Ugh! House broken into...

[ChrizJen]

Just need to vent...
(sorry, it's long...)

I got a call yesterday morning at work from ADT Security stating that there was an alarm tripped at my house. It was at the back door of the house. I gave the OK to send out the police, but I honestly half expected it to be a false alarm. We had one last year while we were gone for the day, and it turned out that we had accidentally left the back door open just a fraction of an inch (it was closed enough to allow us to arm the alarm system, but open enough that one of our cats nudged it open the rest of the way.)
So I wait for the call back saying that everything is clear and the that officers closed the door behind them when they left.
But when the call came back it was to tell me that someone needed to meet the officers at the house. (Still in my head, I'm wondering why they can't just close the door behind them like they did last time.) I work 45 minutes from home, and if I wasn't absolutely needed there, I really didn't want to have to make the drive. So I was able to get ahold of one of the officers, and they said that the back door had been kicked in and that someone was going to have to meet him there. So I made it home (in about 30 minutes ) and sure enough, the back door was busted in.
Fortunately because we do have an alarm system, all that was taken from the house was our XBox 360 and a game. The police believe that the burglar got scared when he heard the alarm and ran before he had time to take anything else. So they dusted for fingerprints and went on their way.
We had to replace the back door yesterday, and I'd have to say that I don't think it'll be kicked in again anytime soon.
Then this morning we went out to the garage (detatched garage), and we found that that door had been kicked in as well! We're only missing a generator and a mitre saw from the garage. But now we'll have to replace that door as well, and the police had to come out again this morning. We have a $500 deductible on our homeowners, so we probably won't recoup most of what we lost. Ugh! What a headache.

And I'm so tired. The whole ordeal made it very difficult to sleep last night. I swear I literally made 4 or 5 trips total through the house to make sure all of the doors and windows were secure last night before going up to bed. And then every sound I heard scared the mess out of me!! I guess it'll be a while before that feeling of being violated goes away. But we will certainly be more vigilant about securing the house before bed and before leaving home!!

We're just glad that we weren't in the house when it happened!

OK, vent over. Thanks for reading!

 

[*BTMRR*]

I'm glad your family was safe, but I'm sorry this happened to you. It makes me SO angry.

 

[laracroft]

How awful, so glad your family is ok, but I understand the fear there now.

 

[rodeo65]

So sorry this happened to you.

I understand that violated feeling. When we got our van it had a DVD player mounted. Within the first two months, someone broke in and stole the player. It was just a horrible feeling. That made clearing the garage number one priority since it happened in our driveway while we were asleep. It took weeks before either my husband or I felt "normal" again.

 

[tvguy]

Sorry to hear this. I just replaced my 27 year old burglar alarm, so sat through all the sales pitches from ADT and Broadview. Broadview was kind of interesting because they have purchased ADT, and will start calling themselves ADT.....but they are still talking up their advantages over ADT!

I think your situation brings up a good point. I am amazed you got the police to come out and check the house. Here in Sacramento County, a burglar alarm on an unoccupied residents is a priority zero call. They will respond if it is an occupied house, and they will respond if a neighbor calls in a noise complaint about the alarm sounding, but a call from an alarm company on an unoccupied house goes to the bottom of the list.
All the alarm sales guys talk about how important their central monitoring is. It really isn't, at least here, the siren is what's important. I'm surprised your intruders stayed around long enough to take anything with the siren sounding. Do you have an external siren too?

 

[Micca]

Sorry to hear abou this. Hope you're feeling safe & secure and get everything replaced soon.

 

[daisyduck123]

So sorry that happened to you. Thank goodness for your security system or they would've made away with much more.

I love our Broadview (formally Brinks) system. We've had it for over 18 years. The police have been at our house in about 5 minutes of it going off (cats set it off accidentally once). Definitely worth every penny!!

 

[minniebeth]

I'm really sorry this happened to you, twice, makes it even worse.
I'm glad that no one was home and that everyone is safe. It does stink that you lose, even with the deductible. I hope that you can return to a peace of mind soon.

