J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Have got a bit concerned following the thread the other week about the break in and a little while back I heard a door shut upstairs, now it isnt our resident "presence" as he/it doesnt interact with the surroundings, I shat myself and went for a look which I hate, totally unarmed and unprepared, its pretty windy (like me) but I suspect it was just the wind popping the latch on our bedroom door.

So, this happens occasionally, a noise, usually with a perfectly reasonable explanation but requiring investigation, what do you lot do in this circumstance, taking dogs out of the equationm how do you deal with it ?

I have now got a rather nice 200 lumen Led Lenser torch that I am keeping with Fiat 500 driveshaft, left over form when we had the 500, we reaplaced them with stronger 22 mm driveshafts so these are 18 MM diameter steel, about 45 cm long with a T shaped bit one end, it has a nice weight to it and not being too long it is easy to swing in a confined space, could inflict enough damage to make someone think twice and gives a bit longer reach to keep someone at a distance. So, torch with lanyard round wrist in left hand and tickling stick in the right hand.

I think realistically I will never use it except to make me feel more confident if I hear something, am I being paranoid or is it a valid thing to do, our area isnt dodgy but if some ****** breaks in I would rather be armed in some way, even if I leave them to it and call the Police and stay in the bedroom.

The scariest one was a neighbours cat that had got in one summer and we hadnt realised, it set the alarm of and went into a panic, it shot out when I opened the door and was going mental charging about, was ok when I realised what it was but until then, not much fun, couldnt sleep after that.

Matteeboy

Don't arm yourself unless very confident. It's too easy to take the weapon and use it on you.

Dogs are quite useful....

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, did think that but would rather have something, am fairly confident, just had a Alan Partridge style practice round the house, reckon I would be ok, unless it was an intruder with martial arts/self defence skills, whoever you are, you get 200 lumens in your face you arent going to see much for a few seconds.

Matteeboy

What you really want is a strobe function. Then hope the f3cker is epileptic ;-)

eelz

iTrader: (10)

If i'm in the kitchen when a home invasion occurs, I would have no problem stabbing someone,no problem at all.

If i'm in bed at the time,half asleep,they can take what they wanted.

I wasn't a nice person in my early years of growing up and still think i could probably handle myself to a certain degree.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

It was me who made that thread about the break in and let me tell you, since the incident that happened 2 weeks ago, we have all been very jumpy and nervous and don't feel safe.

Honestly, I never thought it would have this affect because you think your property is safe, but it just shows how vulnerable you really are. My Father heard a noise during the night a few days ago and our dogs were barking at 2am... now, our dogs don't bark very often so he thought it might be another intruder.... he went downstairs very scared but armed with a rifle and it turned out to be nothing... but he checked all the rooms and everything. We are all just a bit paranoid at the moment and it really is surprising how much it can affect you. I dread to think what we would be like now if anything worst had happened.

Anyway, we have 3 different guys from different alarm companies coming out to have a look at our property because my Father is going to get a separate dedicated full alarm system for the house; sounds like he is going to town with it from what he has shown me. He doesn't care about the cost, just the safety of the family.

Once I get my semi-auto shotgun, I will be getting a cabinet for my room and keeping it in there and I wouldn't be scared to shoot if I caught someone in my house and they were coming towards me...

Matteeboy

It's a crying shame that some scumbag has made so so worried. Hateful people.

^Qwerty^

Took me over 6 months to sleep properly after somebody broke in whilst we were upstairs, the first 3 months were really bad, jumping out of bed at the slightest noise.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

I have a baseball bat under the bed. Christ knows what I'd do if I actually had to use it or wasn't in the bedroom when someone broke in LOL! Makes me feel a little safer anyway... hopefully I won't ever have to find out how easy it is for them to take it off me and give me a good beating

dpb

I stayed for 6 months on my own in place my sis an me inherited, old mill 8 bedrooms 16 acres till the place was sold . We arrived to the place to find police ,it was wired that way,someone had made off with some vases

Anyway all was fine for months, subscription was kept up (and they came out once,while i was away ),but one night after I'd gone up to central bedroom above main room fireplace I heard some banging downstairs convinced myself there were voices etc. this went on for a while -decided they could be having a party other end house, but i wasn't leaving room.
Morning time I edged out window to come up back in through main door via magnolia tree, see what had happened, it was just the wind banging doors

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

It's silly really to think how scared we can get in our homes which should be our "castles" really and should give you full security...

Christ, my mum is scared to put the bins out now when it's dark because where our bins go at the top of our drive area on the corner, it is near to where these 3 men had ran down through the fields.

Even when I go out to my car after dark, I'm looking over the fields just incase to see if I can see anything.....

jef

iTrader: (13)

i kinof like my mid terrace house for security reasons. one front door, one back. thats it. to get to people they have to climd a set of stairs, with me launching all my weight right down them ontop of whoever is there. if im slashed or skewered ect it may happen but the person will have 17 stone feet first, flying 12 feet hitting there face/chest/body at the same time - hopefullytaking them out.
add to that theres fck all worth stealing from my home, makes me feel semi secure for my family.

sympathies with those that have much larger, semi habited properties subject to thefts

Sprogz

These seem to be quite popular at the moment...

boxst

It is a nightmare situation. I have a dog that would have an absolute fit if someone tried to get in the house. He couldn't hurt anyone (it is a Yorkshire Terrier) but at least would be early warning.

What you do with that early warning is anyone's guess. I have knives and airguns and even some shurikens somewhere from when I was a child (are they illegal now?) but all are useless really as you have to get too close with the knife, airgun just annoys unless you can get an eye shot and shurikens don't do enough damage.

