Has anyone been burgled when you were in?

[User5512]

Neighbours house was burgled last week and it’s causing me worry!

I work from home 3 days a week so on my own all day. the other 2 days DS (14) comes home from school and is home alone until 6pm.

We are now setting up burglar alarms, indoor/outdoor cameras for increased safety but do people get burgled when they are in ??

Not wishing to cause alarm, but it does happen. My sisters house got burgled downstairs whilst they slept. The saving grace was that their car key was easy to locate, so along with downstairs items, they also stole the car - there was an issue locally for car thefts, and had the key not been available, they would have likely been threatened for it (as that was happening a lot at the time).

Best advice would be to keep doors and gates locked throughout the day and night, ring doorbell/cameras, security lights, a dog sign. Do you have a local fb group you can join to see if anyone else has experienced this?

In a haze of sleep deprivation when DS was six weeks old, DH forgot to lock the front door and we were burgled. They took my purse from the change bag but left everything else. Spent £26 at McDonald's and £13 on a train ticket before I realised (thank god for the Monzo app) so I think it was opportunistic kids.

Sorry if this adds to your worries, but yes, my parents were recently burgled in the night. The thief actually came into their bedroom while they slept to take the jewellery box, took it into another room and emptied it to look through it. They just live in a fairly modest, normal house, not anywhere that would suggest loads of valuables.

Twice!

Yes. As a teen in my grandparents house. My grandparents were out for the night and the burglars came into the bedroom as I slept and stole my bag (they dumped it when it only constrained an inhaler and clean knickers) they also let the dog out too. I was only aware when I heard my grandparents come in and my grandmother shouting to call the police. I couldn’t sleep properly for years and would wake up at the same time every night for years too checking for burglars.

When I lived with my parents (12 years ago) we had a break in whilst we were in the house. It was about 11pm, my dad was out and my mum and I were watching TV in the living room at the rear of the house. We had the curtains open and a group of men smashed their way in through the double glazed living room window, using a heavy wrench. They were so brazen, as they could see us sitting on the sofa watching TV, but didn't cate one jot. Mum and I locked ourselves in the internal garage. They were looking for car keys, and once they found them, they drove away in my dad's car, which was on the drive. It was terrifying and I didn't feel safe at home for years afterwards, and still won't have the curtains open at night.

Yes, years ago. I was at my BF's first floor flat, and someone climbed onto the roof and through the open kitchen window while we were watching TV in the living room next door. They pinched my jacket, wallet and keys. The only reason we knew it had happened is because we found my jacket dumped on the roof....we didn't hear a thing. It was an absolute pain because I had to get my car towed because I didn't have a spare key for it.

Yep. We were burgled whilst we slept. Good job we were in because the sitting room had just been decorated and we hadn't put the bolts back afterwards. If we'd been out the insurance wouldn't have covered it. Decades ago now. They took the VCR, my handbag, some cash for the cleaner and unopened bottles of spirit. I had a cheque guarantee card for £250 and they went through 27 cheques buying booze, bicycles, etc.

Two lessons - lock the windows and never leave your handbag downstairs.

Sorry to add to this, I don't want to cause you further worry, but, yes it happened to me.

I left a kitchen window slightly ajar (I burnt some food, I'm a terrible cook) and forgot about it and went to bed.
Unfortunately some men were able break in.
I won't go into what happened, its hard to talk about, but it wasn't good.

Its been 20 years, but I make sure all windows, doors are locked before going to bed.

This was us a few months ago - all asleep upstairs. Thankfully didn't hear a thing.

Yes a few years ago. We were asleep in the house. Went downstairs in the morning to find the kitchen window completely removed (turned out the burglar was a window fitter by trade!). A few bits were stolen, but he was mainly after the car keys - the car was found stripped out a couple of days later.
What was really scary was that a carving knife from our knife block was out on the kitchen table, we think that he heard one of us get up to use the toilet and pulled it just in case, I dread to think what might have happened if we'd heard him and come downstairs.
I actually met our burglar a few times because I was a probation officer at the office in my home town and he had to report there on licence when he was released from prison. Obviously he wasn't one of my cases and he was none the wiser that I was one of his victims, but it made me on edge every time I saw him

Yes when I lived at home with parents. It was a big house and burglar was able to walk round and hide quite easily. He got away with quite a lot (small silver stuff, cash, jewellery). My mum only realised when she found muddy footprints on their bed. It was frightening at the time and quite honestly a miracle that nobody came across him. Security was massively upgraded after that. To this day, I don't go upstairs without making sure front and back doors are locked and I lock everything up before bed. I do think most burglars would prefer an empty house so I don't think it's very common.

Look at making your property secure. Preventing entry is better than having CCTV which just films the act.
Invest in quality locks, good quality hinges. Make your house less attractive to burgle with prickly planting, keeping valuables from view.
Be mindful that your social media presence dos not advertise you whereabouts and also show off any valuables.
Burglers don't want to get caught so make sure you are not an easy target.

My parents house was burgled when everyone was upstairs sleeping. They had unplugged the phone lines and taken the sharp knives out of the block and laid them on the counter. We think they were disturbed by my brothers alarm when it went off around 4am when he was working shifts.

We were also burgled a couple of years ago in the middle of the day and the burglars threw a brick through the kitchen patio doors then just walked right in. They had been watching the house to see when we left.

Yes, years ago though when I was a student. I rented a basement flat with garden that had access through a parking area for the offices above. It was an old Victorian building in a terrace where mine was the only flat stupid of me to have chosen to live there as an 18 year old in hindsight!

