My house got broken into today. (How do you protect your collections?)

[marvelvscapcom2]

Hello everyone

 
Today I went out to eat with my family and had such a lovely morning with sunny beautiful weather which would sadly end in a bad surprise when we returned.  I went out in my car leaving my house completely unattended as my girlfriend who usually does streaming on the 2nd floor came.  We enjoyed such a lovely evening with my 92 year old great grandmother out of town and my parents. 


When I returned I was greeted with a pretty negative sight that has haunted me and has been one of my worst nightmares since as far as I can remember deciding to hoard valuable things lol.






My bottom landing door was completely caved in. Split up the middle, door frame pounded through and dead bolt snapped. And the 2nd floor door was completely split around the door knob, shreded with a crow bar, hammer dents all over the door knob but not breached luckily.  Somehow they gave up.  My door on the 3rd floor was untouched.




I am so lucky that they werent able to steal anything. It's the only silver lining to it all. But I still feel so violated.  It's a horrible dirty feeling to know someone has broken into your home and violated your space and privacy.  I can't describe it.  It's like a feeling of being breached.  I feel like I'm being watched now and have been paranoid every since.


My only idea for why they gave up is my 110 pound labrador.  I assume he heard the noise and barked spooking them off.  He was pretty shooken up when we got back.


This was broad daylight mind you. 
 

Tough one for the books.  But this has been a great wakeup call to fortify my home like I always should have with some sort of private security system.   And I can take this as a positive which is my only way of moving on and coping.  I think this was a warning to show me that I need to be less silly with my collection and protect it with a alarm type thing that alerts the police.


Which brings me into the question part of my post.


How do you guys protect your home from burglars? 



For the record, I do have means of protecting the house from an intruder if i'm present.


But that only helps when i'm home.  Which in fairness is most of the time.


What i'm really looking for is one of those alarms that work with Alexa that when someone breaks in it sends an Alarm to the police immediately and then you can see who did it and stuff like that and usually the alarm scares them away



But for now I am going to buy 2 water proof motion detecting cameras and a sign that says "Trespassers will be shot" and stuff of the sorts



Sorry for a negative post everyone but I would really like to here opinions.  Have any of you ever been robbed?  It's so scary 

[oldgamerz]

Sorry to hear this

You can't really prevent yourself from being robbed if the burglar is desperate enough. When I lived alone in Detroit Michigan in an apartment. I just happen to be both home and awake at 4AM. someone started to shake my door nob but as soon as the person saw me on my computer through my window, the guy said the word shit and ran away from my apartment, at this time I didn't really anything he could steal. besides my desktop PC.

I would watch who You bring into your apartment and what you tell people. But I got lucky because I was both home and awake when this happened. Also I heard of someone getting robbed of food as well from another person I used to talk to in Detroit area.

It is safer to live with someone and  sometimes to have good neighbors that will help you or witness something.

My rule for the city life is don't trust anyone, make friends with good neighbors if they can be trusted

Be aware that now people have different ways of robbing someone place, I've even had people enter my 2nd apartment with a key or lock pick leaving no trace behind, except for muddy boot prints on my kitchen floor.

Also I was robbed some of my music CD's by some roofers. That were working on my apartments roof they stole some things I had in storage in my attic at the time

Sometimes an alarm does nothing to help you there are ways people can disable them, and they cost a ton of money. I would try to talk to your landlord as well marvelvscapcom2.

[bikingjahuty]

Sorry to hear the bad news. Yeah, it feels very unsettling when you have something stolen from you. I had a bike stolen a while back, and miraculously recovered it about 8 months later through pure chance! Still, when I got it back it just didn't feel the same, probably because I knew some scumbag took it, had it, sold it, and it was being used by another person who had no idea it was pilfered goods. I've fortunately never lived somewhere that was broken into, but I can imagine feeling like you do right now if it did :/

[oldgamerz]

I do not have respect for people who steal for pleasure or to make profit off someones else's stuff. I could care less if they felt they needed to get high and buy drugs or if they just took it just because they wanted to.

I also don't like people that blame stealing in general as a mental illness. or diagnose or call someone innocent because of kleptomania sorry but I lost a lot of stuff growing up from possible kleptomaniac people


Off topic but I've had a lot of things stolen from people I thought were my best friends

lets see brand new game boy all game boy games, all game gear games plus Game Gear with magnifying screen, these thing were not cheap and I still to this day feel violated because it was all gifts from my family and even hot wheel cars in which I am no longer upset about


screw people who steal for fun or to sell or buy drugs or any other reason. Food is acceptable but anything else not so

(edit) I did eventually get both the Game Gear and the Game boy back from a complete stranger. Another boy I never met before came to my door I was nice to him. and he returned them. from somewhere I never seen him ever again for all I know it could have been an angel.

He somehow obtained it he was vary nice and I thanked him. But I never played it again because the games were still gone and I thought I would never be able to buy any more games for them

[marvelvscapcom2]

Sorry to hear this

You can't really prevent yourself from being robbed if the burglar is desperate enough. When I lived alone in Detroit Michigan in an apartment. I just happen to be both home and awake at 4AM. someone started to shake my door nob but as soon as the person saw me on my computer through my window, the guy said the word shit and ran away from my apartment, at this time I didn't really anything he could steal. besides my desktop PC.

