Just need to vent and lament.

ajchien · Oct 26, 2011

Well, I always thought that my house was messy. That is, until a burglary happens. Now it's really messy. So now the police report is filed, and I've started the insurance claim.

But the cleanup is a little daunting. Add that I need a new front door, back door, and a window. I've got shattered glass all over.

:sad:

WorkToFish · Oct 26, 2011

Hi ajchien,

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. What a pain in the **** and hassle to have to cleanup and deal with this unexpected violation.

Whenever I hear of folks getting broke into I think ...Not if...but when I get robbed someday, I just hope none of my family is home. You never know what nut jobs will do.

later,
Fish

Toolfool · Oct 26, 2011

Sorry to hear of the violation. Been there myself. Part of the reason I moved here from NY.

TWX · Oct 26, 2011

My brother was broken into. First get a claim in to your insurance for the doors and windows. Then go through and work on the property. The sooner the doors and windows claim, the sooner the check for those to fix them. My brother got $2000 for his back sliding door.

LWaite · Oct 26, 2011

Wow
Hope you get it fixed soon and back to a somewhat normal life again

rickairmedic · Oct 26, 2011

AJ sorry to hear about this . The good news as others have said is nobody was home or hurt . Stuff can be replaced . I have been robbed a few times myself and I know it does hit you hard at first but then you realise its just stuff and it does get better ( especially when you get to see the punks get put away for a while )

.

Rick

Daniel Dudley · Oct 26, 2011

Make it safer, better, stronger. Take back your house, you are not meant to be a permanent victim.

z28snksknr · Oct 26, 2011

If it were me, I'd hire that repair work out and get insurance to pay for it just so I wasn't inconvienenced any more than necessary by the assholes that did the damage. The more impact they have on your mindset and attitude, the more they've stolen.

If you can, upgrade your doors / windows. Time to fire up that lemonade machine with all those lemons you have around

Mmfh · Oct 26, 2011

Be careful and keep an eye on what the insurance company gives you for replacement doors and windows.

My buddy just got hit, he has an older home that has very heavy, nice, doors and window. The insurance co. sent a installer out with cheap Home depot junk and it would have been just another kick away from another break in.

If you have an older home and had nice doors, and windows, insist they replace with equal quality stuff and not them tell you that's all that's available. They can get a door custom made if they have too.

It cost them over 2k to have his door custom made to match what was there before.

Just sayin,

Mm

lowbucktruck · Oct 26, 2011

Man, that *****. Sorry to hear that. But at least its just stuff.
Good advice from Mmfh... make sure you upgrade your door hardware. I'd go shopping for the beefiest locks, strike plates and deadbolts I could find. My wife had her car broken into a few years ago and her keys stolen (don't get me started on that)... so I took that opportunity to change out all of the door locksets, deadbolts and strike plates on our house with upgraded hardware. Best money I ever spent.

lowbucktruck · Oct 26, 2011

Man, that *****. Sorry to hear that. But at least its just stuff.
Good advice from Mmfh... make sure you upgrade your door hardware. I'd go shopping for the beefiest locks, strike plates and deadbolts I could find. My wife had her car broken into a few years ago and her keys stolen (don't get me started on that)... so I took that opportunity to change out all of the door locksets, deadbolts and strike plates on our house with upgraded hardware. Best money I ever spent.

Zeke · Oct 26, 2011

ajchien said:
Well, I always thought that my house was messy. That is, until a burglary happens. Now it's really messy. So now the police report is filed, and I've started the insurance claim.

But the cleanup is a little daunting. Add that I need a new front door, back door, and a window. I've got shattered glass all over.

Damn. Why did they trash 2 doors and a window? Let me guess, they broke the window, got in and you have double dead bolts so they broke 2 doors to get out with the stuff. Or worse: you have a detached garage and they got into that too.

Did this happen in the day when you were gone? That's my biggest fear.

Sorry about this. List what tools you might have lost and maybe the GJer's can set you up with some surplus for the cost of shipping.

tigerbalm2424 · Oct 26, 2011

I always thought the most frustrating part was over the next couple of years when you CONTINUALLY find more and more things that were stolen...... Im still finding them... :headscrat

4Tigers · Oct 26, 2011

Sorry to hear this. security is first at this point, some times these nut jobs return Talk to your neighbors and get people watching.

Hope everything works out for best

Outlander · Oct 26, 2011

tigerbalm2424 said:
I always thought the most frustrating part was over the next couple of years when you CONTINUALLY find more and more things that were stolen...... Im still finding them...

