My house was broken into...

[Chilling in VT]

Our house was broken into today. They went through everything. They dumped the contents of every drawer onto the floor. They tossed furniture around. They stole every bit of my wife's jewelery. They stole about $2500 of "car improvement money" and my DE fund. The police have few leads, the neighbors had a couple of kids knock on the door and ask for someone. One person at the door and one waiting in the car. I think they were just checking to see if they were home. The neighbor on the other side has tracks all around his house.. He was not broken into. They didn't take anything else that we can think of, credit cards, electronics are all still here. They never went down to the barn with my 911, my brothers 914, my 3 BMW's, my Triumph or bike.

So, the big question is, has anyone else gone through this? What can I expect? I guess I can say we are lucky, our cat was not harmed, we are safe, and the really important stuff like pictures and keepsakes are still here. I can't tell you how angry I am. Sorry for venting.
Joe

[89911]

High School kid looking for easy things to sell or drug money. I guarantee it. Do you have an alarm? Most likely would of scared them away.

[Zef]

Ready for an alarm system...
http://www.dragon-anti-intrusion.com/eng/index.php?page=aut

[jhc]

I was broken into years ago, I live less than half mile from the police station. My wife and kids came home on a Sunday after church to find a guy backed up to my garage helping himself to all the tools. The police came right away and we gave a description of the guy and his vehicle plus license plate. Nothing came of it (as far the police) and the insurance wanted receipts for everything.

[wcc]

My Grandma's house was broke into like that. Farm house way out in the country. After she retired she bought a place in FL and they did it when she was out of town. So they basically took EVERYTHING! I mean just about everything cause they had lots of time.

They ended up catching the group of people, it turns out some of the summer help didn't go back South when the season was over. They did it and they found some of her stuff in TX, FL, & GA. But she never got much back.

On a side note, around here have been a string of knock and if no one is home they smash a window and grab what then can. They caught most of the HS kids involved, but they are still looking as far as I know.

We have ADT. Probably not the best, but better then nothing I guess.

Sorry to hear about your situation. Really sucks!

[johnco]

makes you feel violated huh? 11 times for me I think. lets just say the 3-4 times I caught the person/persons reponsible... I'm sure they will remember that day forever. funny how I've never seen these same people ever again around town. one guy that broke into my mother's house saw me drive up at his apt, jumped out a second story window, swam across the river and later called my mother asking her to please call me off. I must have a reputation for getting a little crazy sometimes. undeserved reputation I might add. can't stand a thief. they all should be shot on sight

[Joeaksa]

Joe,

Had the same thing happen years ago and it stinks. They did like your situation, going through everything and took only the things that they wanted or could sell quickly. Police never caught anyone and I never got anything back.

I have ADT at the house now, with motion detectors everywhere, and alarms on the doors and windows. Motion sensor lights outside, you cannot get within 20 feet of the house at night without someone knowing about it.

One of our neighbours was broken into six months ago. No alarm and no one at home, it happened in the afternoon. Next door neighbour had their van rifled through one weekend, then the next weekend the stereo was stolen from my Honda in the drive. Next weekend up went motion sensor lights in the driveway that go all the way out to the middle of the street. Funny how no one has touched my car since??

As well the best protection (aside from a big dog and thats not an option for me now) is a active neighbourhood. When the neighbours keep an eye out thats almost as good as an alarm system but I like having both.

[widgeon13]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune, you have a right to be angry. I can't say that I would expect that kind of thing to happen where you live (VT). If it's anything like northern NY, many folks go away in Mar - Apr for mud season so pickin's are good. Hope they find the idiots and you can retrieve things. As you mentioned family is safe, that's fortunate.

[targa911S]

Originally posted by johnco
makes you feel violated huh? 11 times for me I think. lets just say the 3-4 times I caught the person/persons reponsible... I'm sure they will remember that day forever. funny how I've never seen these same people ever again around town. one guy that broke into my mother's house saw me drive up at his apt, jumped out a second story window, swam across the river and later called my mother asking her to please call me off. I must have a reputation for getting a little crazy sometimes. undeserved reputation I might add. can't stand a thief. they all should be shot on sight

the hell with the dogs, I'm posting a picture of you on my doors and windows!~

[Noah930]

Sorry to hear of your burglary. I've never had anything serious ($$) stolen, let alone my residence broken into. But I'd guess the feeling of violation must be pretty infuriating.

