So about 10 minutes ago I went downstairs to turn on the christmas lights (my mother and I work all day but I had a day off today due to illness) and noticed a guy trying to stare through the obscured glass on our front door. I looked through the peephole and it was a REALLY creepy middle-aged guy with a baseball cap on, god knows how long he's been staring for. Anyway, as soon as he noticed I was there he ran off at the speed of light somewhere and I went to load my starting pistol (sounds ridiculous but it's the only thing I have to scare any potential burglars off) I looked out the upstairs windows but couldn't see him up or down the street and our CCTV didn't show anyone even coming down the steps to our house, meaning he came from the other side of our house.. which backs onto woodland.
We keep ourselves to ourselves in this street so it's rare for anyone that isn't a delivery guy to come to our door. It's possible someone was casing the house for a burglary, though.. the downstairs lights were all off at the time and it would've looked like no-one was in.
What's really creeping me out is where he came from though, he must've known we had a CCTV camera around the front to avoid being in its line of sight.
Any advice, FP? I'm gonna find it hard to sleep not knowing what's going on :(
Call the police if you're that concerned. Better safe than sorry
I'd say keep an eye on that area, and if possible, get CCTV at the sides of your house too.
Get cameras at the back of your house, something I would've done long ago if it backs into the woods.
[QUOTE=Kirbyfactor;46691258]Get cameras at the back of your house, something I would've done long ago if it backs into the woods.[/QUOTE]
Probably is a good idea now I think about it, but it'd have to wait until tomorrow morning as it's pitch black out there now.
[img]http://i.gyazo.com/53260a1f81deaee1a0871a6bf6dae082.png[/img]
There is a tiny gap behind the washing line that leads into the woods, but I've never thought of it as an issue before
Is it a typical thing for people to have CCTV by their houses in the area you live in? I live in the South of the UK and, to my knowledge, nobody owns personal security cameras unless their house is also a business.
Call the police, they'll be able to help you much more than we can, and they'll give you advice on what to do. They'll also hopefully send a patrol car or two around to find a man matching the description. If this wasn't your first reaction, you've potentially let him get away.
Twice something like this has happened, and calling the police instantly has always ended up with them sending a patrol car out to find someone matching the details I gave. Both occasions saw the guy caught by police.
[editline]11th December 2014[/editline]
Though to be fair I'm in a town, not much woodland, so it probably makes it easier to find hiding people.
Oh no.
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Shitposting / Snipe" - Swebonny))[/highlight]
Call the police, talk to neighbors, install security and patrol the area for suspicious characters before entering your home.
Its certainly someone casing your house looking for a chance or seeing if there is anything of value in it.
Had this done to our current house twice and our 2nd previous house actually got burgled because of someone doing this type of shit.
All I can say is make it clear that there is someone in the house even when not, leaving something like a light on can be a massive deterrent to opportunists and considering how there is easy access to the back of your house, you might wanna think about blocking it off.
Definitely does sound like someone casing your house, or was about to break in until you caught him.
You say that you and your mum are usually out working so if this guy did some research (which sounds possible due to him being aware of the CCTV) and watch who came in and out of the house it would be easy to tell who is in and who is out. He was probably staring in to double check no one was walking about the house.
tape a note that says "trespassers will be shot" on the back window
Yeah sounds like someone was casing the property. As for not being on camera, he may have either spotted it earlier and decided to avoid it, or just come from a blind spot to reduce his chances of being spotted by a neighbor.
Since he didn't do anything there's probably not much the police can do, but you should still consider filing a police report with including his description.
[QUOTE=Jamsponge;46691323]Is it a typical thing for people to have CCTV by their houses in the area you live in? I live in the South of the UK and, to my knowledge, nobody owns personal security cameras unless their house is also a business.[/QUOTE]
I live in Plymouth, we have to because we have a Jaguar XF S outside and it's a pretty pricy car in a council street. Lots of reports of people stomping on cars that aren't being watched.
I did end up calling the police and they've made a log of it, but nothing more's happened. They said 9 out of 10 times because he saw me he won't be back, but it's still possible.
Geez man thats scary! I hope you stay safe...
Maybe keep that starting pistol with you so if you encounter him again you can use it asap.
[QUOTE=mochisushi;46691714]Oh no.[/QUOTE]
he caught you dude, you better stay away from his house!
Probably casing your house, yeah.
I also like to think he was just someone who was stumbling around the woods and suddenly found a little opening and went through and then he saw a big window and just out of curiosity and not thinking much about it just peered through and... then he saw someone looking back and got the shit scared outta him. :v:
the fact that you caught him helps because i doubt hell do anything when he ran after noticing someone saw what he was doing.
but for geneeal precaution call the police and describe him and inform neighbors and tell them to spread the word.
[QUOTE=.Isak.;46696428]tape a note that says "trespassers will be shot" on the back window[/QUOTE]
I think minefield signs in the surrounding area of forest would be a better idea.
If you see him again, just scream "Fresh meat" and run towards him with some sharp object, he'll never want to come back.
