dweenk

This is one experience I have not had before. My wife and I were away from home on separate errands for 65 minutes. She returned shortly before I did and smelled cigarette smoke when she unlocked the back door. Since we don't smoke, she left the house and phoned me from our detached garage. I was driving and did not see the call until I arrived about 10 minutes later. At that point, I didn't need to listen to the message because I got it from her.

I went into the house and it reeked of tobacco smoke. I found some cigarette ashes at the base of the stairs and the master bedroom ransacked - went through the house and found no one. I did a lap around the house looking for an obvious entry point and found none. The second lap revealed that the front door had been jimmied and closed as the crook left. So we called the cops.

As it stands (we're still inventorying) we are missing a few thousand dollars worth of silver coins, jewelry, and a laptop. More annoying is that we have had our passports, SSS cards, marriage license, and other non-monetary papers stolen. The most annoying artifact is that our house still smells like cigarettes.

BTW: No bikes were harmed or stolen in this incident.

bobwysiwyg

Very sorry to hear about this.

malcala622

Sorry to hear and hope the crooks get caught.

I have an ADT alarm as backup to my 2 pitbulls.

3speedslow

CliffordK

Were there any cig butts around the house? Does the police do DNA on cig butts for home invasions?

repechage

Extremely Unfortunate. Fortunate they were gone, an altercation would not be good. The good guys only win on TV.
The missing documents are the most unnerving. Time to place a credit freeze with all the agencies, and there is a service that will also monitor your house title. Don't want to have a thief take out a huge loan against your house.
Now I know why my wife has Three safe deposit boxes.

Lemond1985

I would get some surveillance software to keep an eye on your stuff while you're gone. I use this open source program, it's free and it works great. Takes a short video clip whenever movement is detected and saves the clips for later viewing. I have it connected to a $20 webcam.

https://www.ispyconnect.com/

Supposedly you can have the program upload the saved video clips to the cloud, in case the computer itself is stolen, but I have not gotten that adventurous yet. I think if you have the program running on an old desktop computer sitting in the corner, it would likely go unnoticed, especially if the computer screen is locked, and the webcam reasonably well hidden.

I doubt people steal old desktop computers much these days, or that's my hope anyway. You can connect multiple webcams if you want, I love this software, it's the best freeware I have found in quite some time.

2cam16

Holy crap.

noobinsf 

since6

So sorry to hear, but glad you are all safe.

In addition to what others have said when things calm down talk with the local police and sheriff's office about there Neighborhood watch program. Then invite them to come into your neighborhood to set one up.

Sadly even if we live in an urban/suburban setting, we all seem to live alone these days. No one knows anyone they live next door to. This is a mistake. The greatest security isn't a security camera or security company, the greatest security is a community of people who know each other, each other's cars, kids cars and learn from law enforcement how to keep a watch on their neighborhood. Burglary and in general crime depends on no one noticing. That little blue "Neighborhood Watch" sign entering and leaving your neighborhood tells a criminal people are watching and there's a risk to canvassing and hitting this neighborhood. Also being part of a neighborhood watch takes away the sense of helplessness and empowers you and your neighbors.

jamesdak 

Be very, very cautious with any webcams. A good many are designed to send images off shore without you knowing and even if you think you've restricted the camera.

PilotFishBob 

I use IP cams and an open source app, "ZoneMinder", it's set up to email and text me based on criteria I've entered. I'm paranoid about privacy so I can speak to it's compliance on that - Us linux guys are paranoid by nature, and I'm a Linux pro. That said, ZoneMinder is pretty easy for the layman to set up. Main thing is what others have said above re your credit and identity. However, the intruders have seen what you have and you should take precautions against a repeat visit. I live in Memphis - I've had three burglary attempts on my house in the 15 years I've lived here, and I live in a nice neighborhood. Combination of a monitored alarm system, very good locks and cam surveillance has made the difference, and I get an insurance rate break due to all of that.

