A String of Break-Ins

A few years ago — within a year after my husband and I bought our house, actually — there was a string of break-ins in our neighborhood. I remember it was during that first year, because at the time the rental house next door had several rowdy teenagers living in it, and we were pretty sure they were doing and dealing drugs out of that house, not to mention possibly a party to the burglaries.

Half a dozen houses within a two or three block radius were broken into over, I don't know, a couple week period. The house two doors down from us was one of them. The break-ins were all around dinner time, just after it got dark (it was winter) and before many people had yet come home from work. The thieves were smart — first one would knock on the front door of a house that still dark looked dark, and if no one answered and they didn't hear a dog, they would go around back. Then they would break in witih a screwdriver, and take anything that they could turn into fast cash: money, electronics, jewelry, etc.

Our neighbor was devastated when they broke into her house. She was out of town at the time, and her dog was with her; her dad was coming over in the evenings to check on the house, and actually interrupted the burglars and scared them off. When our neighbor got home, she promptly installed an ADT home security system, installed motion sensing lights on the sides of her house, and posted "Beware of Dog" signs on her fence and front porch.

Misfortunes like this demonstrate how important it is to be careful and protect yourself from these types of things. Although our neighbor did learn and now has a security system installed, it didn't save her from that particular break-in. It was a hard lesson to learn, I'm sure!