My sister and her family had the awful reality of being burgled whilst away on holiday a couple of weeks ago. The effect this had on them all as a family was shocking. The kids in particular have not been the same since returning home.
The house was trashed from top to bottom, with no stone left unturned. They even nicked my nieces little scooter thingy...I mean they cost about £20 new ffs, and this one was about 3 years old
They loaded up their family car and drove off with it all in the boot!!!
Anyway...since this happening, my nephew has been perhaps the worst shaken by it all, he used to be a typical 11 year old, out with his mates as soon as he got home from school, wanting to stay up for as long as possible before going to bed. Now he has to get picked up from school by one of the family, and when he gets home, he basically stays in, sits on the sofa, and doesn't move, until its time to go to bed, at which point (at the moment) he insists on sleeping with either his mum or dad. Hes just scared that the 'men' might come back.
As suggested in the title, since the first day of this, the police have been absolutely superb. It has been about 2 weeks now, and I would say that almost everyday, someone has been in contact with my sisters family, either a local PC dropping in to see how they are, victim support offering their services, or CID giving them constant updates on their progress.
Last night she received a call to say that they have arrested one man, and are about to arrest another. They have recovered about 80% of their belongings by the sound of it...although obviously it is too early to be sepecific.
The family had to go in to the Oxford division last night to identify loads of items etc., and whilst there, the CID gent took a considerable amount of time to explain to my nephew how they go about catching scumbags like this...techniques used etc...which he found fascinating. He went to bed last night in his own bed for the first time since the incident.
He also told my sister how the theives, on knowing that the first people to recover the stolen car are likley to be the Police, they put razor blades in the drivers seat when they dump it!!!!!!



I mean...how ****ed up is that!
Anyway, apparently the ****ers have been doing this for sometime...and their method is to cruise the streets at about 8/9 o'clock,and look for houses with no lights on. When they spot a few, the come back about an hour later, and if there are still no light, they go in.
So the old wives tale of leaving a landing light on would probably have stopped my sister from getting done-over! She had ensured that people where going to the house on a daily basis to feed her pets and make it look as though someone was in and house was not empty...but I guess it was just bad timing.
My advice...get yourselves down to halford/argos/B&Q today for some of those plug in timer thingies...AND USE 'EM!
But as for the Police...couldn't fault them i any way...in fact they went way above and beyond any expectations.
BIG UP THAMES VALLEY POLICE...
[Edited on 2-3-2006 by Harv748]