My Police Experience

Associate
Joined
21 Feb 2009
Posts
187
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Just thought I'd use this opportunity to sing the praises of Northumbria Police.

To cut a long story short, it appears that some toerags tried to break into my house last night whilst we were asleep upstairs. They drilled out the cylinder lock on the external door but having got into the porch didn't go any further (i.e. break through the locked porch door). Me, my girlfriend and 3 children didn't hear anything and the first I knew about it was when I went out this the morning to find the front door ajar.

Must admit, at first I did a double take and thought "stupid fool, I must have left the door open last night" but then saw the lock missing and came to conclusion that I'd had a lucky escape. At that point I wasn't sure whether to report it to the police, thinking that they probably had better things to do, but came to conclusion that I would ring them just so that it could be logged.

Well, within an 1.5 hour of reporting it, I had a uniformed officer at my door who seem genuinely interested in the incident. He took time to talk through the incident with me, explained how they would follow it up (albeit being realistic about arrests) and then went knocking on my neighbours to see if they had seen/heard anything. Over the course of the rest of the day I've had visits from SOCO and CID. Talking with these guys its interesting to see how they will try and follow up crimes and, would you believe it, I've just had a phone call from CID to see if we were OK and has left a direct dial number in case we need to speak with them!

Anyway, I guess there's no real purpose to this post, other than to thank the Police for their support. My real concern lies with my family and in particular my 2 daughters who seem quite anxious tonight. Perhaps I wil sleep downstaits tonight.

Take care everyone,
 
Need a better lock tbh.

And how would a better lock stop any decent burgular ?

If he had a different lock, they would have probably got in by using a crowbar to any double glazed windows. If that didn't work - they would have probably smashed the front door windows and opened it that way. If that didn't work - they would have probably removed a double glazed window pane.... etc etc.

I have even heard of criminals removing the bars in the external hinges in patio/sunroom doors, then simply lifting the door out. Even using crowbars to remove the outer frame of doors ...

If they want in - there is no end of methods to get in..... and considering they came equipped with a drill ( which would have made substantially more noise than most other methods ) - I fail to see how a fancy lock would have made any difference. He needs a decent alarm.
 
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surely a £5 dead bolt would prevent these things from happening?

It was a uPVC door with a multi point locking mechanism. The cylinder lock was drilled out. At the time I thought my security was OK, clearly its not.
 
And how would a better lock stop any decent burgular ?

If he had a different lock, they would have probably got in by using a crowbar to any double glazed windows. If that didn't work - they would have probably smashed the front door windows and opened it that way. If that didn't work - they would have probably removed a double glazed window pane.... etc etc.

I have even heard of criminals removing the bars in external hinged doors, then simply lifting the door out.

If they want in - there is no end of methods to get in..... and considering they came equipped with a drill ( which would have made substantially more noise than most other methods ) - I fail to see how a fancy lock would have made any difference. He needs a decent alarm.

with that attitude you might aswell leave the doors unlocked and open as there gonna get in anyway...

Or, you could replace crappy PVC doors with proper hard wood, install twin dead bolts at the top and bottom and fit a decent lock made from stainless not cheap crappy bronze or low carbon steel.
You can also to prevent burglars install motion triggered lighting around the outside of the house along with a relatively cheap to buy cctv kit.
A burgluar alarm with a decent detection system and pressure pads for windows is another major advatange, also make sure its a company that likes to advertise there presence i.e. big van with there name written on the side, the scumbags have a (low) intelligence network and a decent system will scare off all but the most determined.

But the most effective anti burglar system ive ever come across is a 60lb German shepard that doesn't like strangers in his house.
 
As police forces go they ain't that bad. I mean, we've had a few cases of 'yeah, it sucks, but what can you do?' But then, what can you do?
 
Get a good sized dog. Seriously. Would have sorted that incident out before he had even had chance to start drilling the lock. Home security is one of the main reasons we domesticated the dog :)
 
To the OP, might be an idea to write a letter to their Chief Constable - the Officers concerned will get to read the letter of thanks and it will get appended to their personal file. It is quite nice when you get the odd letter now and then.

A few years ago I even received one from a Thief that I had locked up thanking me for dealing with him in a respectful manner and apologising for taking me away from my patrol duties!
 
And how would a better lock stop any decent burgular ?

If he had a different lock, they would have probably got in by using a crowbar to any double glazed windows. If that didn't work - they would have probably smashed the front door windows and opened it that way. If that didn't work - they would have probably removed a double glazed window pane.... etc etc.

I have even heard of criminals removing the bars in the external hinges in patio/sunroom doors, then simply lifting the door out. Even using crowbars to remove the outer frame of doors ...

If they want in - there is no end of methods to get in..... and considering they came equipped with a drill ( which would have made substantially more noise than most other methods ) - I fail to see how a fancy lock would have made any difference. He needs a decent alarm.
anti drill, anti bump and anti snap, they will get in you just have to make sure they have a hard time getting in
 
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