Burglary today

[EDBel]

Just had a burglary, they kicked in both front doors but luckily we have a very loud alarm so when they realised they couldn't turn it off, they escaped without taking anything. The police said a few had been done today

[seenbeen]

'tis the season. Which area? I had an attempted burglary once- when people go to collect the kids from school is a common time.

[Countrlass22]

Oh no how horrid, so sorry hear this

Hope they catch them.

Are you OK. Must be awful shock

[ED Bird]

It may be worth looking into having a security camera installed. There are many different kinds & it doesn't have to be anything fancy/pricey. I'm sure someone here can recommend one for you.

[EDBel]

It was a shock, my son came home and the doors were kicked in and police outside the house. The house opposite has cameras and we can see what happened on their footage but it isn't very clear, I definitely think will get cameras installed.

[Azalea]

Hi,

Sorry to hear this.

What kind of locks and door did you have?

I?ve been burgled once and they kicked the bottom half of a panelled door out but the locks held. I replaced the door with a solid heavy door that had to be made because of the size of the frame. I had the lower ground floor of a house.

[micromacromonkey]

Get multi-point locks to make it much more difficult to kick in. You can do it for wooden doors with a special lock (like the ones in upvc doors) which operates locking widgets at the top and bottom as well as the centre and can be activated electrically.

Also note that if you have glass then by far the easiest way to break in is to smash the glass and reach through and turn the inside handle. In fact this can be done in doors with no glass by simply reaching through the letterbox, as I discovered when the door in my last house shut behind me. So if you need a new door then address that vulnerability also. The lock I bought can be released with a button (well out of reach) so there is no handle on the inside, but at the very least a deadlock (key only, not a little thumb lever on the inside) is necessary.

And finally if you have euro cylinders then make sure they are snap proof and bump proof. Again from experience (losing the key for our upvc french doors in the old house) it is astonishingly easy to break these by pulling off the faceplate, attaching some mole grips and twatting them with a hammer. The central bit of the cylinder has a screw-hole through it and just snaps off as it's a hard but brittle material. I got some really good ones that have the inside bit made of a different steel that won't snap, and also can't be 'bumped' (typical picking method):

https://www.locksonline.co.uk/Euro-Profile-Cylinders/High-Security-Anti-Snap-and-Anti-Bump-Cylinder.html