Watch out there's a thief about.

[Madhatter]

Those council doors with the one sheet of glass at the top and the thin ply at the bottom are verry weak, the ply is only held in with panel pins. I'd recommend getting od job to put screws all round from the inside to replace the panel pins.

[jambutty]

My pleasure katex.

If you have a telly, a computer and a hi fi then you have something valuable to steal. You may have a digital camera or a camcorder or a printer or scanner. All valuables for the burglar because they are easily sold. In fact anyone who buys cheap goods at the pub etc. is as guilty as the burglar. If no one bought the ill gotten proceeds of a burglary then there wouldn’t be all that many. A pipe dream I guess. You can hardly blame a single mum on benefits or a family on the dole taking advantage of a decent telly for £20, can you?

But it’s not the theft so much as the violation of your home. Knowing that a complete stranger has been through all your belongings. And of course it is the mess created by the thief and later if you have been lucky enough to actually get the Socco lot in, the mess that they create with that stuff they use for testing for fingerprints. All you get from them is, “a little bit of washing up liquid will get rid of the stuff.” Whilst true you then have to get rid of the washing up liquid film on everything.

Then some really spiteful burglars, when they cannot find any cash or jewellery, they take out their frustration on your property. Tearing down curtains, slashing couch etc. breaking mirrors, crockery, spraying your walls with graffiti.

I would give all burglars a suspended sentence – by the neck or at least by the feet in a tub of sewerage.

At least a property with the modern doors and double glazed windows does make your home a bit more secure but that is a fat load of use if your leave them open or unlocked when you are out or asleep.

Take care what you leave lying around outside. A wheelie bin is as good as a ladder to some guys. One guy stands on the wheelie bin, the other climbs onto his shoulders to reach that small open window that you thought was safe from entry.

If you must have an open window at night then make it the small one in your bedroom. Someone trying to get in through it will wake you before they get in and you will be able to scare them off.