Sorry to hear about that mate. My German shepherd sleeps down stairs i think he may like to meet those guys:D

Sorry to hear about your break in Alan, I can sympathise. Not the nicest of thoughts that some scumbag was in your house while you and your family were asleep, will be interesting to see what the law manage to do about this. Did they call it a crime scene and collect evidence such as prints foot prints etc?

P****s me off to think that some junkie is still out there on the loose and robbing some other decent family. Not that im slagging the police, but it probably won't be their priority to get to the bottom of this crime - then again thats not their fault because the bloody powers that be have them playing a stats game and solving 'easy' crimes to make the numbers up.

Anyway nuff said, only thing i'd advise is a decent house alarm system if you haven't got one already. doesn't need to be on fully armed at night, I know that most systems have different settings so you can turn off your upstairs beams and just have downstairs or even just door sensors on so it goes off, and you can also set it so you get a chime when a door is opened. And of course keeping a decent chib of some sort won't go amis, you know you are allowed to use 'reasonable force' when dealing with an attacker, so in the case where you 'fear for you or your familys safety' you are well within your rights to set about anyone on your provate property.

All in all nobody was hurt as already mentioned material things can be replaced.

Think very, very carefully before deciding to "have a go" at a burglar. Some friends of mine did that, but the burglar had a large screwdriver which he used as a knife to stab them. Very nearly killed the husband (ICU for 10 days) and did kill their brave dog.

They did eventually catch the burglar as he dropped his wallet in the scuffle. Slimy b@st@rd tried to deny it was him, and only got sentenced to 18 months jail (plea bargain or somesuch - despite the fact that he very nearly killed someone ! )

In the final analysis it is all just "stuff". People and their health is way more important.

What about fitting a Tracker to cars? then if the worse happens you should get it back. My Uncle had his Civic Type R nicked - only missing for 1.5 hours with the Tracker. Thief got 4 months for it - only served 1! Bring back flogging or chain gangs for years....

A GPS/cellphone jammer that plugs into your cig lighter socket is only 100 euros or less and can be bought over the counter (tho I won't post the link to one). It disables all wireless communications for up to 8 meters around it.

A GPS/cellphone jammer that plugs into your cig lighter socket is only 100 euros or less and can be bought over the counter (tho I won't post the link to one). It disables all wireless communications for up to 8 meters around it.

I think TRACKER Network - Leaders in anti vehicle theft and automatic vehicle location technology is RF not GPS or phone based and the UK traffic police have the scanners to detect it:

From there web site:

"TRACKER HQ activates the unit hidden in the stolen vehicle. The vehicle is now emitting a silent land based radio signal

Stage 3:

The silent signal can now be picked up by any of the UK's 52 police forces that are within the vicinity of the stolen vehicle. The signal will direct the police to the exact location of the stolen vehicle."

More people should use their garages. Mine's perfectly capable. Why spend £20k on a car and leave it outside ?

Or get one of these and see if you can mod it so it works like a Taser

Electric Shock Key Ring Fob Audi, Skoda, VW Joke Prank on eBay, also, Jokes Pranks, Games, Toys Games (end time 26-Jan-09 12:15:30 GMT)

Leaving said thief stunned and on the ground until the police come, but with how the contry is the police would cart you the poor victim off to jail while giving the thief money 'for his injury's'

James.

Or get one of these and see if you can mod it so it works like a Taser

Electric Shock Key Ring Fob Audi, Skoda, VW Joke Prank on eBay, also, Jokes Pranks, Games, Toys Games (end time 26-Jan-09 12:15:30 GMT)

Leaving said thief stunned and on the ground until the police come, but with how the contry is the police would cart you the poor victim off to jail while giving the thief money 'for his injury's'

James.

Quite,

You would get done under the same rules as being in possession of a firearm/offensive weapon or similar.

The judicial system always seems to side with the poor old criminal.

Quite,

You would get done under the same rules as being in possession of a firearm/offensive weapon or similar.

The judicial system always seems to side with the poor old criminal.

All depends on how you word your statement.

All depends on how you word your statement.

