At 7:50 our lass, the young un and I leave the house with the big dog to take him to dog training, leaving the little dog behind.
At 10:20 we arrive home having visited the 24 hour supermarket for some ingredients for todays packed lunches. Whilst driving up the road our lass says to me 'why are the lights on? I turned them all off' at which point of course I replied 'obviously you missed one'. She was genuinely worried so I got out of the car and when I got to the top of the path noticed that the door was in bits.
I ran back to the car, told them all to stay put and ran to the door. It had been kicked in completely, one of the panels (4 panel door with a vertical glass oval in the middle) at the bottom had been kicked in and the handle/lock/centre of the H had been smashed apart completely.
Put my shoulder to the door and it budged a bit, but it wouldn't open, so I stepped back about to kick it in thinking someone was still inside and the deadbolt was on, when the neighbour came out.
Long and short of it, our left-hand neighbours thought they could smell fire and spoke to our right-hand neighbours who confirmed that suspicion. They called the fire department saying 'we don't know if their 4 year old son is in the house, we think we can see a light on'. Up roll the fire trucks - all 4 of them - and smash the door down. Subsequently an ambulance and 2 police cars turn up.
The fire brigade tore the house apart looking for the cause of the smoke - though there was none it was condensation on the upstairs window following a bath just before we went out. They even went up into the loft looking for something.
Obviously all of this came as a fair old surprise to us, as we'd left the house (with a 2 week old door on it I might add) peaceful, and returned to it in a rather bedraggled state.
Slightly worrying was the fact that there wasn't even an attempt at contact from the fire dept. or the police. No note, no follow-up phone calls. They just left our new keys with our neighbours and disappeared. I'm yet to hear from the PC put in charge of the ordeal, and the fire dept. confirmed to me last night when I called them on my return that they'd found nothing at all wrong with the house.
All in all drama over nothing, and a very expensive door in pieces for nothing.
I'm glad our neighbours notice such things and take action, but when there is nothing wrong and stuff gets smashed apart - and then access granted to a neighbour you might well hate - it's not the best thing to come home to rather late at night. In addition, quite why our neighbour would think that a young child would be left in the house on his own when our lass makes a point of never doing so (even taking him to the ice cream van so he's not inside on his own) I don't get.
So that was my evening. Not much sleep had!
At 10:20 we arrive home having visited the 24 hour supermarket for some ingredients for todays packed lunches. Whilst driving up the road our lass says to me 'why are the lights on? I turned them all off' at which point of course I replied 'obviously you missed one'. She was genuinely worried so I got out of the car and when I got to the top of the path noticed that the door was in bits.
I ran back to the car, told them all to stay put and ran to the door. It had been kicked in completely, one of the panels (4 panel door with a vertical glass oval in the middle) at the bottom had been kicked in and the handle/lock/centre of the H had been smashed apart completely.
Put my shoulder to the door and it budged a bit, but it wouldn't open, so I stepped back about to kick it in thinking someone was still inside and the deadbolt was on, when the neighbour came out.
Long and short of it, our left-hand neighbours thought they could smell fire and spoke to our right-hand neighbours who confirmed that suspicion. They called the fire department saying 'we don't know if their 4 year old son is in the house, we think we can see a light on'. Up roll the fire trucks - all 4 of them - and smash the door down. Subsequently an ambulance and 2 police cars turn up.
The fire brigade tore the house apart looking for the cause of the smoke - though there was none it was condensation on the upstairs window following a bath just before we went out. They even went up into the loft looking for something.
Obviously all of this came as a fair old surprise to us, as we'd left the house (with a 2 week old door on it I might add) peaceful, and returned to it in a rather bedraggled state.
Slightly worrying was the fact that there wasn't even an attempt at contact from the fire dept. or the police. No note, no follow-up phone calls. They just left our new keys with our neighbours and disappeared. I'm yet to hear from the PC put in charge of the ordeal, and the fire dept. confirmed to me last night when I called them on my return that they'd found nothing at all wrong with the house.
All in all drama over nothing, and a very expensive door in pieces for nothing.
I'm glad our neighbours notice such things and take action, but when there is nothing wrong and stuff gets smashed apart - and then access granted to a neighbour you might well hate - it's not the best thing to come home to rather late at night. In addition, quite why our neighbour would think that a young child would be left in the house on his own when our lass makes a point of never doing so (even taking him to the ice cream van so he's not inside on his own) I don't get.
So that was my evening. Not much sleep had!
