Anxiety about burglars

[Catlover2025]

Hi everyone,

Recently, burglars attempted to break into our house. It was night time. All the lights, inside our house, was off. They probably thought no one was at home. They broke our entrance door using what looked like crowbars. As soon as they realized we were at home. They ran away.

Since then I have been tense at night time. I have been constantly thinking about making my house burglary safe.

Since this incident, I have installed basic home alarm (Yale), Eufy doorbell camera.

Our driveway has had good lighting before even this incident.

Before this incident we would turn off all the lights in the house, also would close bedrooms curtains at night for privacy reasons. We live in a Banglow. Our master bedroom and a small guest bedroom both face the street.

Since this incident, we are not closing the curtains in the small guest bedroom at night. We also leave the light in the entrance hallway on for the whole duration of night.

We don't have a car. Our driveway has parking space for 2-3 cars. Our family and friends visit us during the day and evenings. But they rarely stay for the whole night. They love the fact that they don't have to worry about parking when they are visiting us. But our driveway is empty late at night giving the false impression that no one is home.

Am I unreasonably paranoid about more safety? What do you guys suggest?

Thanks in advance.

Burglars don't like dogs, so you could get a sensor alarm that when triggered by someone near your door it 'barks'.
Or do as a friend did and pop a Dogs Trust sticker in the window, and leave a couple of dog related items outside - she has one of those dog ball throwers https://www.petsathome.com/product/pets-at-home-ball-launcher-large/7152509P?productId=7152509 and a dog water bowl she picked up from a charity shop, which are set to the side of her door and clearly visible from the road, so it looks like a dog lives there. Total cost about £5.

You could also have a motion sensor operated light that comes on or one with a camera too.

I had an awful fear of burglars then got myself two German Shepherds. I sleep easy as it's like having your own big hairy security guards patrolling downstairs

Working in the justice system I learnt that the majority of burglaries tend to be opportunistic and looking for easy things to grab, very rarely does anyone want to actually come into contact with a home owner. So I leave my handbag, keys to my car and purse beside my front door (but not visible from outside) so if anyone ever does break in, they can lift it easily and leave again straight away. The barking dog idea is also a good one as is motion sensor lighting. I would sometimes have left the TV and a power friendly living room light on and closed the blinds so the light was still visible from outside but noone would see that nobody was in the room.

Hi OP,

I’m sorry that’s a really horrible experience and it’s awful to feel unsafe in your own home.

I am quite an anxious person and get scared being home alone because of break ins. Via EE who we have our mobile and broadband with, we recently got a Verisure alarm system fitted. It’s £48 a month which includes:

• 24/7 monitored alarm with 3 fobs
• video doorbell
• 2x external cameras
• 1x internal camera
• 6x window and door shock sensors (which trigger the alarm)
• External signage to say monitored by Verisure

The whole system is monitored by Verisure and includes cloud storage. So we can play back recordings and Verisure contact us if anything is triggered or people are picked up on cameras. It’s made me feel much safer.

I’m not sure leaving lights on / curtains open will do much to deter to be honest. I think a lot of break ins happen during the day as people are more likely to be out anyway. I really think alarms and video cameras are your best bet.

This is really interesting. When we had our security system installed the installer said we shouldn’t have our keys / bags by the door as we do as it makes them easy to find and grab for burglars. But like you’ve said, if someone’s made it into the house I’d much rather that stuff be easy to find and they get in and out rather than going further into the property and searching around for hidden keys!!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. We can not have a real dog. But I did buy a motion sensor alarm mentioned by Ariela above.

The Verisure idea is interesting. Other than paying 48 pounds per month, is there upstart cost as well? Such as buying the cameras, siren box etc. We are renting our banglow. Do we know if Verisure has an employee who monitors the alarms 24 hours a day?

We are not worried about losing any material stuff during the burglary. Because there are not many things in our house that will be of any value to the burglars.

We just have the anxiety of someone coming at night (while we are asleep), and facing burglars. I have some anxiety falling asleep at night since this incident.

We are not that worried about daytime burglary or burglary when we are away.

What I am trying to ask is, that Verisure doesn't just give false assurance. They really do monitor your home?

I know a police officer and he said a beware of the dog sign is the best to deter thieves.

There was no setup cost as it was done as a package through EE. I got the impression that the package offered through EE was far more affordable than going through Verisure direct.

Ive found they do monitor - it’s not false assurances. On two occasions my husband has forgot to turn the alarm off in the AM before opening doors. The siren has sounded and Verisure have contacted me via text and mobile to confirm what has happened and that there is no intruder.