I was just having my evening meal earlier when someone knocked on my door. On opening it, I was greeted by a very pleasant female gendarme - her colleague stood at the gate - who informed me that my neighbour (whom I never see and have only exchanged pleasantries with once last year) had been burgled. As soon as she established that I had no information of any assistance she bid me a ‘Bonne Soirée’ and left - but not before taking my full name, place of birth and date of birth. I wondered why she needed my details, but I guess she will run them through a computer to see if I had a ‘history’ and might, therefore, be a suspect.
Only yesterday I was thinking to myself how quiet and presumably safe my town is, and chided myself for my preoccupation with keys, locks and things of a security nature.
I have little worth stealing, however THEY won’t know that . . . .
Sorry to hear that - hope your neighbours didn’t lose too much and have insurance.
That said, having been burgled myself twice, the worst bit about burglary is not what’s taken or how much it’s worth but the feeling of violation - that someone has been in your private space poking around in your things.
And the worry that it might happen again when you are there. The second time my place was burgled was at my house in Turks & Caicos where someone climbed up on to the deck (the house was built on concrete columns to catch the breeze) and forced open the sliding door with a screwdriver.
Fortunately we had motion detectors and an alarm which scared them off, and it was in the daytime, but other folks on the island that I knew once woke up to find themselves being threatened by a guy with a machete…
Essential info for any form of french official business or enquiry.
While the 14th July week of jollities was on, I rounded the corner from back to front house to see a bloke emerging from my cave.
I broke into hi-vol A-Saxon, "What the fuck are you doing here!"
Our man, cringing, offered a hand and said “Dormir! dormir!”.
Spurning the hand I waved at the steps down to the street and bellowed “Allez the fuck dormir chez vous!”
He scuttled chop chop.
He had a capacicious back pack. He hadn’t taken any of the gardening kit - hedge-trimmer, strimmer etc but the place smelled of beer and a 6-pack was missing, as were 5 bottles of ‘Confidence’, my fave blanco. Two more were missing from the case at the bottom of the step. Fortunately they are only €2.38 ea [3 for 2] at Lidl, still on sale.
By a small miracle I found the key to the cave, after 5 years of leaving the door unlocked.
My neighbour Jean-Luc had it that this cove was S.D.F. - sans domilcile fixe.
The houses on my street are not fave robber prospects. The street doors are set in a wall 4m high. I do have occasional ‘dings’ on the bell by passing yoof, which I tend to ignore. I have bought a couple of camera but there’s a problem with linking to the router on account of a conflict of 5g/2.4g [?]
You should be so lucky. My ex lives in a jungly suburb of Port of Spain, Trinidad. This place has rocketed up the UN homice charts on account of being only 8 miles across a channel from Venuzuela - drugs.
My last trip, the place had only the previous week been lifted from a 6 month curfew patrolled by the Army. Anyone on the street 22:00 - 07:00 shot on sight. Lots of lock-ins at the rum shops!
One morning she had found that ‘teef’ had climbed up the cliff onto her deck from the jungley valley below and hoisted her fridge over the railing. They tried with the washing machine but it was too heavy.
I was down the brico for razor wire chop-chop.
Her neighbour, armed, had apprehended two teef, also armed. All three ended up dead. A pal of hers was car-jacked and held hostage for a week …
Dreadful place, Trini.
Yes TCI was pretty safe on the whole when I was there.
One possible way to solve that is to switch off the 5GHz wifi on your router temporarily when setting up the connection to the cameras, as they often only can use 2.4Ghz. Once you’ve got them up and running, you can turn 5Ghz back on on your router, making sure it provides both 2.4 and 5Ghz wifi signal. The cameras shouldn’t mind as long as they can connect to the 2.4Ghz signal.
Main TF1 news on monday or tuesday night had a report on how house burglaries have fallen greatly here in France since people have installed cameras, alarms etc. Of course, some people will never learn and leave windows open, doors unlocked and tools and ladders in the open thinking it will never happen especially in isolated country areas where they are less likely to be found but often the opposite happens and no will will disturb intruders if the owners are absent. I worried about being away for over two months recently but my neighbours kept an eye out, all have cameras everywhere and family called by every couple of days and I also informed the local gendarmerie I was absent so at least it was on their records just in case! One trick burglars are using is to put a large piece of blank paper into post boxes with just the end sticking out under the flap and they can then see if it has been disturbed or not meaning someone has opened the box.
“Burglar’s codes” or supposed schemes whereby burglars determine when houses are empty are urban myths.
Precisely - burglary is a crime of opportunity 99% of the time. If you are in the other 1% where you have significant valuables and a burglar might actually spend some time planning how to break in they are not going to communicate that fact to other burglars. They are not altruistic and the real world is not Ankh-Morpork: there is no Thieves’ Guild.
Well the paper trick was on a circular sent round by local gendarmerie so maybe not an urban myth. The old trick of marking with chalk was never a myth either, happened a lot in Brittany.
Another paper trick is to put a small slip of paper into the hinge side of a door. People entering tend to be looking at the other/lock side. If it’s on the floor later, they’re in and out. If not, then not.
I did this to determine if my alcoholic neighbour had opened her door recently - back from a 24/36 hr binge.
When the police came, after a friend had reported animal abuse [dog in flat 24/7] my tiny piece of paper fluttered down when the officer opened the door. She noticed it. I told her I put it there. She was impressed.
I think you have to ask yourself how likely it is in practice that the sort of person who fits the socio-economic profile of a typical burglar would engage in advance planning and altruistic behaviour when there are easier ways to determine if a house is unoccupied.
As to the gendarmes perpetuating the myths - yes, there are instances of police forces doing this effectively conned by the “quick pass this on it’s really important” element which often accompanies the story. Also, they may well be under separate pressure to “keep everybody informed” and it hardly does them any harm to have everyone a little more worried about crime.
Yep, recently the Prefecture, the Gendarmes and the various Mairies around here have passed on the advice. Makes sense not to leave post/something sticking out of the letterbox.
A lifetime ago, back in UK one knew something was up/wrong if the milk bottles were still on the step more than a day…
Filled ones meant the householder was possibly ill and empty ones meant the householder had cancelled the milk before going on holiday, but left the empties out by mistake as they bundled off and away.
We’ve also got the door-knockers who will be all innocent and offer some obscure service if someone answers the door… an unanswered knock can be the start of an unwelcome visit if the people decide the place is empty.
Yes, but is it not rather than a signal to others but an indication to them that the house is unoccupied for some days?
Sticking a piece of paper in the post box?
Perhaps the occupier has asked a neighbour to empty the box. Perhaps La Poste actually deliver real post and it gets pushed inside. Perhaps it rains and the paper soaks up moisture making it a bit limp with the same result.
Perhaps some other ne’er do well notices your “tell” and hits the place before you do.
In short it’s too unreliable.
On the other hand, walking past the house a couple of times, noting shutters down when you’d expect people to be home, noting the absence of a car for a few days straight is simple and reliable and doesn’t alert your competitors.
Now those sound more plausible - especially the knock at the door with a ready story should someone prove to be in and a quick nip round the back and smashed window if not.
Simple, reliable and doesn’t require planning or knowledge of secret masonic codes.
I suspect it’s a bit of damned if they do, damned if they don’t. If they don’t say anything and someone is burgled using the method then they’ll be pilloried. If they do something and nothing happens then no harm done. Pretty standard in risk averse organisations.
ETA: in case it’s not clear, I posted this somewhat jokingly, I am not advocating actually shooting or otherwise physically assaulting burglars except in dire emergency.
Applicable more to the USA perhaps.
Depends on the method used to deburglarize. 