We were burgled on Friday evening. We were in the living room watching TV (Randall & Hopkirk on DVD) and around 10:15 we heard a thump. The cats did their usual **ALERT** behaviour, but we assumed it came from next door - they're a noisy bunch, and we often hear doors slamming and so on. At 11:30 I went downstairs to feed the cats, (our living room is on the first floor - USian: second floor) and noticed that the front room door was open. I assumed that Tracy has left it open after her work-out session, but then I saw that the kitchen window had been broken. Glass everywhere, drawers open, TV missing. I phoned the police and they arrived within ten minutes. Nothing else had been taken. Brief statements, crime number, pretty much a sleepless night.
Saturday morning the SOCO guy turned up, covered everywhere with powder and lifted a few useful shoe prints, and a couple of fingerprints, probably ours. He took reference prints from us, then left. Then a guy came to board up the window.
Insurance covers most of it, but even so; bastard.
 | Not the best. At least they only took the high value portable obvious bits. |
 | oh dear! I'm glad neither of you came face-to-face with them though. |
 | Wait, what do you guys call the first floor of your houses? And, also, my condolences. |
 | Damn! Anything postcode marked? |
 | Double Bastards! True what Chris said and blessings that no one got hurt.
But, curious as always, what do you call the first floor of your house. (ground level?) |
 | Floor that's at ground level = ground floor; next one up = first floor; etc.
Silly thing is that the TV that was pinched normally lives in the bedroom. The regular kitchen TV is a 20" CRT type, but it blew its fuse a couple of days ago when I had to reset the main circuit breaker. I hadn't gotten around to fixing it, and just 'borrowed' the little flat-screen from the bedroom. Bastard had the sense to take the handset as well.
Chris, I tell myself that I wish I had seen the bastard, and bounced his head off the side of the fridge, but you're probably right.
I wonder what he must have thought when he went into the front room. As I said, we keep our exercise gear in there, and there's a load of weights, barbells, a treadmill and similar, but there's also Tracy's collection of skulls (not real ones!), including one that's about 18" tall with a big sword stuck in it, so you might think that there's a 240 lb heavy-metal biker nutcase in the house. |
 | I'm sorry you were burgled and glad that you are safe. |
 | Cripes! If the insurance covers most things and you guys aren't hurt then I all is well - but for a sense of indignance. I know I'd be raging if someone had the audacity to break in to my place. I'd also find it funny that they were so inept as to pick on someone with so little worth stealing... |
 | Bastards!. Hope that you are all OK and not too shook up. |
 | You're dead right Ian. Bastards! Sorry to hear about that, it could have been a lot worse. Being in the house when it happened can't have been nice, at least we were out when we got 'done'.
BTW, you doing Fudjit tomorrow night? |
| ianbennett wrote on Feb 4, '07, edited on Feb 4, '07 John, we have plenty worth pinching (including 25 guitars, power tools, DVD recorders/players), but we don't keep them in the kitchen. (Edit: oh, you meant you!)
Phil, I'll be there. I'll take my amp again.
Thanks, all, for kind thoughts. |
| halfply wrote on Feb 4, '07, edited on Feb 4, '07 is Fudgit still going? oops, sorry about the typo! |
| (Yep - I meant lil ol' me) |
| most certainly but it was a friend of mine (originally from Newcastle - now in Bedfordshire) who was intrigued by the concept and planned on dropping in when he was in the neighbourhood. |
 | By reputation, burglars here in the states that are worth protecting yourself against operate in daylight hours when people are normally at work or in solitary rest (guys like me) preparing for the night ahead. People who dare to burgle homes in the late hours either (a) know you well, or (b) practice home invasion. There is little one can do to guard against the latter two types. I mean, you can screen your friends, their friends, etc.; but, that becomes obsessive and soon you'll not be able to think linearly. Also, you could turn your home into a armed camp with surveillance, double-key all your doors, have a safe room, and screen your friends, ...
Blinders on for a minute, had you nabbed the culprit your insurance would likely have recompensed you for the battered icebox door, so bear that in mind as a potential guilty pleasure should misfortune strike you again. |
 | Bastards indeed. And Tossers. Dick Splash even. I call the 'ground floor' / US first floor the 'downstairs', with the next bit up being the 'upstairs'. Anyone need a diagram? |
|  most certainly but it was a friend of mine (originally from Newcastle - now in Bedfordshire) who was intrigued by the concept and planned on dropping in when he was in the neighbourhood.  Tell your friend to check the pub website for dates. |
| Here's a whole webpage (further proof that the world shares nothing but a full-fledged state of confusion) devoted to Anglo-Saxon/Asian floor numbering conventions: From the level heads at Wikipedia |
| Paul, I would almost certainly have been prosecuted had I attempted to educate the bastard in the error of his ways. I suspect that this bastard assumed that my house was, like most others in the road, divided into flats (apartments), and the ground floor one was currently unoccupied. |
 | Sorry to hear about your misfortune. Maybe you should add a noisy dog to your household pets. |
| halfply wrote on Feb 4, '07, edited on Feb 4, '07 copied you in to my email but yours bounced back!
oh gawd, it would help to have a dot between hotmail &
oops. you might have a copy now!
:) |
| I once found a man removing a few pairs of jeans from the clothesline in my garage. After the back doorknob came off in his hand he realised he had to pass me to get out of the garage.
I fractured a knuckle, helping him to fit between me and the wall... several times. |
| Joyce, the cats told us, but we didn't believe them.
Chris: aw, shucks!
Paul, I'll put Florida on my 'emigrate to' list.
Hector, if it happens again, I'll call you. |
| I was a younger man, in a different time. |
 | That's a shame. Bastards indeed. |
 | What a way to spoil one's weekend. Ian, I am glad you and my mother-in-law are safe, if a bit discomfited. |
 | Wow - that's pretty audacious - burgling the house while you're inside it! |
| That's actually very common, Peter. I'm part of our neighbourhood watch omittee. About a third of burglaries are crimes of opportunity, usually involving thefts of valuables while the occupants are in another part of the house. |
 | Bastards. Actually, that is insufficiently strong a term.
Was it old skool R&H you were watching, or the Vic and Bob remake? |
| Excellent. I always liked the original. And latterly, I liked it better. |
| R & M always make me wince; they're just so unfunny, in a way that's typical of the time they were popular.
Jim Moir (Vic Reeves) was born in Leeds but went to school here in Darlington, the same school as my wife, but two years earlier. Apparently, he was widely regarded as a pillock even then. |
| I must admit that I like R&M, particularly the Big Night Out years, when their schtick was pure silliness. As their act wore on, though, through the various programmes and shows, a streak of mean-spiritedness came through which made them much less appealing. The Randall and Hopkirk stuff didn't tickle my fancy at all - R&M don't do plot and aren't sufficiently twinkly (not the best word, but I can't think of a better one at the mo) to carry off the concept.
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