I'm pissed.........

This is just a quick vent before I goto bed, but someone broke into my house today. My wife called while I was on the way home and asked me why I left the back door open. I told her to get back in the car and wait for me. We called the police and 15min later they were checking the house out. They didn't take much( work laptop, some of her jewelery, etc... ), but they took our camcorder, It still had the tape in it from vacation this fall and Christmas. So not only are we out that stuff but they will be able to look at our family and friends. That bothers me. Apparently, they kicked the back door in and were smart enough to wear gloves. Thank you CSI. It seems that they didn't have alot of time in the house 'cause all of the big ticket items are still here. I think it helped that we've had decent rain lately; cause they got their car stuck pretty good in our yard and didn't have much leisure time here. Thankfully, the house doesn't feel violated if you know what I mean. I'm just real glad that one of us didn't come home and catch them still here. It happened to my Stepfather a few years ago, and he couldn't get to his gun b/4 they got away. Fortunately, no one got hurt there either. Bottom line, I'm happy that my wife is safe and that it wasn't worse.

Moral is: Everybody be careful and watch yourselves out there. There are alot of desparate people out there.

In reply to mrwillie: Sorry to hear about it. Glad everyone is safe.

My roommates and I were the victims of burglary too about five years ago. Broke in thru a sliding glass door on the deck. Unfortunately, they cleaned us out, and trashed the place. I happened to be TDY at the time, so none of my stuff made it onthe police report, and then I had a hard time filing a claim with my insurance company.

Glad to say though that justice was served. The little bastard literally lived across the street from me. His mom was a correction's officer of all things. The only way they linked it to us was the fact that he used my roommates stolen pistol in a robbery.

The judge was an ass too. Gave my buddy a lecture in the courtroom about responsible gun ownership, talking about little kids, and gun safety - sorry your honor, I thought I was being responsible by having my property locked up in my house. That pistol ( a Glock) as well as a Kimber, and a Sig are still locked up in some evidence locker inthe great state of Maryland.

It still pisses me off to think about it. good luck with the police adn with your insurance company, and you're right, it could have been a lot worse.

-Thor

A word of caution...Be sure to secure your home as best you can. They may come a second time to get the big ticket items. Don't mean to alarm you, but a friend of mine years ago had this happen to him. The second trip they brought a Uhaul truck.

Sorry to hear about this. I had something similar happen many years ago, they simply kicked the front door in and stole 2 VCRs and a TV set. There was a tennis shoe print right next to the deadbolt lock, the guy simply ran down the walk and hit the door with his foot.

One thing I learned from that: those small brass striker plates which come with most locksets are useless because they attach only to the door frame which has all the structural strength of tissue paper. Get the big heavy duty ones which take those super long screws that go through the door frame and into the wall studs. Like this:

No, it's not perfect and it's a PITA to install but it's better than the little dinky ones.

That makes me glad that I have a 75 pound black lab/pit bull mix with a head the size of a bowling ball that barks and snarls at EVERYONE (except me and my girlfriend) that walks into the door, unless I'm right there. She's the biggest baby in the world, but she sure puts on a good show, and scares the E36 M3 out of people. It gets kind of annoying, but stories like this make me thankful.

Wow. Sorry hear about that. It makes me every mad when I work for something I really want, and some-one else thinks they can have mine just becouse they think they need right then.

spitfirebill wrote: A word of caution...Be sure to secure your home as best you can. They may come a second time to get the big ticket items. Don't mean to alarm you, but a friend of mine years ago had this happen to him. The second trip they brought a Uhaul truck.

true.

here's an idea: go to the nearest firing range, and get some well-used silhouette targets, preferably some with .44 holes at center of mass. put one of these targets on each door of the house, and on each first-floor window if you can get that many. i bet if you bought a box of ammo, one of the range guys would be happy to use it to make targets just for you.

16vCorey wrote: That makes me glad that I have a 75 pound black lab/pit bull mix with a head the size of a bowling ball that barks and snarls at EVERYONE (except me and my girlfriend) that walks into the door, unless I'm right there. She's the biggest baby in the world, but she sure puts on a good show, and scares the E36 M3 out of people. It gets kind of annoying, but stories like this make me thankful.

 I agree

A big angry sounding dog is the best alarm system you can have.

A lot of sheds and open garages have been getting hit in my area lately, even when people are home. It's usually found to be addicts who are looking for any kind of power equipment that they can carry off and pawn for drug money.

Here's another tip: Don't leave a garage door opener in a vehicle parked outside. It's like leaving a key to the house out for anyone willing to smash the car window.

another tip - and i know people do this all the time because customers and friends give me their garage door codes to get into their houses - DO NOT MAKE YOUR GARAGE DOOR CODE YOUR ADDRESS!

my buddy lives at 4854 xxxx road, his garage door code is 4854 and he leaves the door between garage and house unlocked. not to mention the 3 craftsman rolling too chests there right inside the garage door.

During the ice storm here last month some towns were without power for 12 days...A guy one town over had a nice big generator running 24 /7 one night he wakes up and feels cold. So he puts on his slippers goes down stairs and he can hear it running so he goes to the fridgerator and opens the door HUM....no light. WTF so he goes out side to check the generator and fines his ride on mower running next to the lock and chain that were on the generator. The bastards started the mower shut off the generato and cut the chain.

44

Some time back there was an article series in the local scndal rag about break ins: the vast majority of home burglaries happen in the early afternoon (1:30- 3:30). The perps are much less likely to be seen by a neighbor or to run into someone at home during that time. It seems that barky dogs and those alarm company signs and window stickers are a pretty good deterrent but don't waste your money on the fake signs/stickers, the crooks know what they look like.

OTOH, your car is most likely to be hit in the wee hours of the morning or in a parking garage.

