Have you ever been burglarized?

Yes! We had left our dogs outside and someone broke in. I felt totally violated for a long time. They even ate a bite out of a slice of cheese.

Before I knew the cops did nothing in the case of robberies, I thought it was a clue!

Yes I have. I realized much later of a knife that was stolen I didn’t realize at the time. Not valuable but meant something to me.

It’s too late now but for the future, I have a detailed list of almost everything of value or meaning to me with photo’s. With digital cameras, you can photograph almost everything you own with little to no cost. Just keep a folder on you computer as well as a back up online. It will save her if it happens again.

I have related before here what happened when someone tried to break into one of the flats I lived in as a kid. What I didn’t tell you was that the miscreant was a purported friend of my guardian’s then-boyfriend. Some friend, eh?

Also, when I came to NYC for an internship during uni, some guy broke into the vehicle that my stuff was stashed in while I finished up paperwork on the flat I was going to live in. If it had a plug, it was taken. Turns out my then-bf had left the car door unlocked on the driver’s side, which was bad enough, but I had asked him to stay with the car and he said he would. What did he do? He had gone up the road to the ice cream shop.

A friend was, in a walk-up apt in NYC way back in the middle ages. The perp took all his money all his stereo equipment but left half his stash. [To console himself with??]

@marinelife – They took a bite out of your cheese!? For some reason it makes me feel disturbed about that… makes it more of an invasion. I don’t know why. Not a simple case of opportunists taking valuable items – there one minute and gone the next – but imagining someone standing at your fridge and nibbling at your food is creepy and violating.

I would feel the same if I realised that a burglar went through my undies or used some of my cosmetics… or worse still… used my toilet and didn’t flush. * shudder *

nope, i made sure my house is burglar proof ages ago.

Rachienz, speaking of undies, I had pajama bottoms stolen that were in the dirty clothes. What kind of sick %^# steals dirty pajama bottoms?

My daughter came home, and began going thru her DVDs to find out which were missing. Part way thru, she found Fight Club, and put it on.
She then began chanting to herself “I am not my laptop. I am not my vaccum. I am not my jewelry…”

@filmfann I gotta watch that movie now.

Have you ever been burglarized?
Yes.

Have you gone through this?
Yes.

How long did it take to feel safe in the house again?
A few months. We used to close all the windows and lock all our doors when we left the house, but now we just leave everything open. Anyone that really wants to break in, will be able to even if we obsess about “security”, as evidenced by the past break in, so we choose to go the other direction and flagrantly disregard it altogether. It has worked so far. I definitely felt violated afterward, and it was a stressful time. I had a lot of personal info on a laptop they took, so I mourned the loss of that for a long time. I’ve been meaning to create a back up of my data and stash it somewhere unexpected (like in a cereal box in the kitchen or something, but I haven’t got around to it yet.

Did you discover things missing long after submitting the claim?
No. They tore our house apart – everything was on the floor in heaps. The only things we were missing were sizeable electronics (computer, cameras, ...). We don’t have any jewelry worth much (they tried so hard to find some, though, and we got a kick out of that). We have a lot of expensive tools, but the robber either didn’t know they were worth money or couldn’t carry them out. They only made off with a backpack’s worth of stuff, so we think they were on foot.

How did the claim you made work for you?
It was a useless exercise. It made me feel better at the time, but I’m virtually certain the police did absolutely nothing to try to reclaim our stolen goods. Even if they did find it in a pawn shop or elsewhere, they said it would be years before we’d get it back because they have to keep it impounded as evidence for a certain amount of time or something. When the cops came, they didn’t even look for fingerprints. It was pretty lame. If you have insurance that covers this sort of thing, it is worth filing a police report to be able to claim damages, though. And also, I think it is a good idea to report it anyway just so that there is a public record of it.

The last time I was burgled I had only just moved into the house, I got home and saw my contents insurance application half completed on the floor, I think I was more pissed off with myself than the cunts who had robbed me.

Not me, but when my dad was a bachelor back in the 70’s, his house (which we still live in today) got broke into 3 times. Each time, the only thing that was disturbed was the microwave. The first time it was only unplugged. The other two times he found the microwave out in the yard. Apparently the would-be-thieves decided it was too heavy.

