Being burgled
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 3:47PM Not an interview this week, but an email sent in by a reader that we should all be aware of especially through the summer...
Editor’s note: Seems to be rife at the moment - a house in Parc Wanda, (Trois Feuillets) was burgled on May 18 at 3.30 in the afternoon while the owners were home.
Last Thursday evening I arrived back at my home in Roquefort at around 11pm from a few days in Rome. Switched on the telly to watch the first election results come in, had a nightcap and then a bit after midnight went to bed exhausted from four days of tramping around sightseeing. I slept really well (unusually for me) and woke around 6.30. At 7.15 I decided it was time for tea, and sleepily got up. ‘Funny’, I thought ‘I don’t remember leaving that light on.’ Downstairs the sitting room light was also on - didn’t remember that I had left that on either. Then I noticed that the telly wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Living alone at the moment, I naturally assume that anything that happens in the house must be down to me, so I initially speculated as to whether I could have sleep-walked and moved the telly. Then I found the dining room shutters and window wide open - I had been burgled while fast asleep and didn’t hear a thing. My first thought was, ‘Who do I call?’, and my second was, and ‘I’ve got to deal with this in French!’
I called the gendarmes who came out pretty speedily, and my house then became a ‘crime scene’, complete with fingerprint powder. A mad hour of calling banks, giving a statement, making a list of things missing - all the usual: money, credit cards, telly, laptop, iPod, digital camera. Unfortunately my bag with my passport still in it for the trip was also missing, and the digital camera (brand new) still had the memory card with all my Rome photos on it. Later that day my bag and passport were found by a neighbour - they had chucked them away once they found the cash.
I was a bit puzzled when the gendarmes asked me if I had a headache - I thought perhaps they were wondering if the shock had upset me or I had been bopped on the head and had perhaps forgotten. But I have heard from various people that burglars often spray an anaesthetic gas around the house to keep you asleep - I did sleep better than usual, so maybe, but I didn’t have a noticeable headache. Who knows? I just know I didn’t hear a thing!
Two days on, I haven’t felt able to sleep in the house yet. The shutters need to be reinforced and I will probably have to get an alarm fitted. But I am determined to do sensible, practical things to make the house more secure and then get on with living there. I’m angry that villains can make me feel so insecure in my own home, and I am angry and upset at the thought that someone was in the house while I slept. But I don’t feel violated - there was no real damage and no sign that it was in any way personal or vindictive. As the gendarmes said ‘It’s just a job to them.’ It’s the hassle of all the admin that you have to do - but there is a good side: a nice shiny new iPod, a newer telly, etc. But do they make up for the sense of insecurity? Not really!
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