I would watch who You bring into your apartment and what you tell people. But I got lucky because I was both home and awake when this happened. Also I heard of someone getting robbed of food as well from another person I used to talk to in Detroit area.

It is safer to live with someone and  sometimes to have good neighbors that will help you or witness something.

My rule for the city life is don't trust anyone, make friends with good neighbors if they can be trusted

Be aware that now people have different ways of robbing someone place, I've even had people enter my 2nd apartment with a key or lock pick leaving no trace behind, except for muddy boot prints on my kitchen floor.

Also I was robbed some of my music CD's by some roofers. That were working on my apartments roof they stole some things I had in storage in my attic at the time

Sometimes an alarm does nothing to help you there are ways people can disable them, and they cost a ton of money. I would try to talk to your landlord as well marvelvscapcom2.

I live in what was the 24th most crime ridden city in the country but now I think it might even be higher.  Most of the crime statistics come from theft.  And the opioid crisis in my city is so crazy.  Everyone is on drugs.  Heroin, pills, meth.  They will steal a pepsi can off your picnic table if they think they can sell it for a dollar. 

This is not the first shady thing to happen to me in my neighborhood.  Actually about the 3rd.  But the other 2 didn't affect me as bad because since I keep to myself and am not a criminal.  I was able to ignore or avoid them.

The 1st incidence was right after I moved into my new home.  Their was an ATF raid in the house next door.  Turns out the punk kid that always gave me dirty looks had murdered like 5 people in gang wars.  So they arrested him. He's doing life without parole.  It was raided 2 times after for cocaine trafficking.   But in fairness the landlord booted the tenants out and actually brought some better people in.  So the neighborhood clean up for a while

Second incident was when I was waiting to go out for breakfast with my dad at 4 am.  (He gets out of work at 4 am and we go for breakfast sometimes)   Their was a hooker who came up to me from the corner and asked if I wanted to "party".  I had my dog with me so she left.  I said no.  Later that night, her and her pimp went on to hold some guy at knife point 3 houses down.  Woulda been me if I hadn't said no. 


I have my firearms license due to how bad my area is.  And I protect myself at all times with pepper spray as well. 


It's so scary how horrible people can be.  I have adapted to it but I really should move



My neighbors are the ones who probably did it in all honesty.  It was very odd how perfectly it was timed and how they knew nobody was home to do it.  It was daylight and I had my car in the driveway.  Id assume most theives would be scared.  I think it was the neighbor who is on drugs.  But I have no proof.



Thank you for the comforting words OldGamerz and BikingJahuty.  I hope I can become less paranoid.  But I am on high alert now. 

[vivigamer]

Sorry to hear, I can't imagine how badly I would react to something like this - My place is pretty small to so of valuables to take my Game collectyion would certainly stand out. CCTV is probably a good option and maybe an alarm system set up for the door too - I personally wouldn't resort to guns as a deterrance but then I have vey conflicting thoughts on Americas laws on guns in general.

My area isn't so bad though and I keep my windows covered with a light curtain so nobody can see through, the biggest concern is as I rent the place is when builders or similar work men come in when I'm not around - I rent so the landlord has to do things for the upkeep but I still try be around for whenever that happens. But that is one of the main reasons I take photos of all my new games and post them on here, so I have proof and can keep track of everything.

[oldgamerz]

My advise for anyone who thinks they have or does have a stalker or someone spying on them. You could try telling the police, but if they cannot help you

than my further advice is, to not to live your life in a routine or schedule all the time unless you need to. In an extreme situation if any who does have a stalker or someone planning on robbing you they will usually pick on a person with a constant typical routine or schedule

Sometimes you gotta think that if you yourself were going to rob, or stalk someone else what would you do? and what time would you attempt to do it? and a baseball bat or even a knife or gun can't save you if the robber has a gun themselves

I will say a prayer for you marvelvscapcom2 but just be careful and please if you have a landlord maybe they can help you?



Thing is 4AM is when most people are in a deep sleep. and just thinking about what I said earlier and the fact that marvelvscapcom2 also was targeted around 4AM makes me believe even more that around 2AM-4AM  is high time for robberies in at least our 2 locations.

[aliensstudios]

Very sorry to hear about this. I don't do too much to protect it honestly, I've got a dog and she's pretty aggressive toward unknown strangers and as much as I'd hate to say it she probably would bite somebody if she thought they meant harm to my person or my belongings.
I've also got a few means of self defense in both a small firearm and a 33-inch maple baseball bat from my baseball playing days.

[tradinggoatgames]

You could get a small camera system hooked up to your phone to check on your collection from time to time. Not airtight but gives you a sense of security to check up on anytime you want to. The way i look at it is that the robbers probably dont know much about games too much and i have way too many for them to take any one instance. Dont think they could carry my collection out the door. But yes i get this same feeling of paranoia. We spend so much time looking for and spending money on these games just to have them taken away is not a fun feeling.