This is right on. I just discovered something this weekend from my robbery last year. Work it through with your insurance, check many times with your family to find things missing. My contractor did a good job.....I felt I got a square deal.

Sorry to hear about it.....it is the world's biggest pain. Hope everything works out for you. Feel free to reach out......I still get letters from the court about the 'progress' the now ex-con is doing......one of them got 4 months time for his joy ride through my cottage.

ajchien · Oct 26, 2011

Thanks for all the thoughts, GJ bros.

It seems to have happened between 9am-2pm. Broad daylight.

They broke 2 windows from the front, couldnt get in. They broke the window in my front door - couldnt get in. I've got a gate/wall around my home (we're in southern california), which they hopped over. A new side garage door (I just put this in a few months ago) has 3 pry bar marks on it, they didnt get in. But my backyard sliding door .... well it had a 4ft x 3ft hole with glass shattered all over the family room carpet.

The place is kinda a mess. I still dont know what they all took. I do know they got my wife's engagement ring.

What ***** is that I was going to have a handyman contractor come and help me with a bathroom remodel yesterday, but he couldnt come. Man, I wondered if I would have insisted that he come that this wouldnt have happened.

So today, I've got someone helping out with the bathroom remodel, while other folks are boarding up broken windows and the sliding glass door. In a home that's been rummaged through. What a mess.

Here's the GJ tidbit: The guys boarding up the house ... 1/2in plywood on outside, really long 12" bolts with 3/4 nuts with a 8 foot 2x4s on the inside... they were tightening the nuts (while holding the 8" long 2x4) ... with channellocks. I stared at the guy for a little while ... went to the garage ... and handed him my 3/4 ratcheting wrench. his response was "Dude, we gotta get some of these!". lol... ok.

Zeke · Oct 27, 2011

That seems pretty brazen to me to break 3 points of entry, try a 4th and finally bust out the glass in your patio door. I install all kinds of doors and on occasion I've broken glass to facilitate removal. It makes a hell of a noise, even the tempered stuff that turns into popcorn. Dogs start barking and sometimes neighbors come out. For the last few years I have been covering the pane to be broken with self adhesive shelf paper and some duct tape. Less noise and easier clean up. I't hard to get every last piece out of the carpet or off the floor surface.

Your thieves had balls or were high.

Now, do you think they knew what they were after? I never let anyone in my house unless it's absolutely necessary. If I have service done like carpet cleaning, no one gets out of my sight. No one sees anything if I can help it. I do believe most burglaries are not random. I won't even let my gardener mow the back; I do it.

Graymills - Craig · Oct 27, 2011

Ouch. Sorry to hear it.

clkimmel · Oct 27, 2011

Zeke said:
I never let anyone in my house unless it's absolutely necessary. If I have service done like carpet cleaning, no one gets out of my sight. No one sees anything if I can help it. I do believe most burglaries are not random. I won't even let my gardener mow the back; I do it.

Good Advice!

OccupantRJ · Oct 27, 2011

Hmmm... A handyman was supposed to come that day, but could not make it? Or did he?

TWX · Oct 27, 2011

Zeke said:
Now, do you think they knew what they were after? I never let anyone in my house unless it's absolutely necessary. If I have service done like carpet cleaning, no one gets out of my sight. No one sees anything if I can help it. I do believe most burglaries are not random. I won't even let my gardener mow the back; I do it.

I let the gardener in, but the gardener is my dad, who's retired and is paid by my storing his '73 Charger SE in my climate-controlled garage for him...

On a more serious note, the back fence wall is short enough that I can't really keep people in the alley from seeing over the fence into the back yard at the moment, so for me there's no reason to restrict access to any maintenance staff. It also helps, though, that we tend to use the same companies over and over, so we reduce the number of individual people that we grant access, and so far they seem to be trustworthy.

ajchien · Oct 27, 2011

OccupantRJ said:
Hmmm... A handyman was supposed to come that day, but could not make it? Or did he?

yeah, that of crossed my mind. except that he really was at a different job at the time - and he had access to my key - dont think he needed to break THAT many windows.

slickgt1 · Oct 27, 2011

Wow sorry to hear dude. Did you have any cameras?

c39er · Oct 28, 2011

Toolfool said:
Sorry to hear of the violation. Been there myself. Part of the reason I moved here from NY.

Colton Harris-Moore-AKA "The bare foot bandit" was kinda in your neck of the woods!

Just need to vent and lament.

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