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Our house was burglarized yesterday (with a PSA)
They kicked in a panel on our front door (no one was home except Daisy, and she's fine), our alarm went off and they got away with my laptop which held all my pictures. Here is some information I've learned through all this that I want to pass along to everyone here:
Our door looked similar to this:
They were able to kick the bottom left panel out without kicking in the whole door. This allowed them to get inside without the door alarm sounding. We have a motion detector inside which is what caught them. If you have a door like this, consider the risks that could be involved. Also, I'm so glad we had a monitored alarm system WITH the motion detector (which is usually an added feature and not something that typically comes standard). If we didn't have this, we definitely would have lost a lot more of our possessions. GET AN ALARM SYSTEM! They're worth the money.
Put your valuables out of sight. My computer was sitting right out on my couch. No one thinks this will happen to them... but now I will. We put all our valuables away somewhere and not in plain sight. It seems really stupid we didn't do this in the first place... but hindsight is 20/20 I guess.
Keep your blinds closed. The officer said we did 2 things right, we have an alarm and we had all our blinds closed in our house. That just seemed like common sense to me.
Answer the door when strangers knock. The officer said these people usually invade homes during the day when people are at work (our incident happened at 10:45a). He said they usually knock once, walk around the house (to look inside) and knock again. If no one answers they break in. If someone knocks, at least say "Hello?" through the closed, locked door. And mention something about not being able to open the door because you have a big dog inside 
BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS! DO IT NOW! Thankfully I did have most of my photos backed up on an external hard drive (which was not stolen). I haven't backed them up in the past 6 months, so those pictures are lost (except the ones I have on FB). Now I'm going to also back them all up at an off site location. Losing those pictures is what most upsets me about getting my laptop stolen.
Hopefully this can help someone. We were really blessed because this could have been a lot worse!
Re: Our house was burglarized yesterday (with a PSA)
Wow, I am so sorry this happened to you. Thankfully, they were only able to get your laptop and nothing else.
We have an alarm system we use and have motion detectors, I take my laptop to school/work with me daily... dh doesn't. I also keep my blinds closed, this is all so very helpful. Again, I am sorry you had to experience this.
I hope you are able to recover your photos. I know I would be devastated if we lost ours.
Thanks for all the reminders - I need to back up my photos tonight. And bug my parents about getting an alarm system for their house, too.
I'm so glad you guys are OK - and that Daisy's OK. Scary, scary stuff.
I was thinking about you all last night. I know how upsetting it is, you just feel violated. I am glad you weren't home, could have been much scarier! I am all about alarm systems but I do not understand why people do not have them monitored! It is so cheap and that piece of mind is priceless. You have some great PSA's in there.
And I love that my dogs bark when someone walks up my sidewalk... I never correct that behavior. Once they figure out it is someone we know they stop but it scares the sh!t out of people who don't know us.
Hugs to you, I hope you didn't lose too many pictures!
That's so scary. So glad everyone is OK!
My parents got broken into last December. Another PSA: Their alarm was in view of the front door so the robbers could see that it wasn't turned on (parents' fault for not turning on... but if it wasn't in sight, the police say the robbers wouldn't have known. So if you can have yours out of sight from the door, do that definitely.). They live out of sight from the road, so everything was taken: 4 flat screens, 2 computers, all jewelry, and cash. And everything else was just ransacked.. all drawers opened and dumped. All cabinets open and trashed. Even my parents closets trashed. My sisters and I immediately went over. My parents (mainly my mom) were really shaken up. So we opened some wine and just started cleaning. It took all night. It really was very sad and scary. She is still pretty nervous since she is home a lot during the day.
It is such a scary thing but I'm glad they only got your computer! You just have to remind yourself (I had to remind my mom a lot) " they were just after your things... not after you". They just want to pawn it off for a couple hundred dollars. Keep your alarm set. And stay safe.
Editing myself: Haha but also, my parents' front door was crow bar opened. They now have specialty doors that are crow bar resistant.
Good info! I'm sorry that happened to you though. I am always afraid to answer the door during the day if I'm not expecting someone, but I have a girlfriend whose house was broken into during the day when she and her kids were all home and the guy knocked on her door but she ignored it. He ran when she walked in on him in her living room though.
It's scary stuff, I tell ya! I felt a little safer since we have a big mean dog in our backyard, and I figured people wouldn't go in the front, but I guess they will!
Realized I never replied to this.
I'm so glad you're okay! That's scary stuff. Thanks for the reminder that setting the alarm needs to be a habit.
Like Bri's, my dog barks like crazy when someone knocks or rings the doorbell. I also don't correct this behavior, and in fact I often encourage it.
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