Third 'keep anti-intruder weapon'

[Barman]

I heard this on the radio this morning ? isn?t it farcical. The British Crime Survey reveals that burglaries have fallen by 3% yet everybody knows that there is virtually no point reporting them ? save getting a crime number for the insurance.

Some conservative numpty interviewed suggested getting a dog and remembering to lock doors and windows. In the same interview she confirmed that the law weighs against the householder if he ?attacks? a burglar in their own home and that the burglar is in a strong position to take them to court for assault.

There is now a complete failure of common sense in the UK judicial system. There are not enough police patrols stopping the kind of crime that ruins peoples lives. Criminals are not locked away and they have more rights than property owners attempting to protect their property and families.

The solution ? more police, jail places, stiffer sentences or rights to protect your home and family?

No.

Barricade yourself in your house and get a dog to deter the criminals or make them go elsewhere. Heaven forbid the bloody thing should bite somebody trying to break in though? 

Almost a third of UK householders keep items like golf clubs, cricket bats and heavy torches in case intruders enter their homes, a survey has suggested.
And more than half of them said they were prepared to use these objects, the poll of 4,000 people for the insurance company Cornhill Direct said.

It also reported that only one in five feel safe in their own homes at night.

Source

It suggested that people in Liverpool are most likely to keep potential weapons. Only 7% of Liverpudlians said they felt safe at home at night - well below the national average.

 

[Snoopy]

I heard that ..... I thought of a burglar being confronted by Mrs Nick! 

As back up I guess Nick will have a dead badger, a cello and the Boy under his bed.

Sleeps soundly does our Nick despite his proximity to Scallypool.

[Barman]

I heard that ..... I thought of a burglar being confronted by Mrs Nick! 

[Uncle Mort]

I'm amazed by the figure that only 20% feel safe in their own home at night. What sort of namby-pamby nation are we?

Anyway the one time I got burgled it was in the afternoon. 

[Bar Wench]

When Mr Wench is away I keep a cricket bat next to the bed. Although what good I think he'd be is beyond me. 

[Barman]

I'm amazed by the figure that only 20% feel safe in their own home at night. What sort of namby-pamby nation are we?

Anyway the one time I got burgled it was in the afternoon. 

I think the kind of namby-pamby nation that sees spiralling crime and nothing done about it. The kind that see burglars, muggers, rapists, et al let free after pitifully short sentences ? if they are incarcerated at all.

We were burgled before we left the UK ? one of the most frightening experiences of my life finding somebody climbing in through the bedroom window with my wife and daughter in the hose ? what if I hadn?t woken up?

It lives with you too ? despite the immediate purchase of a baseball bat for ?protection? you can never really feel comfortable in your house again or for that matter leaving it without checking every door/window multiple times or returning to it not knowing what to expect.

If they?d bothered looking for the criminal that traumatised us he would probably have been let off ? we got a much longer sentence.

[Uncle Mort]

But crime isn't 'spiraling' just the perception and fear of crime.

I can understand that you were traumatised by your experience and would justly be included in those that don't feel safe in their own home but you can't tell me that 80% of the population have encountered an intruder at some point in the past.

[Snoopy]

We (Mrs Snoopy and I) used to own a flat in a fairly nice area. All three flats on our floor were turned over during the day when all occupants were at work. We had additional Chubb deadlocks fitted to the front door and the flat was on the fourth and fifth floor so we felt fairly secure. The break in merchants simply jemmied off the door frame. It and the door with it's Chubb locks still locked were placed neatly to one side. Local police were, of course, soooooooo disinterested and sent a young WPC to take details of the items stolen the following day. At that point our neighbour revealed that he was a collector of replica firearms and the burglars had nicked two Uzi sub-machine guns, two automatic pistols and a colt 45 from a box under his bed. Her radio must have nearly melted as she called this info back to HQ and within ten minutes we had the entire serious crime squad crawling over the building. They recovered almost all of our possessions within a week, meanwhile two local post offices and several shops were held up by Uzi wielding gents of an Asian appearance.. Those burglars must have though Allah was indeed good to them that day when they discovered what our neighbour kept under his bed. They missed the real weapons and ammo which he kept in a hidden cupboard behind a wardrobe!

[Barman]

But crime isn't 'spiraling' just the perception and fear of crime.

I can understand that you were traumatised by your experience and would justly be included in those that don't feel safe in their own home but you can't tell me that 80% of the population have encountered an intruder at some point in the past.

I used to live in Maidenhead ? for fifteen years in fact. Got the local paper, the Maidenhead Advertiser every week just to see what was going on.

Not only was our perception of crime from ?hearsay? (friends and neighbours being burgled) that it was spiralling but the paper became a weekly catalogue of the terrible state of things. Every week pages and pages of car thefts, burglaries and vandalism.

This was coupled with the closing of local police stations and a dramatic reduction of police on duty ? if I remember correctly five officers for the whole of Windsor and Maidenhead overnight? Quite frankly calling the police for anything became a lottery ? we saw a strange light in the flooded Thames one night and thought somebody might have fallen in but we had to wait an hour for the police to turn up.

So while ?statistics? may not show spiralling crime my own experiences unfortunately do.