Hide and call the Police seems best, but it depends if your children are in the house ...

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Kind of why I think the driveshaft is a pretty good weapon, 45 cm long so some extra reach, heavy enough to cause damage but light enough to be wieldy, plus can be used in a confined space.

An airgun could be useful if it looked sutably impressive as a detterant and didnt require cracking to be loaded, someone isnt going to wait whilst you fanny about putting pellets in, plus, like you say they would not do much more than a minor flesh wound, would sting like mad but probably not incapacitate. Throwing Stars if you arent a Ninja in a 70s Martial Arts film would probably just glance off and knifes are too dangerous and close quarters.

Why the yanks need a full auto weapon I dont know, but if the other guy has a gun you need more than a stick but you end up in an arms race and realistically more often that not you would end up killing a family member.

I think that proper security is the main thing, doors locked, secure windows, blocked access to the property and as has been mentioned a dog to raise the alarm, even a small but noisy dog will put burglars off, too much racket to be worth bothering, a big dog backs that up with the capability to inflict real damage.

Since the other thread I have locked the side gate and the back door, dont want to be under seige, just want to pay some attention to it as a few small measures can save a lot of problems.

j4ckos mate

My tips are

let the dog bark, dont shut it up cos eastenders is on,
someone judt might be taking note.


Lock side and back gates,
light and radio on if your out,


Gripper rods are your friend, park your car on full lock if its not in the garage,
dont leave anything on show.


make sure your pir floodlights work, you can get one that records onto an sd card as well for £50.

Set up and run a homewatch scheme, ours has been fantastic,
i would recopmmend this to everyone.
its been the single biggest thing thats reduced crime on our estate.
weve gone from jumping out of bed at the sound of breaking glass, to absolutely nothing at all for months.


its gone from a few people keeping an eye out to getting the local schools involved and building planters for the walks and public places,
getting trees protetected, re-seeding woods, llitter bins, dog mess bins,and stopping building compounds being built on the field.
make sure the home watch signs are up as well.

when its up and running get a homewatch page set up on facebook, and limit it to the members, same with twitter, its the best way to find out whats going on, and instantly as well.

weve had cases of people l;ooking into cars and within minutes half a dozen of us have been out making sure everythings ok,




get a good alarnm installed, if your home insurance excess is a couple of hundred quid, spend double it on a decent alarm,

ive even gone as far as a dummy pir camera, and box on the back to compliment the ones onthe front,

dont forget shed security as well.

but i really do recommmend your street or estate sets up a facebook page, because as soon as somebosy posts somthing suspicious it makes everyone take notice, it will bring your street or estate together like nothing else. honestly try it.

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

What worries me more than anthing is that I am a very heavy sleeper, my wife however is not, the slightest noise and she is awake. If anyone were to enter our house while we were in bed, she would be the one to hear the noises and go investigate.

I have experienced the intruder in the room while asleep thing first hand, let me assure you by the time it registers in your brain what is happening, the intruder will have either had plenty of time to make his escape or take the upper hand.

97TURBO

What did you do?

Leslie

I would certainly find it very alarming if we did have a break in,especially if the robbers got the drop on us. These days those sort of people don't have any regard for the victims and one could get seriously hurt.

I would try to find a way to get hold of the poker and let him have it well and truly.

Les

LVC

Gravelled drive, electric horse fences (10,000 volts), PIR floodlights and big dogs. Living at the end of a 1km long rural lane with no neighbours we made sure from the start that things were protected here.
Don't arm yourself unless you really no how to use them and being overconfident can be just as dangerous.
If you think someone is in the house - turn all the lights on and make as much noise as possible whilst you call the police - with luck they'll leg it and leave you alone.
House insurance is there to cover replacement costs and getting yourself damaged is really not worth it - having said that I would be the first to get stuck in but then again I am supposed to know what I'm doing

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

Was in a holiday apartment in Ayia Napa, so was in holiday mode and guard was down. The other side of this, was that I was unfamiliar with where everything in the apartment was. I woke up to find two persons rummaging about in the room. I got out of bed, found my shoes, and shorts and chased them, the only weapon I could find was a cup - yep totally f**king useless in the situation, but it was the only thing that came to hand. There were two blokes, both of them jumped from a first floor balcony to make their escape. I thought they would be on the ground floor with broken bones and headed down to kick ten shades out of them (I mean detain them!?!?!??) but they were long gone before I got to the bottom of the stairs.

I eventually worked out how, they'd gained access, there was a narrow ledge about 8" wide that ran from the top of the stairs to the edge of the balcony. I think they had edged along that, before climbing over the rail on the balcony. My girlfriend had left the patio doors to the balcony slightly open for ventilation, they entered and left through those.

They took a wallet with one credit card in it and around £50 pounds. They took my girlfriend's watch and some low value items of jewellery.

This occurred at 0530, within 4 hours we had managed to get the credit card stopped, yet they were able to run up a a bill of just under £700 in what looked like clothes shops.

Turbohot

It has just happened to you and your family. We had a theft/robbery in April 2004 when my ex-husband and I were asleep upstairs. The aftermath was not good. The fear of someone threatening our sense of safety in our own home lingered on for me for long. Every little noise in the middle of the night used to put me on high alert. I remember the time when the earthquake hit in 2008 (I think it was in 2008). I was touring in Gloucestershire, then. From the state of REM, the screetching push of the quake instantly made me sit upright on my bed, and the flashback of the theft flooded back to me. It was only a couple of years ago I thought to myself- "Right. Everything is fine. No one is going to come in. Believe it and sleep tight." That was the night I slept well after so long, and continue to do so.

Good luck to you and your parents. One day, the fear will go, believe me.