It seems like house break-ins are on the rise, they are around here. Just 2 weeks ago, our house alarm went off in the middle of the night, there was no sign of forced entry when the police checked, but it could have been just enough to set the alarm off and scare someone away. The police said there was no other known activity in the area, so don't worry too much, just remain vigilant. Then one week later, there were several actual break-ins in our neighborhood. It's just so unsettling~

 

[LuvOrlando]

Oh my goodness, thank goodness it happened when you weren't home. Are you OK? Every now and then I get to thinking if ADT wasn't a waste of money considering our sleepy neighborhood but them I hear something like this and I am so grateful we have ADT.

Weird the person had time to get the 360 and came back for the stuff in the garage. Seems to me whoever it was knew what they wanted. Can I ask, do you leave your window blinds open at night? Are these possessions easily visible from a window? I'm just wondering when the house was cased or if it was someone whose been in your home. My in-laws were robbed years ago and all it took was the 10 minutes it took my MIL to get my young sister in law from school down the block. She suspects she was robbed by workmen she had in the house during recent renovations. Unfortunately, they had so much work done that they couldn't pinpoint who might have been involved. The worst part was they got her engagement ring

Can I also ask what kind of system you use? Did the kick in disturb the glass or do you have a motion detector or glass break?

I've been considering adding some kind of motion detector to the garage, more because I don't want to be surprised than because there is anything valuable in there. Truthfully, I couldn't care less about the stuff we own, it's the people I don't want traumatized, myself included.

 

[Jewel1310]

So sorry Chriz. I had something similar happen 3 weeks ago. Just stole my TV and my very full change jar (half full 5 gallon water bottle - not sure how they lifted it)

It is frustrating and I am sorry you have to deal with it. I am so glad that they didn't get anything else and that no one was home. I hope the police find the person. Hang in there!

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Sorry, that stinks!

 

[C.Ann]

I'm sorry.. It's a horrible feeling, isn't it?

Many, many years ago, my place here at the lake was broken into in late March.. Not only did they steal some antiques I had and such, but they vandalized the place (holes made in the walls with a hammer; etc.) - and this is the worst part - they had actually stayed here for probably 5 days or so.. (Food containers around; garbage; toilet "full"; beds that had obviously been slept in; etc..)

I can't even begin to tell you what I felt like - but I guess "violated" would be the best word.. Not "scared" - violated.. I spent a solid week disinfecting and scrubbing everything from floor to ceiling.. Just the thought that anyone used or touched our things made my skin crawl..

A persons home is sacred - their "safe haven" - and my heart really goes out to anyone who has had their home burglarized.. Don't be surprised if it takes you some time until you feel totally secure again..

 

[JoiseyMom]

Sorry this happened to you. I would look at Craigslist in your area or ebay and see if you can find your stolen items for sale!

 

[a1tinkfans]

SO sorry to hear this....my SIL was broken into....they literally used a "van" out front of her home and walked out the front door with her huge flat screen....they took her jewelry and other things as well..............she was so much calmer than if it were me....that weekend she had the home fully alarmed. They left the front door open and the dog stayed inside, its one of those tiny dogs, thankfully she did not run away or get hurt...the Police said that there had been a string of break ins and that most were thought to help full drug addicted people....none of her things were recovered but there was a local arrest...so far they can not confirm if it was the same brazen person.............VERY scary to me! I am so glad that your Family is okay, things are things, despite how precious many things are..

 

[ugadog99]

sorry...I posted on the wrong thread.

OP: I'm sorry about your house.

 

[airhead]

I'm having a lot of work done on my house right now. There's a lot of strangers around. I do not like people I don't know in my house when I'm not here,so I stay home!
There was a terrible crime(I think it happened in 2007,just getting to court now)where 2 men broke into a home,beat the husband/father severely and tied him up in the basement while the 2 scumbags raped and beat his wife and daughters. The husband (near death) managed to escape the house but by the time police got into the house the 2 men had set the house on fire and they died. The 2 were caught and are on trial now. The connection of the 2 men and this family? An Electrical contractor that had done work in this house. Its never a good idea to allow strangers to have access to your home when you're not there. Never.