The microwave still works, by the way! We’re still using it!

As a teenager, I was a bit foolish about making sure things were locked up, especially my car. One night I left it unlocked, and came out the next day to find my cd player was gone. I learned my lesson, everything now gets locked 100% of the time. Instead of just yanking it out and making a mess of the wires, they took the time to unplug everything, so at least that was nice of them.

My Dad works in construction and has a lot of expensive tools. Everyday when he comes home for lunch, he leaves the garage door open. On one particular day, he got all the way back to work before he realized that most of the tools he had in his truck were gone. When he came home later that night, he discovered a few other things in the garage were also missing. And all in the middle of the day when he was right inside the house.

On my way home one afternoon,I passed someone walking but I didn’t pay attention to who it was. When I arrived home,I realized someone had broken in. The family came home soon after and we searched, trying to figure out what was taken. We found nothing missing until hours later, when we noticed the drawer of an antique desk was not closed properly. Upon searching, we discovered the thief had taken family photos. In fact the photos were of me. I was very uneasy and then I had a flashback as to who I had driven past. It was a young man of 16 who had stayed with us for a while. We contacted the authorities,but there was no claim to be made. We couldn’t place a value on family history.The photos were never located and the young man ended up in serious trouble shortly after. The whole experience was unsettling. I would rather the thief taken other things of value rather than my image history that could never be replaced.

I was burgled in 1994, not a great deal taken and my home was not ransacked but I did feel insecure for a couple of nights, after that it was ok. It wasn’t until a little while later that I realised a camera had been taken. They found $10 cash but if they had come a week earlier it would have been $200. The police came fairly quickly but could not find any finger prints, so not a lot they could do. I had my suspicions about who was responsible but absolutely no proof and so apart from telling the police of my suspicions, I did not take it any further. I did not have home contents insurance at that point in time although I did take out a policy quite soon afterwards but, as is so often the way, I have had no need to make a claim. Is there such a word as burglarised??? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned burgled?

Car breakin.
3 cars, 1 breakin each.

Sucks because the cost of replacing the window was 5x more than the value of anything lost

@Adagio ” Is there such a word as burglarised??? Whatever happened to good old-fashioned burgled?”

I had the same thought. I figured it must just be me and I was wrong but if others think this as well…

I’ve never had an experience with someone breaking into my home knock on wood but when I was a kid my dad had a boat on Lake Michigan where we spent a lot of weekends in the summer. It was a 28 ft boat with room for our family to sleep, plus a tiny kitchen and miniature bathroom. The boat had a stereo system and some electronic equipment for finding fish. One weekend we drove up to the boat and found that someone had busted the padlock on the little door leading to the cabin. They had ripped out the stereo system and taken the fish-finding gear. I was young enough to find the whole thing thrilling and shocking, but didn’t feel unsafe. If it had been our house, I’m sure I wouldn’t have found the whole experience so interesting.

My dad, on the other hand, was livid. He didn’t care much about the stereo, but he was really pissed about that fish finding gadget.

dictionary dot com says so

I was home with my 11 yo daughter. I had fallen asleep while studying for finals. We lived in a townhouse-bedrooms upstairs, living room/kitchen. My doorbell rang at dawn and a neighbor told me my window was on the driveway behind my apt. My purse had been dumped on the floor, my keys and car were gone.

Of course the scariest thing was that he had broken in when directly above. my bedroom light was on and I might have been awake. It took me a long time before I could sleep through the night, but because of mistakes he made, including leaving personal possessions in my car. he pled guilty to over 30 burglaeies

Yes my apartment was broken into. I never realized how simple the locks were and I never avoided using the deadbolt again. Luckily I had nothing to steal but a good camera, which they got. Made a mess of the place though.

Burgled sounds like something you rinse with. I’ve always said burglarized.

@SeventhSense Guess it’s just what you get used to… burglarised sounds like a sexual act to me.

@filmfann well, can’t argue with dictionary.com… or can I??

“He burgled her in the back seat”...