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 ??

Before anyone gets too scared - burglary rates are a lot lower than 20 years ago. 890,000 burglaries in the UK in 2002 and about 275,000 last year.
Similar pattern in US and other European countries.

Obviously a horrible thing to happen at any time but it is much less common now.

thanks all. I was hoping to hear “nope- never heard of that, only empty houses get burgled”

We’ll enable the alarm downstairs from now on when we go to bed!

Is that really true @MojoMoon or govt figures that compares apples with pears?

Years ago in London my flat mate and I were burgled while we were asleep. They actually cut a pane of glass out of the French windows. We didn't have a burglar alarm though. We slept through it.

No, it's a widespread trend across similar economies that burglary has declined significantly

https://www.statista.com/statistics/956906/burglaries-in-england-and-wales/

Essentially it pays less well than it used to and is harder work. Double glazing, deadbolts, modern composite/reinforced front doors etc all make homes harder work to burgle than in the 90s for example.
Pay off is lower - fewer people keep any significant level of cash at home compared to when more did genuinely keep large sums under the mattress or kept their business's cash float at home. Would all be on card/in bank now.

Electronic items are more widespread but also relatively much cheaper to incomes. There was a time when buying a TV was equal to a much higher number of weeks of average wages and so there was a thriving market for second hand nicked TVs. Now even the second hand price of a laptop is relatively low and a TV is very low so you don't earn much for thieving them.

Professional criminals can also make money in other ways - fraud, cybercrime, money laundering etc which are physically much easier.

Professional, highly skilled burglars are really only going to focus now on homes with things like expensive cars where they want the car keys or homes with lots of jewelry/gold. There is often a flurry of burglary in South Asian areas around the Dharentes Hindu festival as buying gold is part of the celebration. Or premier league footballers and expensive watches.

Of course you still have the crack head burglars but they are more likely to be opportunist and trying a door that is unlocked and just seek to grab whatever they can find to sell for 40 quid and their next hit.

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/c78wz/download

Us background

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-01/why-burglary-has-declined-in-the-u-s?leadSource=uverify%20wall

Thanks @MojoMoon - that's true for our burglary - took our cars & left everything else.

Yes. We were asleep upstairs. I came downstairs in time to see him running out the front door.

Sorry, yes when I was a child, whole family asleep, got burgled. My mum heard, stayed put. Burglars left with items, people unharmed/no contact with burglars. They thought they’d taken expensive artwork. Cost of paintings = £6 each.

Jeez these stories are scary. No personal experience thank goodness but one of my neighbours had an incident this year. He basically found a strange very thin woman in his house. We think a druggie probably. He was at home as was his wife but the druggie just walked in the front door which was unlocked chancing their arm. This is in a decent area.

I always keep my doors locked but have to admit I have left the livingroom window open and gone out with dog before (forgot it was open).

Honestly when my current small fluffball goes I feel like my next dog might be a german shepherd or something for the 'protection' factor.

p.s. also very glad for my small, old, scratched car on the drive hearing these stories. Pretty much every house in the street has a better car than mine. My biggest worry would be they hurt or took the dog.

That’s horrendous I’m sorry you experienced that. I’m amazed he was reporting to the facility youre at as that could be mayhem! Not to mention the reciprocations

Yes. We were asleep and were wakened by the sound of our son's car engine in the drive at 3am. Dh looked out the window and knew it wasn't our son. Dad phoned police immediately. I wakened son who grabbed his father's car keys and set off in purrsuit. Cars stolen usually end up in a certain part of the city and quickest way is via the motorway.
Police arrived in minutes and fortunately had a crew on the motorway and were in position with a stinger which they threw across the road and got son's car and the thief. Son came upon the scene a couple of minutes later to find his car wrecked.
Thankfully insured.
The thief had removed our kitchen window and taken son's car keys that he'd left on the worktop. Lesson learned.
It wasn't a fancy car, just a 3 year old little 3-door hatchback. The thief was prosecuted.

Yes, I was at my parent's house for Christmas , my sister and I were sharing the spare room. On Boxing Day morning we woke up to find that we'd been robbed. The person had broke open the kitchen window and carefully took out all the dry dishes which were there in the drying rack. The dishes were all neatly stacked on a wall outside - I've never forgotten the sight of those dishes !

They had gone through every room , and had taken Dad's wallet and my sister's bag ( which actually contained her knitting !) .

It was a horrible feeling to think that the burglar/s had been walking around just near where we were sleeping ! Really creepy. I've always been very careful about security since that time.

The thief had removed our kitchen window and taken son's car keys that he'd left on the worktop. Lesson learned.

Sorry you got done. I'd heard that most break ins these days are looking for cars to use in bigger crimes, and have since left my keys in plain view by the front door because I'd rather the burglars grab them and leave, than come into my room or kids' rooms looking for them!

We've had 2 attempted break ins for the fast car we had on the driveway. Our DDs were away for both nights and their bedrooms were on the front with curtains open so it must have looked like we weren't in.

Probably easier and more lucrative to sell drugs these days.

Friends we're sitting watching television one evening with the back door unlocked and a thief went upstairs and stole jewellery then took handbag on the way out

A few years ago a burglar got in the house and went into my daughters bedroom. She saw his hand come round the door. Se jumped out of bed and yelled at him, chased him down the stairs and he ran out of the house. She was alone in the house at the time and a teenager. Very brave but also very frightening. He didn’t steal anything , for some reason he chose her bedroom first it seems.

Parents had a very nasty break in, 7pm in the evening, 4 men armed with knives. Police said they would have been looking for a safe & break in when people are home so they can find/open the safe. (Parents lived on a big house)

Yes happened to me when house sharing. Stupid idiots did it about an hour after the clubs and pubs had closed. Housemate woke up screamed so they fled empty handed and she called the police. They broke a window rather than undo the back door as they were off their heads. A couple of police officers turned up first and cornered them in the garden, which they couldn't escape from as it backed on to a railway line. Then a police van turned up...

Happened to quite a few people I knew when we were students. The burglars were nearly always local kids. You could tell when they weren't as documents went missing as well. Some people where unlucky and home alone, so verbally abused, attacked and even imprisoned by groups of kids.

Now the only people I know it happens to they steal expensive bikes - which are in sheds or garages - or expensive cars. If you have an expensive car either leave the keys in the hall or ensure it is keyless so they won't come near you.

Twice in 3 months this year. Both times for cars. We were asleep both Thomas. Police know who did it due to dna. One has masses of outstanding warrants so who knows if he’ll ever be caught. The don’t understand how they got through the ant snap locks the 2nd time but they did. It’s left us all quite shaken. All the time. We have lots of security but still they got in.

My boss and his wife had this happen - they each had expensive cars on the drive which were the only things stolen.

Someone certainly tried to jimmy the door. Me, dh and huge teen got tooled up with hammers etc and stood behind the door makng a lot of noise. It suddenly went very quiet 😀

Thankfully we haven’t been burgled but my parents neighbours were when they were on holiday.
The thieves turned all the taps on with plugs in the sink etc and completely flooded the house out, ceilings came down and the house was wrecked. My parents only knew when they noticed watered coming under the neighbour’s front door.
Everything that could be taken was removed from their house, carpets the lot.
The house was some 200 yards further along the road from my parents so they hadn’t noticed anything untoward.