staying a grandparents, I was woken to our bedroom door being opened I shot out of bed shouting my husband the intruder ran as fast he could.

didnt take much he bagged up dvds didn’t get chance to pick them up he did take a few cans of beer and a tin of mince pies and a cheap camera.

He broke window to get in (I think I might of herd its smash but had a drink and fireworks was still being let off) the neighbours herd it and saw him run from house
it was the scariest night I’ve had I wouldn’t stay there for a few nights then I had sleep problems for a while

Twice

Once as a student, came back from Christmas and the house had been almost completely emptied, even the food from our cupboards was taken. One of our neighbours was sent down for handling stolen goods when we reported him to the police. He said he's bought our clothes from a bloke in the pub. He did not suit a Cure tshirt

Second time was when someone broke in, and had started filling our car with our stuff. A torch was shone into our bedroom, I got up and chased him off. Thankfully he ran away but I was a shaky scared mess for weeks. I saved all our stuff but my mental health was fucked for a long time. In the few weeks afterwards I slept on the couch to protect the house

Op you have building work going on. Could it be ppl your builders have told?

Builder is a close family friend, he definitely wouldn’t do anything like that

Yes it was several years ago now and ended up not being successful but it kinda fucked me up and now my home is like Fort Knox, man kicked door in, in the middle of the night, I’d falllen asleep watching a war type movie so woke up thinking it was still playing and took a minute to be like oh that’s my door being booted in! Luckily the police arrived very very quickly and a lot of them, I lived near a bunch of pubs and it was kicking out time so they were in the street right near me.

We were burgled about five years ago.

A man broke into our garage and entered our house through the connecting door (which we had failed to lock). Fortunately our neighbours from across the road saw him break into the garage and phoned the Police (The neighbour was up because he was feeling unwell and just happened to look out the windows as he heard a noise). The Police arrived, the burglar saw them and tried to run for it across a different neighbour’s garden but was caught in the process.

We slept through all this and only found out when the police knocked on our door to tell us what happened. The Police were great and really kind. They came back later that day to take our statement, but as witnesses we would have been fairly useless. The man was prosecuted and pleaded guilty, sentenced to six months imprisonment (not his first offence).

This was very much an opportunistic crime. Our house was probably targeted because of the lack of security, garage door locks were quite old. Our security is now much better. We have much better locks, new security lights, cameras and checks. We have had no problems since.

I hope you and your DD are okay.

Yes. Console and games stolen. Forced a window, after that I got window locks and an alarm box, front and back.

Sorry but your builder needs to secure your property when he leaves at the end of the day - be that a temp fence that he bolts in place each night or unscrews the next day, whatever. It’s what our builder does when he does work for us, not least to secure the tools he leaves in the garden over night. He may be a close family friend but he should be aware that building work attracts thieves - often they are not interested in the house itself, just the builder’s equipment.

We got burgled when we were asleep upstairs. They stole EVERYTHING, my mums wedding rings she left by the kitchen sink, a handful of coins (probably £3), a bus pass ☹️, dvds etc.

My dad got his much wanted dog a couple weeks after (he had been asking my mum for years and she’d always said no).

I have heard a dog is the best deterrent.