Just a few weeks ago, actually. Tuesday morning. I wake up first, do my bike workout. Wife wakes up, as usual she makes breakfast while I take the dog out for a walk. We have breakfast. I get ready to go, and am ready to leave out the back door, which is closest to the tube station. Door is locked, like it always is, but we can’t find the keys. Weird. We figure one of us set them down somewhere. I say goodby to the baby, and go out the sliding patio door in the dining room instead.
Later in the morning she calls me…from our landline, which is weird. Because even though we have a landline we never use it; we use our cell phones. She asks me a) did I take the laptop to work? (uh, no?) and b) do I know where her iPhone is? (uh, no?).
Turns out we had been robbed in the middle of the night. It took my wife a couple of hours to realize this. She went to check her email on her iPhone - which was not on the table. Hmm, must have brought it upstairs last night. She forgets about it, does chores, plays with the kid. Goes to let the dog outside, remembers that the keys to the backdoor are missing. Looks everywhere, can’t find them. Weird. Decides to check online if spares can be made - and that’s when she realizes the laptop is missing, and she is pretty certain that it wouldn’t have been moved anywhere. And that’s when she calls me from the landline.
The only things they took were: a 2-year old laptop, a 5-year old laptop with a broken LCD screen, and my wife’s iPhone 3G. I had upgraded to the iPhone 4 like 3 days prior (and had it with me upstairs since it doubles as my alarm clock), and we were waiting for her model to come in to upgrade hers - so I had a backup of the phone…but on the 2yr old laptop. Grrr. But that laptop was really only used for video calls via Skype to the in-laws. And I only used the older laptop for web surfing etc in front of the tv or in bed. All our pictures and other ‘important’ stuff was on my PC upstairs (and that’s backed up both to an external HD and to an online storage service).
The newer laptop and old iPhone were on the kitchen table. Next to a nice digital camera (less than a year old), and a new video camera bought when we had the baby back in January. Neither of which the robbers took. I mean, they had to reach over the video camera to unplug the laptop. They completely missed both my Omega and my wife’s Omega on a hutch in the living room, which they had to walk by to get the beater laptop in the living room. They didn’t take the PS3 or the Xbox. I figure they didn’t have time to grab the game consoles, but to this day I can’t figure out why they didn’t take the camera and video camera. They also missed the car keys which were in a side table in the hallway.
Since it had been so hot recently, we had left a small window near the top of the wall in the kitchen open. It’s tiny - about the size of a toaster. Well, the robber(s) stuck a handle through it and were able to jimmy open a larger lower window, then reach in to open the door. Which was locked but the keys were close enough to reach, probably with some sort of handle; not sure what they used. They went through the house, but probably weren’t in the house very long. They went through the back door on the way out, locked the door behind them, and took the keys with them.
The stupid thing is: We have an alarm system, but I had shut it off earlier in the night when I went downstairs to make milk for the baby :smack: In my half-asleep state, I had forgotten to re-set it when I went back upstairs.
The second stupid thing: As noted above, we have a dog! A beautiful golden retriever who is unfortunately the nicest dog on the planet. He almost never barks, and he’s so friendly, he is easily the worst guard dog ever. Heck, he probably gave the robber a tour of the house.
We notified the cops. First a very young-looking lady came out to dust for prints etc. Wasn’t quite CSI-esque, but it was kind of cool seeing her dust for prints and such. There were none. There was a shoe print on the outside window sill, where the robber stood while jimmying the handle through the top window. No other evidence anywhere in the house. Then a police officer showed up, we gave him the serial numbers etc of the laptops and iPhone. And that was that. We changed the lock on the doors, and of course are now double- and triple-checking that the alarm is always on.
Definitely feels creepy to think someone was in the house while we were there, but all in all we lost almost -nothing- of value (to the point where we didn’t even file a claim on our theft insurance). Word is that stolen goods get sold at ten cents on the dollar at pubs and such by the robbers, most of whom are looking to score drug money. There must be a gang in action, because at least five houses in our neighborhood that we know about have been hit just in the past two weeks or so. Our neighbors two doors down had their car stolen, while at the end of the street some home had -both- cars stolen.
We got off pretty easy, all told. Even funnier - since the laptops were purchased overseas, they don’t fit the electrical outlets here in the UK! And the newer laptop has a Japanese O/S. It’ll be some work before anyone gets any use out of it 