[Uncle Mort]

remember ~  "the plural of anecdote is not data" 

[Barman]

remember ~  "the plural of anecdote is not data" 

Meaning? 

[Uncle Mort]

remember ~  "the plural of anecdote is not data" 

Meaning? 

So while ?statistics? may not show spiralling crime my own experiences unfortunately do.

No offence intended but personal perception isn't always the best judge of the facts.

80% (93% in Liverpool  ) of people are reported to be afraid at night in their own home yet statistically very few of them would ever be burgled. That's not sayng don't take sensible precautions but just don't be scared. 

[Barman]

The problem is that just because the chances of falling victim to crime are statistically low that doesn?t mean it won?t be you. The chances of winning the lottery are tiny yet millions choose to join in every week because statistically, you have as much chance as everybody else.

The crime figures clearly show that crime is falling yet prisons are full to busting and repeat offenders are let free without punishment. Crime doesn?t happen somewhere else any more, a brief look at the local papers or talk with neighbours shows that people are right to be worried about crime. The public also know that there are less police on duty to protect them and the likelihood of one turning up (or even being able to get an answer from the police answering service if you happen to call in the early hours) are slim.

There is something wrong when law abiding householders have to take ?sensible precautions? which include fitting stronger locks, not leaving windows open at night when it is hot, getting a dog, locking access gates, growing prickly hedges, etc, etc. just to protect their property. These are not misguided perceptions but police advice on what you have to do to secure your home.

My expectation was that the police would protect me and mine ? they did not. That left my family living in fear in our own home.

[Landlady]

Being the other half of the equation relating to our previously personally having become part of the UK crime statistics my own comments are as follows: -

Up until the time we were burgled I ?would? have said I felt reasonably safe in my own home (mainly because we had taken all the necessary reasonable protection measures, such as installation of good locks on windows and doors, installation of a burglar alarm with panic button etc) but (and I put my hands up here) the mistake I made was that because I felt reasonably safe each night I left our small bathroom skylight window open and the mistake we both made was having nice cars and possessions which the soding little blighters felt they had the right to take from us.

The SLB in question apparently (based on the police findings around our house) had probably been casing our property for a while as evidence showed they had moved loose paving stones from one area to another to build themselves a nice little ramp to more easily leg it up over one of the side walls and then climb up the drain pipe through the bathroom window and then into our bedroom.

The police said their feelings were that SLB was either probably on drugs or had a weapon on them which afforded them the balls to enter our property whilst they knew we were in asleep in bed and that probably their goal was frighten us enough into handing over the keys to the two vehicles that were parked on our driveway.

When I awoke because Barman was yelling abuse at the SLB (SLB then literally standing at the foot of our bed staring down at us) and then chased the SLB across our bedroom I was petrified.

The SLB escaped Barman?s clutches (narrowly) by throwing themselves back through the small bathroom window and down the drainpipe ? Barman then continued his chase, but by the time he had got down our stairs and out the front door the SLB was gone.

Why am I so sick (still) about the experience ? not JUST because of the terror the SLB put my family through whilst he conducted his prank, not JUST because I was made to feel and still do actually that it was MY FAULT for wanting to sleep safely  in my own house with a small bathroom window open, not JUST because the SLB stole some very personal and precious irreplaceable jewellery which they wouldn?t have given a toss about and would have sold, not JUST because the Police appeared to be totally powerless and basically said no chance of ever catching the SLB or getting anything back but BECAUSE;

I know if Barman had caught him he would have ?had a go? which is totally and utterly outside of his normal non-aggressive nature and who knows where that could have led ? either to Barman perhaps no longer being here because the SLB was armed, or Barman himself forgetting to only use ?reasonable force? when protecting his family and his ending up in Court

For months afterwards it changed us! I slept for ages afterwards with a knife under my pillow and Barman with a baseball bat at his side of the bed. Each time we went out locally I would catch Barman scanning the local younger crowd, not this time playfully ogling tottie but scanning fingers for my lost jewellery ? what if he seen it one day on someone elses fingers and then exploded with anger etc etc.

We have moved on from this episode (actually quite literally moved on because it clinched our decision to leave the UK) and I don?t (won?t) let the SLB episode haunt the rest of our life BUT if ever, EVER, anyone feels they have the bare-arsed right to enter my home again uninvited, scare me and my family almost witless and take what they fancy of our possessions because they feel it?s their right THEN, so help me, I?ll do what I feel is appropriate and take my own chances in Court later on.

I guess you might say I feel quite strongly about this ??.

[Sour Puss]

Another round of applause Landlady, unfortunately we were burgled 3 times in a month in one house, whist we were out at work, although on one occasion, one of the kids, (in the merchant navy at the time) was home in bed one afternoon. He just looked at the burglar, who then legged it. We eventually moved because I was just not happy there any more. I know I would have a go, I know I should not, but it is my nature, I act first and then (much later) think about it. I joined in a rumpus in our front garden at 03h00 one dark morning, adding to the ageing process of my other half, who came down and pulled me out of the melee, which turned out to be Cops and robbers, who had abandoned their escape vehicle in the close at the back of us and legged it through our garden. I am a light sleeper and was outside before I was fully awake and in the thick of it.