I grew up in L.A., so we always had an alarm system at home. My wife grew up here on Cape Cod, and hardly even locked her doors except for vacation. But I'm leaning towards Joe's idea of home security; and screw ADT--I'm going with a "Protected by johnco" sign for the front yard.

[berettafan]

happened to us several years ago. came home for lunch and found the front door splintered. i did the stupid thing and went in the house, grabbed a large knife and made my way to my gun. i was so angry that i wasn't thinking clearly.

we had renters insurance and they paid up with very little problem.

[RickM]

Too bad you didn't have this system. Would love to see you catch the bastards.

[pwd72s]

One thing for sure...they don't like staying in a house long when a "whoop-whoop" alarm siren is sounding. But I DO like Johnco's thoughts as well. Decades ago, my store was burglarized. He took his sweet time peeling it's crackerbox safe. He stole only a few hundred bucks. But I later found out who did it. At the time I had a 35mm SLR, a 200 mm tele lens, and a darkroom. I just took a few frames of this a-hole scumbucket as he went around town. I made an 8X10 glossy of the best full face shot I had. I took it to the gun club range, placed a nice 3 shot 3/4" group in the middle of the forehead at 100 yards with my varmint rifle. Then, I mailed this guy his portrait. He left town...

[Dottore]

Happened twice to us.

Here's what I've learned.

1. Light is the one thing these guys don't like. Install motion detectors with floodlights in places high enough that they cannot be reached.

2. Get serious steel doors in steel frames. The frames are important. A steel door in a wood frame is useless.

3. ADT is useless. If someone cuts your telephone line your alarm is useless. If you have a cellular backup, and someone gets to your main panel your alarm is useless. In any case the bad guys will get all they really want in less time than it takes for anyone to get there.

4. Surveillance cameras? These guys are all wearing hoodies etc - and even if you could recognize them it really doesn't help you to know what the perps look like. It is probably more frustrating than anything else.

5. If you have serious valuables and they're small - keep them at the bank. If they're big consider putting a secure room in your house.

6. Gates and a big spikey fence are a deterrent. These guys generally choose houses from which they can make a hasty exit with the loot. The harder it is for them to leave quickly the better.

[Chilling in VT]

Thanks guys. I am trying to figure out how to get Johnco up here. But seriously, this happened in broad daylight. I left for work early at about 5:30 am and my wife at 8:30. We were planning on leaving on vacation yesterday afternoon so I left work early at 2pm. So sometime in that 5 hour span.

We have picked up all of the big pieces, tried to figure out what was taken, and generally tried to get on with things. We are leaving this morning for vacation, it will probably be cut short to get back and try to settle things.

You really have a sense of violation when something like this happens. The car fund money is my side of the loss. My wife lost most of her jewelery. It's not really the money aspect that is affecting her. The sentimental thoughts behind the jewelery is the bigger loss. How do you replace the stuff given on anniverseries and birthday's? That's the stuff we are dealing with.

Joe

[on-ramp]

that sucks. it happened to our family a long time ago and I know those feelings of being violated. it's almost unreal when you get home and find the place trashed. it doesnt look like the same place you left earlier that day.
thankfully nobody was hurt, that's the most important. material things can always be replaced.

[Super_Dave_D]

I would suspect that most now have battery back up like mine does - even without power it screams! I understand about the phone but who is going to stick around with that noise?

When I was 16 or 17 we had a break in and there was atleast 3 people in our house late at night. My dad woke up to find one of them in their bedroom!!! They had all of the lights on and doors open. They were stealing the furniture also - they even were going to take the kitchen table (the chairs were already outside)!!! Talk about being violated!!

Always a alarm for me now - hell even a sign saying you have one is enough deterrent.

Originally posted by Dottore
Happened twice to us.

3. ADT is useless. If someone cuts your telephone line your alarm is useless. If you have a cellular backup, and someone gets to your main panel your alarm is useless. In any case the bad guys will get all they really want in less time than it takes for anyone to get there.

[Eric-325I]

Get a dog... I have also heard of motion detector lights hooked up to an alarm system that barks like a huge dog when tripped... Sorry to hear about your trouble.

Eric