If you thought intruders were in your home....

[BattyBadgerBadger]

...at night, when you were in bed, what would you do?

Assuming you didn't have a DP to send downstairs!

I just found myself; first, considering calling the police then thinking better of it on the basis of a couple of bangs. Then warming up in the hope that if anyone was down there, they'd be long gone by the time I got downstairs.

Thankfully everything's fine, though I'm still considering it possible that someone was trying to get in.

If you were in a similar position, when would you consider calling the police?

Prior to now I would have said that I'd have called them if I was concerned at all to the point that I keep my mobile upstairs at night, but, it's strange how the mind works in the midst of a situation!

Wish I hadn't read in this. Am home alone with DD and constantly freak myself out over these type of things

That's so true Jamese, I used to hear steps either in the stairs or above us. At first I thought it was my imagination or the dog, until one day I heard a noise as if somebody was madly scratching the wall on the other side. I turned around expecting to see the dog but the dog was at my feet looking at the same point.

DH started joking about ghosts (the noises where mostly when he was out) and blamed my imagination until we both heard the steps while sitting in the kitchen and with the dog sleeping at our feet. He took a knife (no baseball bats in the kitchen or the house ) and went to check but couldn't find anything. Next day he went into the attic and found a big hole in the wall between our house and the neighbour's and some dropping that must have belonged to a very big rat. We blocked the hole and never heard a thing again, all the noise was coming from the attic (door was permanently shut) but as it sounded like steps, we imagined the came form the stairs

Sensibly I would gather kids together, baracade in 1 room and phone police from phone which I would of course have upstairs.

Reality I would put hall light on and pad downstairs to see what was up. Phone is never upstairs.

In one of my jobs the previous live-in nanny was on duty at night (parents away) and had her sister staying, the house was broken into and the nanny and her sister baracaded themselves in their room, didn't go into kids room or make sure they were safe. luckly the burglars didn't come upstairs.

Just thinking I should really take phone upstairs.
We get lots of noises like mice and books dropping out DS's bunk bed. Even noises from next door can be hard to pin point at night, I'm not bothered when DH is here as he is 6'4" and trained in certain skills . When he is away I am more particular about locking doors and things, don't bother too much the rest of the time .

I always take mobile phone upstairs at bedtime. We had an attempted break-in few years ago (window locks broken and attempt to break door) - very scary to think that someone would try to break into house at night that is obviously occupied (cars on drive). We think they gave up because eldest dd heard a noise and turned her light on; neighbour's garden backs onto ours and they'd been up with poorly child (at same time dd heard noise)amd put their lights on. The police said that burglars would be in and out very quickly with TV etc., (and handbag - they said most women leave it lying around downstairs).

Best answer I can give is to do what I do now - stay on mumsnet really really late (with lights on too!), then go to bed when dh is about to get up (he's a morning person).

ScaryScribble, someway it doesn't surprise me, I have been told by a girl minding DS that she had not checked him as she didn't want him to wake up... I don't need to think too hard about how would she react if she feared there was someone in the house....

One of the cheapest and most effective deterents for at night is big lights with motion sensors, yes it annoys the hell out of the neighbours every time a cat sets them of but worth it, saying that I still haven't bought sensors for mine .

im so paranoid about this! every night i check all doors and windows before i go to bed. i take my mobile phone upstairs (in case someone cut the lines) and my cordless phone (in case my mobile battery gave out or no reception for some freaky reason). i have a metal bar by my bed and a four foot spiky candlestick type thing. i always think that i would sneak across the landing, grab the kids and lock us all in my bedroom. thats the plan anyway. in reality im probably a bit stupid as i tend to creep down the stairs, mobile in one hand with 999 ready to dial and metal bar in the other. i dont know why i do this when im always the one screaming at the tv when there's a horror film on "fgs...dont go to have a look you idiot"!! i did hear noises on two seperate occasions and called the police but i was pregnant then. they were ok about it, said they would rather i rang.

