Burglary on Landells Road- Sat 18th Jan

[DanielS]

Just spreading the word that our house on Landells Rd was broken into at 5am on Saturday January 18. Luckily our dog scared off the criminals but not before they grabbed a wallet, iPhone and three winter coats from the front hall. We?ve found a pair of stolen gloves and the drivers licence discarded in the area and would be grateful if you happen to see any of our other stolen items to collect them and let us know. From the trail of debris we can say the burglar(s) headed south on Landells, east on Silvester Rd then south again on Barry Road.

Items stolen were:

- Black Uniqlo puff parka with fake fur hood liner. Men?s M.

- Black Carhartt parka with hood, women?s M

- Black Helly Hanson heavy duty parka with fake fur lined hood. This is a unique item as it is branded with ?Davos? on the sleeve and Bloomberg on the chest.

- Grey Hershel wallet

- Black iPhone 7

Secondly we are lucky to have not had anything of great value stolen but it is important to learn how this can be avoided. Always lock the deadbolt on your doors even when you?re home as we were home when this happened.

[gromit316]

I have noticed more burglaries are happening when people are at home probably because the door is not double locked as you are home.

This happened to me in September, I didn't double lock the door and burgerler s got in so easily, I still haven't gotten over it.

[micromacromonkey]

sorry to hear :(

You say that it was because the deadlock wasn't on, so I guess they operated the lock from inside? Was it a hand through the letterbox or did they just smash the window and reach in? Or I guess they could have picked the lock but not sure how many local scallies have those skills.

[JohnL]

micromacromonkey Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> sorry to hear :(

>

> You say that it was because the deadlock wasn't

> on, so I guess they operated the lock from inside?

> Was it a hand through the letterbox or did they

> just smash the window and reach in? Or I guess

> they could have picked the lock but not sure how

> many local scallies have those skills.

There are other ways - a locksmith took 10 seconds and showed me (I won't repeat)

But I still don't like deadlocking from the inside when in my flat (in case of fire etc.).

[DanielS]

Hey! We just had a normal Yale look, which with they can force open if they know how. I've never thought to double lock when at home but will now in order to be safe.

[Penguin68]

If you are worried about mortise locks jamming in case of fire (not an unreasonable worry, however unlikely that actually would be, 'losing' the key is more possible) then physical barriers (chain or bolts) are a reasonable substitute to effectively 'double lock' a door - particularly when you aren't expecting any legitimate entrant with a key who might otherwise be barred from entry.

[Flyingspur09]

Very Sorry to hear that. I would recommend upgrading your security. Install Banham Deadlocks and also an alarm system if you haven't already got one and CCTV Cameras. Naturally all cost a fortune but its well worth it in the long run.

[lockers]

Sorry to hear about the burglaries everyone...

We were also burgled recently, on new years eve just gone. Overnight in fact, while me and my family were upstairs. Very similar to Daniel with coats and stuff and anything near to the front door taken. Thankfully aside from an ipad, nothing of real value. All aside from the ipad was discarded in the streets around where we live and thanks to the forum, everything returned.

The major similarity/lesson to everyone here is how we also hadn't double locked the door. We hadn't double locked it in the 5 years we have lived in east Dulwich so I think we were definitely riding our luck and now definitely DO lock it religiously.

John L - you can get the locks that are a key to open from the outside of the property but just a knob to turn to unlock from the inside. I have heard that they are often not good enough for insurance companies but, I think in the case when people are in the house, burglars are really only opportunistically looking for when double locks are not done so I would have thought this would have been enough.

[seenbeen]

I'm surprised at the number of people who do not lock the mortice when they are indoors as each insurance company I have used in the last 20 years have specified using a BS mortice lock and a Yale lock on the front door and window locks and at least triple bolts on the french windows etc etc in order to actually BE insured

[Sue]

seenbeen Wrote:

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> I'm surprised at the number of people who do not

> lock the mortice when they are indoors as each

> insurance company I have used in the last 20 years

> have specified using a BS mortice lock and a Yale

> lock on the front door and window locks and at

> least triple bolts on the french windows etc etc

> in order to actually BE insured

Same here.

And my present policy requires the keys to be removed from the mortice lock overnight (understandable, but it worries me a bit in case of fire, even though I leave them in a place nearish the front door but not visible from it).

I always double lock the door and have a chain on when I'm in the house.

[JohnL]

seenbeen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I'm surprised at the number of people who do not

> lock the mortice when they are indoors as each

> insurance company I have used in the last 20 years

> have specified using a BS mortice lock and a Yale

> lock on the front door and window locks and at

> least triple bolts on the french windows etc etc

> in order to actually BE insured

I haven't even got content insurance and haven't for 10 years (single man you see). I'm renewing my entire flat contents after 10 years however so may be thinking about it soon - it will still only be 1,000s rather than 10,000s total value - I don't own very expensive stuff.

Mind you security is about personal safety more so than things - so door security comments noted.