While you were out...

On Sunday we headed down to the Shelford Feast to catch up with my parents and generally enjoy beer in the sunshine. However while we were out thieving scumbags attempted to break into our house. Apparently there is a bit of a spate of break-ins around fete times as it offers a weekend opportunity when houses are generally empty during the day.

They started by trying to leaver the back door open. However the multi-point lock system held up well. They did however put enough force into it to wedge one of the lock point so solidly that even when we unlocked the door we couldn't get in. They also attacked the patio door with some sort of heavy implement. Although the window is fairly smashed up the laminate finish held it together to thwart their attempt. Unfortunately they didn't leave empty handed as after forcing the lock on the garage they left with Fliss' old mountain bike (fortunately we had taken our brand new bikes with us to ride to Shelford). They also forced the lock on one of the outbuildings but as far as I can tell they didn't nick anything from what is essentially our walk-in LARP wardrobe.

The police turned up fairly quickly followed fairly shortly by the "method of entry" specialist. There was much discussion about the subtle and the not-so-subtle way to gain entry. After the subtle way failed we declined the more direct method to wait for the insurance authorised engineer to turn up. Eventually the SOCO turned up (offering to wear his sunglasses if it would us feel better :-) and managed to get some potential evidence from the scene. Hopefully it won't have been in vain.

Our lovely neighbours put us up and allowed us to watch the World Cup final while we waited for the engineer to turn up and get us into the house. It's a shame the game was so disappointing.

All in all the experience wasn't too bad, the Police (2 officers responsible for most of the villages to the north of Cambridge) were especially helpful. I've been burgled before so from my point of view I can write this of as a failed attack, Fliss however has a slightly different perspective. Overall we are happy* that the house withstood the attack however we will however be reviewing security to make the place even more fortress like. While Cambridge is not like Manchester this has been a reminder of some of the downsides to our relatively exposed rural setting.