Gary64

Sorry to hear.Have to keep on alert for identity theft!

Lemond1985

Probably true, that's why I only use the program on computers not connected to the net. Which should work, unless someone placed a tiny cell phone in there to "phone home" and steal my video clips, which I kind of doubt would happen with such a cheap piece of hardware, but who knows. You can never be too paranoid these days, I suppose.

xetaprime

So very sorry to hear that! My home was robbed years ago. I still have nightmares about people breaking in. Wishing you all the best.

jamesdak 

LOL, well you can be but if your camera's are hardwired in and your off the net you should be safe.

Now excuse me while I go make a new tinfoil cap.

clubman 

It's a real violation to have someone be in your house and steal valuables. So sorry this happened to you. Kudos to your wife for getting out of there to make the call.

Sounds like someone was watching you leave. Nothing worse than a thief.

The Golden Boy 

So sorry, and I'm glad you're OK.

Hopefully you can get the credit stuff stopped- and hope you can recover your valuables.


Last year, or the year before, I was spraying for bugs outside- it was around dusk... The neighbor (a 6'6" big guy) from across the street says "hey, can I help you" and he's doing the full-on drill sergeant walk across the street- then he realized it was me... I watch out for my neighbors' packages, (I'll take them to the back door and send texts to them) and do keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

dmp

I'm so sorry to hear this- thankfully you were not home and are safe. The best of luck to you in dealing with the missing documents. This is just horrible.

Jeff Wills

Truth. I know most of my neighbors and they know me and my wife. Most of them are retirees so they look after the neighborhood.

Vintage_Cyclist

They can and should. I would look in the house and garage as well as outside the house for any butts.

The master bedroom is usually the focus point of a burglary, because that is where people are most likely to have valuables. The burglars want to get in and out fast, so they usually make a beeline right for the master. It's a good idea to consider storing valuable items in other areas of the house.

noglider 

This has happened to me. It's an awful feeling to have your valuables taken and to have your sense of safety violated. It's the worst.

CliffordK

Hard to say what the police will/would/did do.

Several thousand dollars worth of items stolen. Plus apparently targeting identity theft. This could be part of a pretty serious crime spree.

But, "prints" may be tracked, but DNA may not be tracked for non-violent crimes. Gloves? Still, if any butts were left... they should be collected by the police.

I'm glad to hear that nobody was physically hurt. It sounds like you may have just missed the thief.

Leaving the house and calling you was probably appropriate. But your wife should have also called the police once she determined something was wrong and was afraid to enter the house herself.

smontanaro 

I would go further and suggest you freeze your credit files, if you haven't already done so. I think this is a pretty common feature of the credit reporting landscape since the Equifax snafu. In fact, such services might be required by law now.

Vintage_Cyclist

Burglary is considered a pretty heavy crime. In most, if not all, states, homeowners are even justified in the law to use deadly physical force against a burglar in their dwelling. There's now a nationwide DNA database for convicted criminals (just like the fingerprint database) and there's always a good chance that somebody committing a burglary already has a criminal record. So if DNA is found at a crime scene, it can help find a suspect, as well as provide evidence at trial that the suspect was at the scene.

Additionally, since we are all living in a Big Brother universe, DNA 'services' (such as 23 and Me) provide access to law enforcement to search DNA results. This can allow for DNA hits on service-using relatives of a suspect, which can then be used to hunt down the subject.

About twenty years back, I came home from work and had a burglar still in the house, he broke out my back window to get away. He didn't get much, but trashed the house rifling through drawers and closets. It was a heavily raining day and the guy had hit at least six other houses in the neighborhood during the work day. He got arrested for shoplifting a few months later and admitted to doing burglaries too, the detectives drove him around and he pointed out all the houses he hit. The guy was a one man crime wave, all to buy drugs.

Since then, I've taken to leaving an old, broken laptop in an old laptop bag leaning against the TV cabinet, to provide an incentive to make a quick score and leave. Haven't gotten hit again though.