Came home from a night out to find the back door smashed to pieces. Wierdly they only took my gf’s laptop, a new upgrade phone I was selling on ebay, and two ice axes!

My macbook was sat on the kitchen table right next to where they broke in, and they left it. Plus my Pitch and my Planet X Superlight that were in the next room were left. They also took the phone, and right next to it was a canon ixus camera which they left. Also left a pot which had about £200 in cash in it, right next to where the laptop was taken from.Very weird.

Bit scary to think these feckers have been in the house, and are now wandering around with ice axes. Thank god that presumably they were smackheads and not professional burglers, and they didn’t clear us out.

The worst thing is that I have always been quite relaxed about crime etc round here, and now I am gonna be a bit paranoid. Hope they don’t come back. 🙁

shit, sorry to hear that, all very strange, If that happened to me I’d probably be building a portcullis about now!

lucky they didn’t take the bikes!!

but there are easier ways of reading your partners email you know? 😉

That’s what’s freaking me out a bit though really – it doesn’t seem to make much sense, which is making me come up with all sorts of raving nut job conspiracy theories.

The police man just said that they were probably fairly stupid, and nervous as hell, so don’t behave rationally.

p.s. Obviously I don’t allow my gf to have her own email account anyway. 😉

🙁

Hi Bud, sorry to hear you’ve had your home broken into, the little flockers!

We’ve been fitting a few of these; Klaxon P-Series Inferno….. It’s 120-ish dB’s of pulsating White noise, a really uncomfortable sound indeed!! We demo them with a set ofear defenders!

A quick google shows them for approx £250, expensive I know, but a lot better than a siren on the wall.

Jt

Bad luck

Sounds like they got scared/disturbed & ran. I’d assume they’ll return if I were you

try hanging up some voodoo dolls and a sign saying “I’ve a bigger axe for you when you come back” 😀

Sorry to hear your news. 🙁

Obviously I don’t allow my gf to have her own email account anyway.

Sure it wasn’t your gf breaking out? 😀

yeah have to aggree that they may well come back as they know what you have now. Sorry to hear that thieving feckers!

Thanks folks – don’t think I want to go down the alarm/siren route really. Tis a shame booby trapping isn’t allowed though. Still got one ice axe and a baseball bat here if they do come back 😈

Very sorry reading hope you have a bit of insurance, remeber if you claim your premium will go up over the long term so if you can afford to swallow it sometimes it is not worth claimingm what would worry me most is these lowlifes are on the loose with 2 axes (watches back will typing this) keep smiling 😳

They may be stupid or got scarred off and now they know whats available may be back sadly,or theyll pass the info to their mates, what area of the country are you in.

I’m in Lancaster – do you want my address? No back door at the moment so you can walk right in. 😛

Can’t really afford to swallow the cost of the stuff – no point having insurance if you don’t claim when you get robbed surely.

It is weird and slightly worrying that they took the ice axes though – strangely they took the two better mountaineering axes and left the walking axe. Can’t have known what they were looking for though surely as there was loads of other expensive climbing gear they didn’t take, eg titanium ice screws lying on the kitchen table.

Baskets!

Get an alarm-they always come back snooping.

I’d have left the macbook, too 😆

They are very likely to come back either soon or in a few months (they’ll add your house to their rounds as a soft target), so worth making it extra secure.

I’d put money on them coming back to get more (they would have seen everything else). I’d take a couple of days off looking into/and fitting reinforced rear door etc. All the best.

Grumm , was trying to be helpful, and i definately dont want your address published on a open web site, sorry for your loses tough.

No worries, was only joking. Cheers everyone. Still waiting for the police CSI people to come round – only 8 hours later then they said they would be here…

Grumm I don’t think you need to be worried about them coming back, it’s very rare for people like that to come back again. They may come back and look through the window and see if anything easy adn worth taking (so move it all upstairs) if they can’t see anything they probably will not go to the effort of breaking in. Also if they are “junkie scum” Then it’s unlikely they will return, professionals would have cleaned you out there and then. The “junkie scum’s” handler probably wants small easy items then get sell on easily and obviously rather than push bikes where they are obvious and harder to get rid of.

