Caught intruder entering house when we were asleep

AnnaLicious_2

How awful, I'm so sorry.

This happened to me when I was a child, and it was so frightening. A week later my dad came home with a massive german shepard. He was the most lovely and wonderful dog, so sweet and loving. I was never afraid to be home alone again. It may not be something you want to do, but I honestly think dogs reduce home break-ins. I was around 6 or 7, so old enough to know how to play safely with a big dog.

Bob_the_Saver

Make-it-3 wrote: »

OP, I certainly know how you are feeling having been broken into just a few weeks ago while we slept in bed. Slightly different circumstances as they made a hell of a noise, smashing a window and it was more of a grab and run job.

It does make you feel very vunerable, jumpy and unable to sleep, but it may help you to consider the following:

A) it sounds like the potential intruder found his means of access wasn't as easy as they thought and gave up, therefore is unlikely to try again. They prefer a quick and easy opportunity generally. Try to take some reassurance from this

You have taken extra security methods which will also help deter anyone else that tries such a trick

C) You could look at getting a microchip catflap as these can only be opened from the outside by a unique chip in your cat's neck

D) Yes, its quite likely they were after your car keys. We were advised by the crime prevention officer not to leave house/car keys or anything else each to pinch in obvious places or in view from the outside

I hope this helps you a little, also I can say that given time you will be able to put this behind you and relax in your own home again.

How To open a micro-chipped catflap - KICK WITH SHOE!

Make-it-3

Kick cat flap with shoe, create a lot of noise without actually gaining access - doesn't sound like a good plan to me.

fantafan

Sorry to hear that Tom. My recommendation would be install a Y-Cam. We have one and I swear it keeps them away. That and a PIR floodlight. Although the bloody cats set that off all the time.

I live upstairs but never leave keys or anything downstairs. Always take the key out of the lock and put keys/laptops etc out of site. It does feel !!!! when things like this happen but remember it's not personal. They just want your stuff to sell on to get drugs most of the time. They won't come back as they've been rumbled.

My ex was broken in to and I had nightmares the night I stayed over of hands coming thru the window to steal the games console. It took us ages to notice too as it was behind the curtains where they'd smashed in.

Hope that helps but you seem to have done what you can. (but ADT monitored alarm was my ultimate peace of mind if you can afford it!)

missdee85

I am really sorry to hear what happened to you - it is a horrible thing to happen about 3 months ago someone tried to break into my house too, there is no quick fix to how your feeling i am sorry to say i still feel very uneasy in my house at night time. All i would say is keep a phone and something heavy next to your bed it does make me feel a little more safe as then i know i would be able to defend myself should anything happen.

xx

PasturesNew

I used to have an alarm, which I'd set for downstairs. It was only a studio, with a mezzanine (or a bed on a shelf as I called it), but I fitted the alarm to feel safe (rather than because the area was bad).... I didn't want to wonder when I came home "if" and I didn't want to be in "if". All was fine, until one night the alarm went off, then the outside floodlights came on too....

Upon investigation, I believe a big spider walked across the PIR, set the alarm off, which scared a cat in the garden, which ran across the garden and turned the floodlight on.

ailuro2

The intruder has moved on somewhere else, no point coming back now he's alerted you to his presence.

He knows now you'll make a point of not leaving tools lying around in the garden, and won't leave your car keys or house keys on the side.

Remember though, what you must not do though, is hide the house keys away so they are difficult to reach in case of fire - you need to be able to unlock the door in a hurry in case of emergency.

We keep our keys hanging on a coat rack on the same wall as the door, so anyone using the cat flap would have to double back on themselves to try to fish them off ( have read about fishing rods being used before, to pick keys off of racks via the letterbox.)

If someone wants to break into a house they will do it, mostly they will be looking for an easy quick target though. A bit of forward planning can make your house less of an easy target than the people next door, so hopefully they will move on to the easier target.;)

Things like closing the curtains / blinds when home alone makes me feel a bit more relaxed - DH works a lot of nightshifts so I'm often home with just DD asleep in bed. If I can't see out, then they can't see in to tell if I'm home alone or not.

Also, DD has left her broomstick from hallowe'en in our bedroom and I haven't tidied it away yet - it has lost the broom part of it and it's just the handle left. Strangely enough it looks a bit like an escrima stick I practice with at my martial arts class I'd not keep a knife under my pillow though as that's a close quarter weapon, and it can be used against me very easily too.;)


Hope you're feeling a bit better now, and got a bit better sleep. Only time and feeling like you''ve done something to stop it will make you feel more at ease.

VK-2008

get a house alarm and get the one which means if anyone hits or touches windows it will set them off. i am sure you will be fine xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

morg_monster

We got broken into during the day about 2m after we moved into our new house. We didn't know about it until we came home from work / dinner out abotu 11pm to find dusty footprints on our brand new carpet! They had used a spade from the shed to break the kitchen window and climb through. I won't go into all the ins and outs but what we did was install a yale wire free alarm with door and window alarms and PIRs. As others have said, you know for sure you haven't been broken into , and our alarm calls us on our mobiles too when it goes off so even when you're on holiday you know it hasn't gone off. It did knock me for 6 though and it took us a while to stop feeling really down about it.

I don't think I would use a microchip catflap as a prevention, they are not that hard to force open and I don't think it would necessarily make that much noise. THey are designed to withstand a cat pushing its head or paw against it, not a person's hand or foot. on the subject of cats though, the Yale alarms (and I'm sure most others) do have an option where you get pet friendly PIRs instead of normal ones; we had to replace ours when we got our cats. They work great but you do need to make sure the cats can't get too close to the sensors.

ali-t

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. That violation of my space is one of my worst nightmares and thankfully I have never been broken into but I have my house and garden like fort knox!!

I have an alarm and 2 dogs as the main deterrent but also have carpet gripper round the top of the fence (and a sign indicating it is there) and beware of the dog signs as back up. I used to leave my keys in the door turned right round so they couldn't be knocked out by anyone who happened to have a copy of my key but when I moved to a house with glass panels in the door all keys come upstairs with me. I also have a latch on the bedroom door so if by some miracle someone got past the alarm and the dogs they wouldn't get into my bedroom without me being aware of it.

On reading that back it sounds really excessive but I value a good nights sleep and this helps me to sleep easy.

OP, your local police will have a crime prevention officer who will come out and point out the weak points in your home.