Been burgled

[BearPear]

We woke yesterday morning to find the car gone, and then it dawned that we had been burgled. They bust the lock on the French doors at the back of the house and helped themselves to my iPhone, my iPod, hubby's wallet & Blackberry, my daughter's handbag containing her iPod and the family camera, my laptop and finally my best watch that my mum & dad paid for which I bought in Rome. Oh and then they burgled 2 other houses on the street and drove their "collection" away in OUR CAR!

My advice, after the event, is not to leave your belongings in plain sight on the kitchen worktop, which is what we do and I guess a lot of other people do too. We get in and dump the stuff from jacket & suit pockets, get changed and in the morning collect it all up again. Lesson learned.

One thing I wondered, they took a full set of house keys which had my electronic car key on it too, but the insurers said that I can only claim for replacement locks, not stolen keys, and this is for the house only. Last time I enquired, these keys are £100+ to replace which doesn't seem fair for me to pay for. We have never claimed on our insurance in 21 years of marriage and this is all new to me!

 

[fossyant]

Bad luck. There is an opinion for leaving keys and stuff downstairs (although I don't) as the 'burglers' won't have to come 'upstairs' to get them.

Let's hope you find the car. You may be able to claim for car keys on car insurance, but the excess will probably soak that up.

 

[siadwell]

You have my utmost sympathy.

You may be able to pick up a car key on eBay and then get it reprogrammed for much less than a dealer will do a new one.

And if you get new locks fitted on the house doors, they'll come with new keys, won't they?

 

[4F]

My commiserations

 

[Fnaar]

Comiserations here too. After our neighbours got burgulated, we don't leave laptop/car keys etc downstairs any more. If they want them, they'll have to come into my bedroom and deal with me in my underpants.

 

[Bill Gates]

My profound sympathy for your misfortune. The insurance will cover the losses but the invasion of your privacy can't be compensated for. I've got three Jack Russells and they're the best burglar system around.

 

[e-rider]

Unfortunately you will be out of pocket in many ways after such a crime - insurance will cover some things but not other stuff, including all the stress and inconvenience. It will have to be taken on the chin.

It's a terrible reality of the society we live in and the lowlife scum that we share it with. How people can do this I'll never understand. I doubt they'll give you and your family and all the stress you are going through a second thought - probably even making jokes about it!

Bastards!

 

[ComedyPilot]

Sorry to hear about that.

 

[Ste T.]

So sorry BP. Hanging is too good etc. :¬ (

 

[Hilldodger]

Sorry to hear that, having just suffered a huge break-in at Cyclemagic I know how you're feeling

 

[Firestorm]

You have my sympathy, we were burgled back in july , 2nd time in 9 months !!

the first time they "just" took stuff out of the front room, Telly, WII, Camera, and then walked off down the street with it all. Someone even reported it before I did but as this was a "sensitive" witness (we reckon the police thought the scum knew who had seen them and could intimidate the witness) they didn't catch them

The second time they spent ages crowbaring the patio doors open ,which had been replaced after the first time, and did not do the rooms which could be overlooked, ransacked upstairs nicking all the gold and silver jewellery , whether or it was worth much, lap top, the camera , again!, sat Nav . loads of it had sentimental value , particularly my father in laws watched left to my Wife when he died a couple of years ago.

I must say the insurance were brilliant, Direct line for contents , Santander for the property, the non jewellery items were all replaced inside a week, the patio doors replaced in a week after a temp fix within 24 hours.
1500 quid on Alarms and CCTV has made me feel a little more secure now, but there is a hell of a lot of "locking the stable door" feeling still in the house

 

[courtenay]

Sorry to hear that bear, nothing worse than having your personal space invaded let alone your belogings taken also.

As for the car key i would argue the point myself, if you have home and contents insurance then surely it should be covered, im no expert but logically your car key is going to spend more time as a content of your home than it is in the car itself, if i didnt get any joy i'd be sure as hell looking for another insurance provider.

 

[PaulB]

It's one of the worst feelings in the world, that. We got burgled while we were in bed on bonfire night 1997 and it was horrendous. I felt really vengeful and hateful to the get(s) who did this. To think the things you worked for and had sentimental attachments to were taken from you by a worthless verminous low-life really got to me and I went round the house getting ultra-security minded. The worst thing was my running medals and trophies including several London Marathon medals! I kept them in a shoe box wanting to one day mount them somewhere but in the meantime, that was where I kept them and the robbing get must have thought they were coins or something of worth and took them from me! Equally as bad were the local divs round here (Colne) who were forever prattling on about how bad robbery was in Liverpool. My entire life in Liverpool I hadn't had one penny piece robbed off me but two years after moving here, the above! Sickening, that was.

 

[NormanD]

I feel for you I really do bear

my sisters house got broken into many years ago and she was so traumatized by the fact someone had invaded her personal space (rather than the items taken) as some of the items taken was from her bedroom while she was asleep in bed. 

she ended up moving house as she couldn't face returning to her own home (she lived with us for three months) she's now happy living where she is (around the corner from me)

I really do hope all your items are recovered, I know it's not nice for anyone who's had their house invaded by a stranger ... utter scum these people are 

 

[ArDee]

One thing I wondered, they took a full set of house keys which had my electronic car key on it too, but the insurers said that I can only claim for replacement locks, not stolen keys, and this is for the house only. Last time I enquired, these keys are £100+ to replace which doesn't seem fair for me to pay for. We have never claimed on our insurance in 21 years of marriage and this is all new to me!

Sorry to hear about your break in; but, do you really want to buy replacement keys when the burglars have a set of the keys for the house. Get all new replacement locks fitted and claim them on the insurance.