The MO for getting into your property is quite rare, is you say “smashed” as I imagine it to be it would have made a lot of noise! Think they were chancer druggies who had been garden hoping and saw something obvious!

Sorry to hear about it though, it’s always nasty when you know someone else has been in your house. Hopefully SOCO/CSI will get a fingerprint to nail the feckers!!

I’m afraid there is a high chance they will return, figures for repeat victimisation show about 35% increased chance but this is for 2 reasons firstly as has been said before they no where you are and what you’ve got,nothing you can do about that except move. the second reason is why your house was targeted in the first place , concealed enterances, easy access, good escape routes etc . when the police come round ask for a vist from the crime prevention officer to inspect your property and see what options you can come up with to make your house less of a target. cut down hedges, fences etc , install security lights , alarm can be just a fake box . the idea is to increase the risks to the offender and make it harder for them to benefit from the crime . If they come back and your house looks like for knox they aint gonna bother. A fookin big dog also works 🙂

“Macbook. So shonky even crims don’t want them!”

😉

Sorry to hear you were broken into, its not nice when it happens. As others have said, it sounds as though you or someone else might have disturbed them in the act.

It is quite strange they took a couple of ice axes though. Perhaps its actually someone you know who doesn’t like you, they’ve been watching CSI a bit to much, are going to kill someone with your ice axes and leave them as evidence to frame you. Perhaps the rest was taken as cover.

Perhaps I’ve been watching too much CSI actually with a theory like that.

Hope you get it all squared away soon and the insurance aren’t too much of a pain.

Grumm, once again sorry about your news. Didn’t realise you were a “neighbour”! I am in the local retail computer trade and am always being offered dubious ‘bargains’. PM me the details of the stolen laptop and I will keep an eye open.

trnspntn AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk

I disturbed burglars once and they had to drop their booty and run. What was quite bizarre was unpacking the bag they’d loaded you could see the order they had taken stuff – at the bottom of the bag, and therefore first on their list, was beer from the fridge.

At all seems weird, but burglars are usually opportunist, they won’t have planned to burgle your house, they might not have even planned to burgle any houses at all, but if they spot an opportunity they can’t help themselves. Also, once they are in your house they are quite literally sh***ing themselves. They are panicked and theres not really any reasoning going on when they are choosing what to take. Also just because something like a bike is expensive doesn’t mean its desirable to steal. People only steal things they personally can sell easily. Which is why the holdall left in my house was full of lager, spirits and CDs, while cameras and the like had been left.

you get a real adrenilen rush when you catch them doing it

It was the FBI after the wife’s laptop, just making it look like druggies!! just kidding, luckily they didn’t take much more but get the place secure.

Do you have buildings or contents insurance? sorry if misread.

Get a dog.

Mogrips, they left the Mac ‘cos they’re just as dumb as you obviously are. Back on topic, I also wouldn’t be at all surprised if they come back, now they know there’s other stuff to be had, plus you’ll be replacing stuff they knew they could get rid of, and they may have taken the axes to make it easier to smash into places.

Sorry to hear that Grumm, pro burglers usually wait 2 months – thats so you have time to replace all the stuff they nicked so they can nick it again. Luckly doesn’t sound like they were pros. Can’t belive the anti mac sentiment either, ignorance is bliss amongst the “i’m a computer” crowd though.

Can’t belive the anti mac sentiment either, ignorance is bliss amongst the “i’m a computer” crowd though.

I’ve used MAC’s many times and I’d have left the thing too. Trying too hard to be different rather than trying to be better is how I’d sum them up.

Bad luck chap. Try not to get too paranoid, it spoils your life mcuh more than the stuff that actually happens.

I had a break-in a couple of years ago. Came in through a window, looked around, were amazed at how little there was to steal, and left. Nothing taken I don’t think. Depressing to think how much more expensive and portable stuff I’ve accumulated since then…

Didn’t realise this thread was still going for some reason – thanks again.

I suspect they were just opportunists and possibly drunk/high – if they knew what they were doing they would surely have cleared us out. That sounds like a good tip on getting the crime prevention officer to come and have a look.

BTW think my gf might get a MAC to replace her PC laptop if they let her, as she has used mine and seen how superior they are!