We got Burgled…

On a regular hot monday afternoon in the summer of 2009, I came home from work to find that our garage door was wide open.  At first I was thinking, “Oh, Sheena must have beat me home and just pulled up!”  Then I pull up the driveway to see no car in the garage.  After a quick glance, I noticed some sound equipment missing!  We’ve been burglarized!  So I make my way through the garage and open up the door to the house… it was unlocked.  The first thing I see is my TV barely hanging on the wall!

At that site, I thought our entire house was vandalized and we lost a good grip of our stuff.  I call 911, as anyone would do and went through a 45 minute run around until someone came to our house.  That’s another story in itself…

After taking a quick look around, I realized that they really just took smaller, big-ticket items along with attempting to take the TV.  They apparently kicked in the back door (with ease) and made their way through the house…

Sucks, but I guess it happens, right?  Here are some tips to make your house less likely to get invaded.

Lock your fences – I would never think to do this because it would be so inconvenient when I’m mowing the lawn or even just simply wanting to get to the back yard, but it’s also inconvenient when someone kicks in your back door because it was super easy for them to get to it

Change your locks – When we bought the house, Sheena would mention that she didn’t like the quality of the locks and didn’t feel like they would do much.   I would just disregard it because locks are lock, right?  Nope, some (not all) builders put on fairly cheap locks on the doors to cut their costs.  You want a lock that reaches to  a stud in the wall, not just the surface.  When those jerks kicked in the door, the lock actually helped them push through because it wasn’t supported by a stud.

Get a dog that bites!.. j/k.  but I’m guessing it would help…

We made those necessary changes, but we also moved since then (not because of the burglary).   We still loved that neighborhood and really enjoyed it.  It just sucks to know that you work hard and buy things you need/want just for someone to potentially break in and take it.  Don’t be a victim and make sure you’re home is secure.