16vCorey wrote: That makes me glad that I have a 75 pound black lab/pit bull mix with a head the size of a bowling ball that barks and snarls at EVERYONE (except me and my girlfriend) that walks into the door, unless I'm right there. She's the biggest baby in the world, but she sure puts on a good show, and scares the E36 M3 out of people. It gets kind of annoying, but stories like this make me thankful.

Being in dog rescue and having at least six, if not more Siberian Huskies walking around the place at all times does have its advantages. Burglars who don't know any better think I have some kind of wolf sanctuary in my backyard and move on to venues that involve fewer large canine teeth.

Another trick: Move to north georgia.

Seriously, sorry about your house dude. I really hope I never have to experience that. And +1 on keeping an eye out for round 2. It happened to my brother, and our friend who just moved back from Denver (part of the reason she came back!)

Thanks for all of the words of advice and support. The ins lady just left and seemed pretty reasonable, so we'll see how that goes. I've got furniture in front of the broken door for now and should have the new one installed next week. I'm gonna finish boarding up the windows in a few minutes. Outside of that, the alarm people will be out in a day or so. Not much else we can do right now. I do need to get another dog, though. Mine died a few years ago. I've been putting off getting one. Now is a good time though. Does anyone have a security company that they recommend in the Raleigh-area? The Ins Lady says she's gotten 6 calls in a 24hr period, where she used to only get maybe 25 in month. I def. don't want a repeat visit.

16vCorey wrote: That makes me glad that I have a 75 pound black lab/pit bull mix with a head the size of a bowling ball that barks and snarls at EVERYONE (except me and my girlfriend) that walks into the door, unless I'm right there. She's the biggest baby in the world, but she sure puts on a good show, and scares the E36 M3 out of people. It gets kind of annoying, but stories like this make me thankful.

Agreed. We went with the 154 pound version instead.

mrwillie wrote: Thanks for all of the words of advice and support. The ins lady just left and seemed pretty reasonable, so we'll see how that goes. I've got furniture in front of the broken door for now and should have the new one installed next week. I'm gonna finish boarding up the windows in a few minutes. Outside of that, the alarm people will be out in a day or so. Not much else we can do right now. I do need to get another dog, though. Mine died a few years ago. I've been putting off getting one. Now is a good time though. Does anyone have a security company that they recommend in the Raleigh-area? The Ins Lady says she's gotten 6 calls in a 24hr period, where she used to only get maybe 25 in month. I def. don't want a repeat visit.

You might want to try your local animal shelter to find another dog. You might save one from getting put to sleep and a big dog does keep burglars away, even if they are not mean.

In reply to dyintorace:

I think your dog is part horse . Gorgeous animal, though.

Thanks! His name is Tahoe. We rescued him after finding a listing on CL.

Something must be going around. Some crack heads have been kicking in back doors on my street since November. My house is the only one they didn't get in cause I have metal door frames with solid wood doors and dead bolts. Even worse they tried to kick down the door while my big black labrador was in the basement, probably barking his head off. I ended up putting in an alarm as well as covering all the ground level basement windows with plexiglass. I also padlocked my fence gate. Sucks, but my guess is with the economy the way it is things like this will happen more.

And moving to North Georgia won't help, my friends in Auburn have had break-ins in their neighborhood too. If it isn't the crack heads, it's the meth heads.

In my neighborhood there are a lot of immigrants from old Eastern block European countries. They aren't as likely to call the police, but they sure as hell don't think twice about shooting. My neighbor two doors down shot at some people breaking in his shed. Don't mess with the old Bosnian guy who watched his home town burn.

Sometimes the baddies get caught but get away with things big time anyway. A buddy had a 1994 CR500R stolen out of an enclosed trailer in his back yard, the lock was cut. Through word of mouth he discovered that it was a couple of kids who lived a few miles away. He got word to them that he knew they had his bike, if he got his bike back then he wouldn't turn them over to the cops. So he met one of them to get the bike, the kid smarted off and my bud popped him one in the mouth. Not the best judgement to be sure but sorta understandable.

Next thing he knew, he got a call from the kid's dad who just happened to be a Charleston city cop. The gist of the conversation: if my bud tried to press charges for theft of the bike, the dad would press charges for assault.

So my bud called the chief of police and set up a meeting between the three of them (my bud, the chief and the dad). The dad said yes he made the phone call but he was speaking as a father not as a police officer (even though he identified himself as a cop at the beginning of the conversation).

I have wondered more than once which prison the kid is living in now.

AngryCorvair wrote:

spitfirebill wrote: A word of caution...Be sure to secure your home as best you can. They may come a second time to get the big ticket items. Don't mean to alarm you, but a friend of mine years ago had this happen to him. The second trip they brought a Uhaul truck.

true. here's an idea: go to the nearest firing range, and get some well-used silhouette targets, preferably some with .44 holes at center of mass. put one of these targets on each door of the house, and on each first-floor window if you can get that many. i bet if you bought a box of ammo, one of the range guys would be happy to use it to make targets just for you.

LOL I used to do just that Back in the early '70s ,living in Euclid Oh hiya Taped 'em to the outside of my roller, window shades ( the ones with the best center groups )

I've been in the security business for 40 years. One of my first alarm customers was a pharmacy in a somewhat rough part of town. The druggist had a .30 cal carbine on the back counter and 3 shot up targets taped to the wall. Never had a hold up after that!

Also- +987 on the fear that they will come back. Especially on a commercial hit. They wait for you to replace all the old crap you lost, then come back to get the brand new replacement stuff. I've seen this happen MANY times.

Jensenman wrote: OTOH, your car is most likely to be hit in the wee hours of the morning or in a parking garage.

I've been leaving it open, parked in the darkest spots I can find near the projects. Are there any other incentives you can think of?