 

[minniebeth]

I'm having a lot of work done on my house right now. There's a lot of strangers around. I do not like people I don't know in my house when I'm not here,so I stay home!
There was a terrible crime(I think it happened in 2007,just getting to court now)where 2 men broke into a home,beat the husband/father severely and tied him up in the basement while the 2 scumbags raped and beat his wife and daughters. The husband (near death) managed to escape the house but by the time police got into the house the 2 men had set the house on fire and they died. The 2 were caught and are on trial now. The connection of the 2 men and this family? An Electrical contractor that had done work in this house. Its never a good idea to allow strangers to have access to your home when you're not there. Never.

This horrible crime happened in my aunt's neighborhood, one street over. It is just such a tragic story.

Just a reminder for all to be vigilant, aware, safe.

 

[airhead]

This horrible crime happened in my aunt's neighborhood, one street over. It is just such a tragic story.

Just a reminder for all to be vigilant, aware, safe.

I'm sure your Aunt's neighborhood will never be the same. When stuff like this happens,you feel so vulnerable. It totally shakes your security.

 

[ChrizJen]

So we had to have the police come out for the third day in a row.
When the garage door was kicked in the first time, only the bottom lock was engaged, so the deadbolt was still functional. That's how we locked the garage up last night. Well, they came back and kicked that in last night. We were going to have the whole lockset/door jamb replaced anyway, but we had decided that for now the deadbolt would at least suffice until we did that. But obviously we were wrong.
The most terrifying thing is that they didn't take anything this time. They just busted the door in again.
It's almost as if they were just trying to let us know that they're still out there. If I wasn't scared before, I'm terrified now.
As for this being someone we know or who's been in our house, I can't think of anyone who's been in our home recently.

And for the previous questions, we have made the mistake before of leaving the blinds open in the living room, both at night and during the day when we're out. (we won't be doing this any more!) So someone could have seen in at one time and knew what they were looking for. The odd thing is that Monday when this happened, the blinds were actually closed in the front of the house. So the setup for a back door break-in was technically perfect. They came in the back where they were not likely to be seen by neighbors, and they did their "work" in privacy.
We certainly consider ourselves extremely lucky in the sense that we were all out of the house when the initial break-in happened. We don't really care about our possessions either, but we were even luck in that sense. We have few material possessions to replace. There were SO many more things they could have taken (computers, flat screen TV, sound system, Blu-Ray player..) The alarm definitely made it so they had to decide very quickly what they wanted to take. But I hate that we now feel unsafe in our own home. And that feeling was intensified this morning when we came out to find the "message" that they left us by kicking the garage door in again.

Again, I cannot stress enough how GLAD I am that we have our security system in place! As for the questions regarding the alarm system: We dropped our land phone line, so our monitoring is through the internet (I'll openly admit that I have no idea how it works...LOL). We have a combination of sensors throughout the house (door/window contact sensors, glass break detectors, etc.) The one that was tripped on the initial break-in was the contact sensor on the door itself. I was notified later from ADT that there were 2 other sensors in the house that were activated after the initial alarm from the door.

And for the person who mentioned that you sometimes question whether it's worth it to pay for the alarm service...I've actually questioned that myself in the past. We do live in an urban area, but ours is a relatively quiet neighborhood. We've never had anything like this in that I've known of since we've lived here. I now know that it is most certainly worth every penny and more!!

The officer who came out today was the same one who was out yesterday. He said that he's going to try and expedite the whole investigation so that we can maybe keep this from happening again. That's somewhat reassuring, but until (if) they find the person(s), we're still going to be on edge. Short of sitting in a patio chair all night with a baseball bat/crowbar waiting for them to come back, I don't know how to deal with it.

*SIGH* I have a headache...LOL

 

[samshane]

So sorry about what happened... my sister went through a similar incident a few months back. The actually caught the people a couple weeks after it happened thanks to a vigilant polics officer who drove by a house and noticed something wasn't quite right. They were able to recover my BIL's laptop but not my sisters.

My sister got a big dog and is now getting an alarm system.

It disgusts me that people think they can do this - I hope they catch whoever did it. Because I know they will do it again - even if it isn't to you, they'll always ben another victim.