We have never had any scares about intruders,but years ago,3 youths broke into my car & I confronted them waving a 2ft long poker & chased them down the street.They got away,so I went home,got the dog & set off looking for them.By that time,most of my neighbours were out in the street with dogs,torches ect,but we couldn't find them.We could hear one of them crying,but as the houses had big,adjoining gardens & backed onto fields,we couldn't track him down.Good thing really.

So,probably unwisely,if someone did break in,I would probably go for them.And if the air rifle was handy,I couldn't swear that I wouldn't use it .

I did stay up all that night (and most of the next )

I've decided to move forward on getting a dog, I've been intending to for some time and I think I'd appreciate the extra deterrent (and company )

In future I'll remain upstairs, with the children (and the phones), whereas my overwhelming instinct the other night was to get between the children and whoever it was downstairs, to draw them away from them.

I'm confident in the self defence and martial arts I learn, in the self defence I'll be teaching. But, going down to intruders (I've decided) is an unecessary risk when all they probably want is stuff I really can cope with losing.

this thread gave me nightmares!! (as if i get too much sleep already...hmpppphhhh)

I am single now and in a big house so i was given a cricket bat by my briother that is kept beside my bed.
i am 6'1 and built like a brick outhouse so figure im a match for most burglars and in teh dim light at night they arent to know im not teh man of the house so hope they would just be scared off. but i would defo be down there confronting them.

i do keep my mobile by my bed though as well so i would probably ring 999 whils on my way downstairs and let them hear what was going on. that way if it was nothing then i could say sorry false alarm but if i was having a fullscale punch up with a burglar they could send some cavalry.

i wonder how many of us have weapons by the bed? i know most of my friends have.

I've just had this tonight! I live in a ground floor flat in a new block and share the main front door with two other flats. I was in bed but awake and heard someone trying to open my front door, there's no way I couldn't not go out as front door is between me and dd, so off I go shaking like a leaf armed with the pole from the vacuum which for some reason was sitting in my bedroom. Got into hallway and saw door handle moving about, looking back realise it was an idiotic thing to do but I opened the door, completely shocking the man who lives upstairs and was completely p**d!!! How he thought he was at the right door when he hadn't gone up any stairs is beyond me! but I can't sleep now!

When my children were little I didn't have a landline and it was before the days of the mobile phone, I heard a noise downstairs, I flew out of bed and frantically looked around for some kind of weapon.

I then crept down the stairs, stood by the lounge door with my ear pressed against it straining to hear. My heart was beating so loudly that I was convinced that whoever was in there would certainly be able to hear it...

I decided I had no option, so I threw the door open as fast as I could, screaming like a banshee, weapon raised ready to hit the intruder...

At that moment (not surprisingly) dd woke up and came running down the stairs and just looked at me blankly and said...

Mum, why are you holding a cactus like that?

i am p*ssing myself at that squirrel.

madmummyof2, it was the only weapon I could find and BTW there were no intruders it was just my over active imagination.

It did make me re-think my 'what if there were an intruder' plan.

The people who owned our house had an incident like this...
They had a burglar alarm which could bet set for movement downstairs at night, and one night it went off about 3 am.

They were petrified - it had never gone off before - and wife (in nightie) persuaded husband (in boxers) to go downstairs to see what was happening.

Looking for a weapon, the husband finds his antique 'ceremonial sword' (?! don't ask...) on the wall of the landing, so takes that with him...

Apparently they tiptoed down, wife behind husband - him with sword raised, ready for an attack.....
They crept through the hall, into the living room and found...
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... a spider, busy making it's web across the burglar alarm sensor....

Years ago I was petrified one evening by a steady thudding noise coming from the front of the house. I called my neighbour who bravely came to investigate. He was welcomed by a friendly yellow labrador who'd got into my garden and was snuffling around, with his hefty tail regularly wagging noisily against the wooden bay window of my front room.

My MIL keeps a Marsh Arab club behind her door - she could do some serious damage with that.

I have no idea, to be honest. I'd like to think that I'd be able to contact the emergency services and then make a fuss, without confronting them, as advised by all those 'barricade yourselves inside your homes!' type progs. In reality I have no idea what my instinct would be to do.