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;46708138]If you see him again, just scream "Fresh meat" and run towards him with some sharp object, he'll never want to come back.[/QUOTE]
Ideally while naked and slathered in fake blood (or real blood, if it suits your fancy).
You're from the UK so buying a real gun is out of question, right? I dont know too much about foreign law but isn't it the UK with the super strict laws?
Put some faux cameras around. I see them cheap around here. They look like the typical IP LAN cameras but they have no connection and are very cheap. Typically the infrared goes on at night as well.
Winter time is usually the season for burglaries, next door had their house robbed the other week (they cut open the glass on the backdoor and opened it up).
My advice is you always make the house look populated, leave a light on, radio on, cover up visible items.
NUKE THE FUCKER!
No, but in all seriousness, call the police. I mean... I always close the door at home because I'm anxious that some cunt might walk in with a gun and blast my family.
[QUOTE=ChronoBlade;46717176]NUKE THE FUCKER!
No, but in all seriousness, call the police. I mean... I always close the door at home because I'm anxious that some cunt might walk in with a gun and blast my family.[/QUOTE]
windows
Well he probably knew that the house was usually empty at that time, so it was lucky you saw him and potentially completely threw him off what he thought was your house's daily routine (since he wasn't expecting you to be in)
He now knows there's a chance you've seen his face, and so if he's smart, he'll know that you'll link a break in over the next few days to that face
The fact he ran off as fast as he could tells you something at least: he's not there to hurt you. It's coming up to Christmas, robberies tend to rise around this time. He's probably looking to nab a few gifts from an empty house. Chances are he won't be back, and if he does come back, he'll probably do it when he knows the house is empty
My house got broken in to about 8 years ago. It's a very creepy feeling, knowing someone was in your house, rummaging through your things. That's the worst part. Just make sure your contents insurance is valid.
Try not to lose any sleep over it, and remember that robbers don't intend to harm you. Put deterrents up and don't think about it too much, just be vigilant.
You should set up a simple alarm system around your house.
It's not that complicated, it is very easy to set up, I would say, no more than 2-3 hours and it can perfectly alarm you of his presence.
You should do it with some copper wire, some strong cord, one of those clips to hang clothes, a good alarm clock, a cork and some tin foil. Get some sticks or branches.
First, set up the clock so as to make it ring. Then just turn it off/remove the batteries. You wrap the tin foil around the ends of the clip, stick with some tape the copper wires to both ends and then insert the cork which has the strong cord attached to it, so you now have an open circuit.
Then the remaining ends of the copper wire, you make them touch the batteries inside the alarm clock. One goes to the positive and the other one to the negative.
The idea is to make the perimeter with the sticks/branches providing the "square" and the height so as to make him trip with the wire, which would in turn release the cork from the clips thus closing the circuit and powering the clock, alarming you of some punk tresspasing your home.
Of course, try to make it very near your house, so as to not wake up just for a dog/cat.
i would be more concerned with the fact that someone could have been casing it since most of the time its opportunists looking for a quick in and out. when i used to live at my parents we had a fence at the back which went into some woodland area/cricket pitch which was also connected to a council estate with a lot of the local criminals living in it.
got burgled once, they took £2000-3000 worth of stuff laying around and snuck out while everyone was asleep upstairs, nobody realized until morning when stuff was missing. few weeks later i heard some noises out my window in the early hours then a few seconds later tripped over something and made a loud noise and ran for it. we went out looking for him but he was long gone.
your parents should look at fencing off the back area, other than that theres not much you can do except make sure you dont leave valuables laying around the house and leave a light on or something.
Didn't read all the comments but heres my advice.
I had a similar thing happen once, i was in the kitchen and i heard the front door open. I assumed it was my mum so i didn't really say anything, i started walking down the hall, not quietly but i'm quite light footed, the front door leads straight to the stairs. So i walked towards the front door thinking "mum is taking a while to get inside" so i have a look and the door was wide open, i look up the stairs and see some dude half-way up the stairs looking at me.
I grabbed the closest thing to me which happened to be a candle stick, it was plastic but it looked metalic and heavy but obviously he didn't know that, and i told him "Get out now" and he just put his hands up, walked down the stairs slowly, went passed me and then ran out the front door.
He had a dark red cap on so i mentioned this to mum and my mum said that he saw him walk past every time she left at lunch to go work, so he must have noticed when my mum left the house. The door was only unlocked because i had walked in about 10-20 mins before he entered.
This was a year ago, and nothing has happened since and we have never seen him since, but yet my neighbors house was almost broken into (attempted but didnt get in). We just got a camera shell with an LED light, battery powered that flashes every 3-5 seconds so it looks like its recording. But it isn't.
Funnily enough, our house hasn't had any damaged parcels since we put that on the house, zero suspicious activity, no salesmen or jehovas witnessess.
Its actually a godsend to have a fake camera there haha.
Fake cameras are a good idea, but how many real CCTV cameras do you see with flashing LEDs?
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