Burglary

[Romanos]

Have you ever had to deal with a burglary?

 

[Josiah]

I had my car (and belongings it in) stolen. It was a 1990 Buick Century Limited Wagon, given to me by my parents for school. It had all the bells and whistles, and a surprisingly powerful V6 (the car couldn't turn or stop well - but it could go great!). I liked that car. Well.... I was parked on the street by my school.... with my jacket and fave CD's and textbooks and stuff in the car..... and when I returned from class, it was gone. Police said that usually, such cars are either found almost immediately or they're gone and will never be recovered. Mine was the later. It was a really old car, not worth much, so I have no idea why it was taken. I missed my CD's and stuff more than the car, however. The insurance company took FOREVER to pay for it - and paid very little when they did.

 

[Rens]

I can't remember the amount of bikes that were stolen. Once a guy was in our house when we just came home. I had a 100 bill on my desk, but he couldn't get upstairs so I was Lucky. LOL he thought my mother had Jewels, but he threw it all over and didn't want that plastic stuff. He stole her walkman with gospels in it. She hoped he'd listen to it and get saved. In a students' home once we left the door open and a burglar came in. There was one really neat and tidy girl who lived there and she had all her finances in maps. He stole it all. The dad of another girl came over and saw my room and said: Oh my! This is terrible. What a mess they made from this room! His daughter said: oh it Always looks like that. LOL he couldn't even find my finance stuff, so he stole nothing from me.

 

[tango]

Have you ever had to deal with a burglary?

Not a burglary, had my car broken into a couple of times.

The first time they took the cash from my coin box (which was the equivalent of about $30 all in). I didn't care about the cash so much, but it cost me $80 for a new window and half a day off work.

The second time was the same hassle for me but the oiks didn't even get any cash out of it because I stopped keeping coins in the coin box. That day it was raining so I ended up having to try and drive through congested streets to get my new window with a towel in place of the missing window, which meant I couldn't see out of the driver's side. That was interesting.

 

[MarkFL]

When I was in the Navy, my parents' home was burglarized while they were at work. They took my dad's gun collection and some electronics...but what aggravated my dad the most was the fact that they sat at their kitchen table and drank a bunch of beer, leaving the empties on the table...he said those buggers must have felt right at home.

In April of 1991 late one night, there was a knock at my front door, and I was used to friends dropping by at all hours unannounced so I didn't think much of it and went to the door and opened it. I saw the silvery flash of a handgun and one of them grabbed my wrist yanking me out onto the front porch and screaming, "I'm going to kill you!"

Having seen the gun and understood their intent, I had an immediate surge of adrenaline and fought them off somehow. If they had stood back from the door and pointed the gun at me when I opened it, they would have had me. They had bandanas over their faces, and ran off into the night after I punched the one with the gun repeatedly in the head.

You know, what was kind of frustrating is that I had 3 grown St. Bernards and a German Shepherd at the time, but they thought it was happy fun play time when I was fighting the invaders...when they ran off the dogs were bouncing around, tails wagging...I told them they were all useless...although it may have been their presence that helped the invaders to decide it was time to retreat.

Since then I have never opened the door without knowing who is there, and I told all my friends they must call first before coming out. I also have a .357 magnum usually within reach as well when I'm at home.

 

[MoreCoffee]

When I was in the Navy, my parents' home was burglarized while they were at work. They took my dad's gun collection and some electronics...but what aggravated my dad the most was the fact that they sat at their kitchen table and drank a bunch of beer, leaving the empties on the table...he said those buggers must have felt right at home.

In April of 1991 late one night, there was a knock at my front door, and I was used to friends dropping by at all hours unannounced so I didn't think much of it and went to the door and opened it. I saw the silvery flash of a handgun and one of them grabbed my wrist yanking me out onto the front porch and screaming, "I'm going to kill you!"

Having seen the gun and understood their intent, I had an immediate surge of adrenaline and fought them off somehow. If they had stood back from the door and pointed the gun at me when I opened it, they would have had me. They had bandanas over their faces, and ran off into the night after I punched the one with the gun repeatedly in the head.

You know, what was kind of frustrating is that I had 3 grown St. Bernards and a German Shepherd at the time, but they thought it was happy fun play time when I was fighting the invaders...when they ran off the dogs were bouncing around, tails wagging...I told them they were all useless...although it may have been their presence that helped the invaders to decide it was time to retreat.

Since then I have never opened the door without knowing who is there, and I told all my friends they must call first before coming out. I also have a .357 magnum usually within reach as well when I'm at home.

Terrifying!

Never had anything like that happen to me. Maybe Oz is a less dangerous country in which to live.

 

[tango]

Terrifying!

Never had anything like that happen to me. Maybe Oz is a less dangerous country in which to live.

I think it's just a question of luck, especially if people are after something specific but get the wrong house.

I lived in Reading (UK) for three years and never had any trouble with burglars although knew several people who did get burgled, and the area was rated as a high risk area by insurance companies. I lived in London (UK) for 18 years and never got burgled. One year my wife and I took an eight week break and had someone checking on our house every few days to pick up mail and stuff. We got back to find everything was fine for us, but the people next door had been away for the weekend and been burgled. I found out that while we were away a friend of ours (who was home alone while her husband was at work) called the police in terror as someone was trying to kick her front door down while she was home with her small children. But the area overall was known as a good place to live, we just had a few oiks come through the area trying to take advantage.