A burglary takes place every 106 seconds in the UK

Pulling into my drive after spending a few hours at my cleaning job, I had an overwhelming feeling that something wasn’t right, I just knew something had happened. I placed my key in to the lock and brace fully turned it to unlock my front door, as I pushed it open I felt a surge of cold hair brush past me and I froze. I knew what had happened but refused walk any further to submit to it.

Leo’s dad thought I was jesting with him and scurried past me thinking that we might have turned the heating off before we left for work but, as he arrived at the dining room he could see the curtains frantically dancing around from the wind before discovering that the glass in our French doors had been smashed. My throat closed up and I felt sick, numb and extremely apprehensive. Why would someone do this to us?

1 in 100 homes in the UK are burgled each year.

My son, Leo was one month shy of his first Christmas and his first birthday which followed four days later. Feeling organised, I had finished all the shopping and I even had them wrapped up and stored in the wardrobe in the spare room ready so that I could enjoy the lead up without the impending stress. It had also been Leo’s dads birthday the day before the burglary and I had just brought him the latest game console, games, aftershave and jewellery. We both loved to collect designer perfumes and aftershaves from our past travels and we had an extensive collection between us.

It took me a short while to process the realisation of what had happened even though I had sensed something inordinate before I had unlocked the door. I anxiously studied the Livingroom praying that nothing had been taken and that it was just naughty kids throwing a brick outside before running off. How wrong was I?

Overall, 61% of burglaries take place between 6pm and 6am

How did I not notice that our Tv had gone, it was huge. So had the brand new games console and games that I had given to Leo’s dad for his birthday the day before. My laptop, my friends handbag which had her purse and possession’s inside, one of them iconic transparent coke bottle money ‘boxes’ full of loose change, that was just the living room. They had raided each room, draws were open, cupboard doors were open, there were shards of glass everywhere from it being dragged in from being stuck in the grip of the thief’s shoes.

We didn’t touch anything and I called the police as soon as I could compose myself enough for them to understand me, I couldn’t stop shaking from what had just happened and the freezing cold air that plummeted through the house didn’t help the situation. I had Leo sat on my left hip whilst all of this was happening crying because he could see me crying and stressed, I couldn’t even put him down because of the glass so we kept each other warm with a blanket.

A Burglary on average would take less than 10 minutes.

Whilst trying to calm him down by cuddling him and giving his neck a little nuzzle I remembered his Christmas and birthday presents in the wardrobe upstairs, I didn’t stop to think that they could of gone upstairs, surely they didn’t have time to go rummaging around? The pit of my stomach dropped and I felt sick to the core, I told him dad to go up there because I just couldn’t bare facing someone stealing from a baby. All of his presents. Gone. Our perfume and aftershave collection. Gone. Jewellery. Gone.

The draws in our bedside table opened with my underwear sprawled out over the floor, I felt violated. How long were they in our house for? They had managed to go through every room in the house and take so much stuff it was literally unbearable to think about. The police and forensics team arrived but they never found whoever did this to us, we have our inklings and I still do to this day but will never be able to prove it.

Being as young and naïve as we were, we never thought for one moment that someone would break into our home and take pretty much every decent thing we owned, It never entered our heads. However, I am extremely thankful that we took out contents insurance because without that we would of had to replace everything from our own pockets. This is why contents insurance is so important and why it is imperative that you take it out, it’s less than the price of a takeaway per month.

43% of burglars, know their victims.

There is also the mental state it leaves you in. You feel scared and anxious all of the time, you take it personally and it feels like they are going to come back to finish off. You don’t want to sleep because of how nervous you feel, I didn’t sleep all night that night or months later. It took me years. You are emotionally traumatised. You feel angry. The list is endless.

I have also learnt from our “experience” and have actively made changes to protect this from happening again by following some preventative measures which you can read here in my top tips.