[marvelvscapcom2]

You could get a small camera system hooked up to your phone to check on your collection from time to time. Not airtight but gives you a sense of security to check up on anytime you want to. The way i look at it is that the robbers probably dont know much about games too much and i have way too many for them to take any one instance. Dont think they could carry my collection out the door. But yes i get this same feeling of paranoia. We spend so much time looking for and spending money on these games just to have them taken away is not a fun feeling.

It's about the scariest thing I can fathom     It's like all your life's work and all the fun and memories. Some even from your childhood being taken by someone.  It's like a feeling of vulnerability that takes a while to go away.  Although today I feel better. 

I was thinking that same way too.  I think they would be more looking for fast snatch and grab things that they can carry and run with really fast for a lot of money.  I assume my Xbox One X and Laptop would have taken a hike very quick. Those are the type of things they eye for.  Cell phones, jewlery (I have none) And probably a few games but maybe not many.  But I think they might not be as interested in carrying a trash bag of 100 old cartridges to sell on ebay lol.  At least I hope not. 


I have been saving up for my first ever lifetime dream vacation to Dallas.  If they had gotten in and stolen my backpack, it contains my collectibles that I intend on getting signed at the convention, my tickets, my money.  It would completely destroy my year. 

So I really have to be thankful their attempt failed and really try to foritfy better

 

[marvelvscapcom2]

Very sorry to hear about this. I don't do too much to protect it honestly, I've got a dog and she's pretty aggressive toward unknown strangers and as much as I'd hate to say it she probably would bite somebody if she thought they meant harm to my person or my belongings.
I've also got a few means of self defense in both a small firearm and a 33-inch maple baseball bat from my baseball playing days.

I think my dog might have been what spooked them away too luckily. I have no other explanation as to why they'd just give up.  Nobody was home.  They had clear easy entrance.  I doubt they'd have change of heart.  I think the dog barked and was attracting attention.  He earns a toy this week


I also have a few firearms too. But if i'm not home it's actually a liability because if stolen its a huge amount of paper work and mess and they are so extremely expensive.  I have them very well stored and hidden so it'd be very hard to just stumble upon them unless they were flat out flipping furniture and ransacking but you never know.  It's another scary layer to the whole thing . 

I really hope this never happens again.  I will try to live without parnoia, but I can't help but think it was a neighbor.  Someone close.  They knew we all left as a family.  They knew how many people lived in the house and when we'd all be gone to orchestrate it.  I highly doubt a random passerby would try without knowing in the middle of the day. 

I think I know who it was.  He is a shady character.  I will have my eye on him.  I will call the police on him if he enters my property. 

[tradinggoatgames]

I would definitely suspect people around. Especially anybody whos been in your home or is a family friend of knowledge of your posessions. Broad daylight is pretty ballsy for someone who doesnt even know you. Would definitely be suspicious of anyone who isnt family around me.

[haloofthesun]

Broad daylight is pretty ballsy for someone who doesnt even know you. Would definitely be suspicious of anyone who isnt family around me.

This is a misconception. Statistically most burglaries occur during the daytime because that's when people tend to not be home. Burglars (usually) don't want to encounter anyone in the home. Their goal is to get in and out as quickly as possible, which is why burglaries also tend to only last a few minutes on average, meaning even though it's daylight and someone saw someone entering your home, the burglar would be long gone before the police arrived.

That being said, it is a good idea to recall who has been in your home and would know of what valuable possessions you do have. Friends and family can be capable of some pretty terrible things that we would rather believe they would never do.

[marvelvscapcom2]

I would definitely suspect people around. Especially anybody whos been in your home or is a family friend of knowledge of your posessions. Broad daylight is pretty ballsy for someone who doesnt even know you. Would definitely be suspicious of anyone who isnt family around me.

I'm pretty positive it was my neighbor, I know the exact one too.  I wish I had proof but I have to install cameras.  I think it was definitely a neighbor too.  They knew my exact schedule and knew the perfect time.  They are damn lucky we didn't come home in time.  And I am lucky too in a way.  I would be in jail right now .   

[oldgamerz]

You could get a small camera system hooked up to your phone to check on your collection from time to time. Not airtight but gives you a sense of security to check up on anytime you want to. The way i look at it is that the robbers probably dont know much about games too much and i have way too many for them to take any one instance. Dont think they could carry my collection out the door. But yes i get this same feeling of paranoia. We spend so much time looking for and spending money on these games just to have them taken away is not a fun feeling.

true cameras are a good defense, whats caught on camera can give law enforcement the best evidence needed to catch whoever was even on your property or in your home at the time of the crime. My old landlords did this and were able to return some of my stolen property that the roofers ended up selling at a resale shop just next door to my apartment complex.

no I was not thinking too clearly at the time I should have known the roofers would attempt this


and?
It's not safe to tell people everything. especially where you keep expensive things or money especially when you talk to strangers about things or money online or offline.

Don't tell people on the streets your address, don't give people your real name online especially.

,and don't talk so much to neighbors about how much things you have in your home,