a pretty Canadian break-in

[the_siobhan]

OK, cops just left.

There isn't much of a story. I was sitting in the office doing the Good Work and listening to loud cranky music. Leechwoman to be exact.

I hear rustling with one corner of my brain. Not unusual with all the tarps hanging all over this place, but then something clicks, Hey, all our windows are closed. What's blowing those tarps around?

So I go to the top of the basement stairs. I can see the interior coldroom door. It's wide open. I know I left it closed.

I get that cold still feeling in my core that always marks an adrenaline rush. I walk downstairs and start looking around.

Bedroom window is wide open. The screen has been pried off. Drawers are open and some things have very obviously been tossed around. There is plaster dust all over the bed from where they climbed across the sill.

I. Walk. Very. Slowly. Into the bathroom and storage room. I am wishing I still had my lead-filled baseball bat. I miss my lead-filled baseball bat. If I'm a good girl and ask Santa, you think he'd bring me another lead-filled baseball bat?

There's nobody here. I go outside, sit on the porch and call the cops.

"Is there a chance he's still there?"

"Um... maybe?"

I call Axel and tell him what's going on. After a couple of minutes, I finally say fuck it, grab a tire iron and go upstairs to the construction zone. Nothing. I'm just coming back down when the cops show up. They look around, make a few notes, and leave.

The really fucking creepy part? I just got off a series of midnight shifts and I was asleep in that room an hour earlier. If I was working tonight, I'd still be in bed.

Now I'm thinking of putting bars on that window.

Comments

[the-fury.livejournal.com]

Now I'm thinking of putting bars on that window.

Let me know if you need any help with that. I used to sell and install the things.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Cool. I plan on using you shamelessly.

errr...

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You free tomorrow morning?

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

Recommendations on where to get them? We need to put some in too.


M.

[northbard.livejournal.com]

I'm telling you it was pigeons.

Ok..junky pigeons.

If you decide to get bars, get custom iron-work done instead. It'll cost more, but you can have it made into vines and shit so it'll look decorative AND add security.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Axel's first response was, "Could it have been raccoons?"

Only if raccoons developed an interest in riffling through my sex-toys drawer and nicking all the condoms.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

fucking hell.








You heard rustling over Leechwoman?

believe it or not

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I have really acute hearing. Weird for somebody who has spent as much time as me at eardrum-shattering concerts, but I do.

And you know what else? Sense of smell. I knew there had been somebody downstairs as soon as I got halfway down because I could smell them.

[lisiblac.livejournal.com]

Eek! I'm glad you're okay.

[aidan-skinner.livejournal.com]

Broken glass on the outside windowsill was a firm favourite at some of the posher houses round my way.

Maybe grow something spikey in a window box that's screwed to the sill?

- Aidan

[aidan-skinner.livejournal.com]

Also, holy fuck etc. Getting broken into can be seriously disconcrting...

- Aidan (who should perhspa have made dinner before beer, sorry for the double post)

Spiky. Yes.

[jauncourt.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a small holly bush or stinging nettles. Or something.

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you're okay.

[individuation.livejournal.com]

That's really scary. Is your neighborhood usually dangerous? It didn't seem to be when we were visiting. I'm just glad that you didn't have a confrontation.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Not at all. It is a fairly poor neighbourhood, however.

Our bedroom window isn't very big, so now I'm wondering if it might just have been kids.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're okay and that things weren't worse.

Gessi

[melanie.livejournal.com]

yikes!

um, yeah. is there a way you could arrange to not be there alone for a while?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Well, the Axe will be home shortly.

The thing that worries me is that we're taking off on holiday tomorrow for a week, and I'm afraid they might come back.

We have a friend with a key who is going to stop by every couple of days to pick up our mail, I might ask him to look around and make sure there are no signs of entry while he's at it.

[kudzu.livejournal.com]

That is so scary. You need to buy a gun.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Don't have my FAC yet, can't afford to get it, and even if I had it I wouldn't likely be keeping the gun in my house. We don't have the setup yet to store it.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

First, I'm bloody glad you're alright and everything is relatively ok, all things considered. ie, "No bloody Siobhan" and not so bad "No bloody fisted Siobhan."

Second....2 Words...."12 Gauge". Accept no substitutes. I think you can still get them in Canada right? Nothing says get the hell out of my house than a 12 gauge being racked and chambered. When you absolutely, positively want the goblins out of your house.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

A gas furnace full of shotgun shells doesn't strike me as the best solution in a situation like this.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're OK.

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

Very Scary! I'm glad you're okay, and, yeah, I'd be thinking about bars too.

[peculiaire.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of when my car was broken into and my boyfriend at the time was like "maybe someone hit your door with their door?"

Umm, no.

Glad you're ok. And that apparently the TO Criminal Element is practicing Safer Sex. ;)

*hug*

[caspervonb.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear you're allright.

However, don't get yourself too stressed out
over this. Certainly, this sort of thing makes
one nervous and you should behave with appropriate
caution.

Replace the screen, make sure that your windows all
lock securely and consider bars.

But keep in mind the situation.

If someone broke through a screen, stole condoms
and ran off when they heard someone upstairs,
then it's probably kids. If someone was breaking
into your place for money and valuables instead
of thrills, they probably would have run off as
well but I doubt they would have taken rubbers.

This being said, kids can do a lot of damage and,
you know, maybe it wasn't kids at all. Who knows?

But if your start putting bars on one window, you
pretty much have to put bars on all windows.

Be careful and be safe but don't turn your home
into a prison.

I'll call you tomorrow.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I know well enough that if somebody wants in there is fuck all I can do to stop them.

I would like to block access to people just casually strolling in, though.



(You want my shit, I'm going to make you work for it.)

shite!

[zero-gravity.livejournal.com]

Hey S

I'm a goggle at some of the people suggesting guns. Get thyself that bat i say! When i think about it - almost every one i know with a house has had a break in. My dad, uncle, one of my friends here, and even John who owns this house had his car broken into. Not one of them had anything of value stolen. A few people i know got themselves bars on the windows - but most never had the incident repeated. I'd be more likely to get a BIG fucking dog than a gun.

I don't think it hurts to secure up the place.

good to hear you are ok.

colleen

[missclea.livejournal.com]

woe, glad to know your'e ok... x

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

scary shit.
dogs are a fuck-off brilliant deterrent to that stuff. as are spikey bushes under the windows. i reckon spiky bushes are almost as good as bars, actually.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

also, you can get sticky film that goes on your window and stops it shattering when hit - it does also make it harder to hear, though, and won't hold up to serious assault. and you can get plexiglass/lexan replacement glass.