Although discussing the relevant mens rea in a public forum might void that

Although discussing the relevant mens rea in a public forum might void that

Brilliant. Legal advice corner - I suspect that having discussed "what we will arm ourselves with when a burglar comes in" on an open forum might just tip the police off that something isn't quite right!!

Seriously - legally speaking tazers and stuff are a highly risky ploy - deliberately having a weapon in the house is not something the courts are keen on. Whatever the circs. You are entitled to use reasonable force to protect yourself/family/property, and there's a lot of political pressure to stand up for householders BUT get blatant with the arming/beating/killling of said intruding scumbag and you are going to be in trouble, no matter what.

The word is proportionate. The much martyred Mr Martin of Norfolk is a cracking case in point.

Best policy has been mentioned somewhere else - make yours the most difficult one to nick, and they'll look elsewhere. Horrible, but that's life. And if you are faced down for the car (which is sooooooo rare, despite what the Daily Mail might want you to believe) then let it go - thieves who are that brazen are few and far between, so those that will do it are best left to it.

Sorry to hear about that mate. My German shepherd sleeps down stairs i think he may like to meet those guys:D

snap they can ask her for the keys.... and see if they get out intact

Seriously - legally speaking tazers and stuff are a highly risky ploy - deliberately having a weapon in the house is not something the courts are keen on. Whatever the circs. You are entitled to use reasonable force to protect yourself/family/property, and there's a lot of political pressure to stand up for householders BUT get blatant with the arming/beating/killling of said intruding scumbag and you are going to be in trouble, no matter what.

Yup.. so shoot them in the face with a shotgun not the back.

Yup.. so shoot them in the face with a shotgun not the back.

And ensure there is a knife in their hand before anyone from the police attend (we are really making a good job of making sure no-one from Briskoda will be able to claim self-defence, aren't we ? )

I know some people who had someone break in through their (not deadlocked) front door, steal their plasma TV, his briefcase and two cars (their Corsa and their Astra). Luckily they didn't realize his Boxster was in the garage, and the keys in the briefcase they got.

Their friendly golden retriever was asleep in the kitchen and didn't even bark.

A week or so later, there was another raid on a house in a nearby village, by what the Police believe was the saem gang. The stole a Civic Type R this time. On the way to the motorway at "high speed" (M1 J13), they spotted a police car, panicked and the CTR's left the road, spun into a ditch and caught fire. One occupant of the car was killed and the others ran for it.

I believe they actually caught one of the escapees, too.

The moral of that story is, I think, lock your house properly, don't believe a dog will protect you, and there is some justice of some kind.

Phil

It think i should point out I was only joking about Tazers key etc....

I watched BBC1 Traffic Cops on Monday night, you know some guy nicked a old Vauxhall Nova from Sussex and drove it up to Midlands and the police got him (hardly hard), they where really pleased about recovering the car and the "owner will be so pleased to get back".... I bet said owner was pleased to be rid of the horrid car! The point is nicking newer cars is hard now, the ones that do are going to do it very violently unless you have a 24/7 guard and nothing is going to stop them.

James.

Edited 28 January, 200917 yr by james26

In fact nicking anything made beyond about 2002 is beyond the reach of virtually all car crims these days, so you get two kinds of thieves - the kids who bend back the doors on sh1tty old Novas like the one mentioned above, then hotwire it the old fashioned way, and the ones who target the higher end stuff and so need the keys.

I think layers of security are the best way to protect your home and property, the more the better. We use to lock our front door and leave the keys in the lock, we no longer do this for obvious reasons. We have external motion lighting. I am OCD about checking and double checking that all the doors and windows are locked. as i said before we have a German shepherd downstairs and a terrier upstairs.

I live in a quiet country area in shropshire and there are not many nice flash cars around so we don't get many "visitors" here but i do not take it for granted one bit.

Came on here this morning just to thank you all for your best wishes - only to notice someone else has been targeted......

You have helped me retrieve some of my faith in human nature......

A week on e have changed and upped our security procedures somewhat – but I am not going into details here!

Alan