Too scared to sleep

[whatcomesnextisbeautiful]

Currently staying at my parent's house with my toddler whilst they are away to cat sit (at their request).

Some weeks ago, their next door neighbour was broken into during the night whilst they (including young child) slept. Despite there being valuables available, the single thing that was taken was a knife left on the side in the kitchen - which tells me the intruders had intent to harm.

I tried to persuade my parents to have a security system installed that included some CCTV so that activity downstairs could be viewed from a phone, but they opted for a basic alarm system. It is currently armed and so my fear is not of whether someone could intrude without knowledge, but more so of if the alarm sounds, do I assume it's an intruder and call 999? What if it's just one of the cats? The prospect of it going off in the middle of the night and it being a false alarm, but me responding like it's legitimate is causing me enough anxiety to keep me awake.

Assume the worst and call 999. I am sure police would rather come out to find a cat scared shirtless than anything more sinister.

Happened to my sister she and kids all asleep upstairs and the burglars came through the downstairs, took the tv and had a slice of toast and marmite on the way out, left the knife and plate in the back garden when leaving. They call them night crawlers, they don’t wake people, so don’t worry you’ll be ok.

How is the alarm activated, is it window/door opening or movement?

Mine is movement so a cat would set it off.

Surely they’d get a pet-friendly alarm if they own cats?

If I were here on my own I wouldn't feel too bad, it's the thought of what the experience would do to my toddler if I had to act and how utterly terrified she'd be. 😞

It's both.

@WingSluts I really don't know as the cat sleeps upstairs with them all night.

Test it out before it gets too late and check if the cat sets it off. If you’re ready to disarm it straight away it’s not going to disturb anyone, then you’ll know and can maybe sleep easier.

She will only be as terrified as you. If you keep calm, she will be calm. For yeast my mother though I was terrified of mice all because I was once hysterical when we found a mouse in the flat. I was about 3 and I do remember this day with surprising clarity. My mother was standing on a couch screaming her head off, my dad was frantically chasing the mouse with a broom stick. I was indeed hysterical but not because of the mouse. I actually quite like mice.

We have a downstairs alarm and if it went off at night when I was home alone I’d call the police, I wouldn’t investigate.
it’d be worth asking your parents about how it gets set off; we have cats so ours isn’t a sensor, it gets set off if the windows or front/back door is opened

Try to remember that, while alarms are a warning system, their main function is to act as a deterrent.

A random who sees the alarm from the street is much much less likely to try that house and, if they do set it off, in 99.9% of cases it will cause them to run away.

If the cat’s upstairs with you and the alarm sounds then treat it as serious, but also remember that you’re talking about a 1/1,000 (probably much lower) likelihood here.

Agree with PP, an alarm system will act as a deterrent to any burglar. It's highly unlikely that anyone will break in but if the alarm goes off I would call 999 immediately!

You're overthinking and getting in your head about it - go to sleep op x