DH (or BF as he then was) - who had recently moved in with me during my second year at uni - and I were in the front room when we heard sounds coming from the rear of the flat. It was late afternoon on a sunny, spring day iirc.

I was petrified as about three months previously the flat had been burgled (all my jewellery stolen including a platinum pendant I'd received for my 18th and some gold rings/earrings) whilst I was visiting my parents for the weekend. That time they'd got in from the ground floor office that still had a (locked) interconnecting door to my flat. God knows what would have happened if I'd been there on that occasion!

Anyway, DH rushed through the kitchen to the shower room beyond where there was a skylight in the flat roof. He just caught sight of someone hastily running away through the skylight which had been partially crow-barred off.

A few years later when we lived back in my home city we had another daytime burglary but fortunately this time we were out. They'd broken a window in full view of our usually incredibly nosey neighbours who of course on this occasion saw/heard nothing. A friend who lived in a massive house of 25 rooms came face to face with her intruder. She'd heard nothing but came downstairs as it was time to pick up her DC from school and found a burglar - who'd forced the front door - rifling through a desk and bravely confronted them before chasing them out as they legged it with just a couple of small items.

Many years ago when I was a child, burglars broke into my home while parents and us kids were asleep upstairs. None of us heard a thing. The police speculated that the burglars had set off some kind of sleeping gas (is this even possible?) to make sure we didn't wake up. We found the unopened wine bottles from the cupboard behind each downstairs door, and we were told that they were to hit anyone with if we had wandered downstairs.

More recently, the police knocked on the door to warn us that there were a lot of break-ins in the area, and a robber had broken into next door but one, where a young teenager was alone. Poor kid. He was fine, I think the robber just legged it. It's good to be reminded to be careful and have lots of locks and precautions.

When I was a child we were visiting some family friends who were burgled that night whilst we were there.

My mum’s friend did wake up to a male figure in her room, but in her half sleep state assumed it was her step son and went back to sleep.

The guy was actually high on drugs, and after he broke in he climbed out of a loft window, thought he could fly and jumped! Fortunately he only broke his legs, and because he didn’t get away, they got all their jewellery back.

Yes! When I was 14 or younger. It happened at night. The person climbed through the upstairs having come over from the passageway that ran through our rd, which we lived next to. Went through the bathroom upstairs(we lived downstairs in a non properly converted flat, so stairs were open/entry around downstairs) my sister was on her bed reading. The person pulled the door handle down but it was a bit dodgy that one, so they gave up, went to our parents room straight in stole the wage envelopes to be handed out, as that's how people were paid on site back then!
Went back up the stairs and out the same window crashing on to the side shed roof and gone!
Police came quickly(as they did in those days lol) and apparently I think the same person had had a good run that night, as there had been one not long before or after ours!

And my DF was out having gone off in a huff as happened quite a few times like a child, great behaviour 🙄

Twice in London

Someone locally to us, teens came in after school and both went upstairs and in the 30 mins before the parents got in, someone burgled downstairs.

I am normally a light sleeper but had a fearsome ear infection one year, and was deaf on one side. The dogs were in the boiler room, more or less unconnected to the house.
I woke up to hear the scrabbling sound of someone rummaging in my dressing table drawer. About ten feet away from us in the bed!
We have a very high headboard and footboard on this bed, which is why we couldn’t be seen.
I sat up and yelled something and he was away, thundering down the stairs.

We went downstairs to find all the lights on, the back door open with the car keys in one of the cars, lots of stuff stacked on the seats.
There was a ring of keys around the gun cabinet, denoting that they had really tried, and failed, to get into it (Gun cabinet keys are hidden in a secret inaccessible place)
They had also thoughtfully slashed the leather chesterfield, though thankfully not taken a poo or pee anywhere, which isn't uncommon, due to adrenaline, etc.
They were caught, only youths, taking opportunistic advantage of an open window downstairs (DH was culpable) Only skinny youths could have got in that tiny aperture.
Not like the horrifying tales of sleeping gas and bottles as weapons, good grief, makes you go cold…

Yep, in the daytime as well. Front door unlocked, someone took my bag from the hallway whilst I was home.

I recall seeing a statistic stating close to 50% of house break ins occurs when the occupants are home, so yes it’s a fairly common occurrence.
I’ve been home on two occasions during a break In. We were alerted to 1 and called the police and a strung out incoherent junkie
was arrested sitting on our sofa eating a bowl of breakfast cereal.
2nd time happened abroad in a friends apartment, we did not know until next day the place had been ransacked.
Guest who was sleeping on the sofa did wake up and saw someone tip toeing around and thought it was someone from one of the bedrooms getting a glass of water and gave the burglar a wee wave then rolled over and went back to sleep.

It's happened to me twice. The first time I disturbed burglars when coming home in the day time and they fled through the back door.
Then a few years ago my DS left a side door unlocked at night and burglars came in and took a load of small valuables while we slept.
I'm now very careful about locking doors etc, plus we have two very noisy reactive dogs and people always comment we would be the last house in the street to be robbed if burglars were casing the joint!

Once at uni and in a house share when my flatmate came downstairs to a man eating biscuits at our kitchen table.

He was not quite on this planet and left quite politely when asked. He did take the rest of the biscuit packet though.

I would guess that a lot of burglaries while people are at home are connected to thieves looking to take your car - you most likely need to be at home for your car to also be at home.

If you have a luxury or desirable car parked outside, then that is a significant incentive to break in and find the keys.

This has happened to a neighbour of my parents three times - he has very show off cars parked on his drive. It has not happened to my parents who have an ancient Honda on their drive.

So if you have a fancy car, you should take extra steps on home security.