My experience about a burglary in my house

After much planning, my husband and I set off on a long holiday to visit all our three children in Germany and USA in the third week of August. Our first stop was Germany where our elder daughter lives with her husband  and son. We were having a nice time with them especially our little grandson who is just 3 years old. We were to celebrate our grandson's 3rd birthday and then leave for Seattle around mid-Sept.

About 10 days into our holiday, I saw missed calls from my neighbor in Pune. To my shock and horror she was calling to inform me that our house had been broken into and robbed earlier in the afternoon that day. I just couldn't believe that such a thing could happen during the day in our neighborhood where we had been living for 29 years. Our neighbors didn't even realize that our house had been broken into till in the early evening they noticed that the doors were open and no one seemed to be inside. 

Still in disbelief, I made several calls to know more about what had happened and the state of the house. This was my first such experience. The foremost question in our minds was how did it happen with good locks, security iron door and a thick teak wooden door how did they manage to break in and that too during the day. We spoke to the police on the phone and they kept asking us what all we had lost. I kept asking questions on the phone whether this piece of jewelry was there and whether that was there etc etc. Fortunately I could remember most of what I had in the safe because a few years ago I had cataloged whatever jewelry I had. The whole evening was spent on phone with my maid, my cousin and the police trying to assess our loss. I decided to fly back to Pune for a few days to take care of the police and insurance related formalities and sort out the mess in the house.

I arrived home early in the morning on the 5th Sept. The first thing I did was to look at the front doors. The thieves did not break the lock on the steel door, they just cut a 1-2mm piece of the latch loop and twisted it and the bolt with the intact lock came off and the door was open and they twisted it back in place as in the photo. 

The steel door bolt

On the wooden door they made the Godrej latch lock look like a toy lock. They just cut around it and put pressure and bent the screws such that the lock fell off on the inside. From outside both the locks looked non tampered. I was aghast as they made it look so easy to break in. They were obviously well equipped.

The wooden door lock dangling

Broken wooden door latch and lock

The wooden door lock from inside

I entered my bedroom and was really dumbfounded to see the mess even though I had seen the photos. I couldn't even walk around as there were papers, check books, cards and empty boxes all over the place and my cupboard was lying on the floor on its back. They had opened my husband's cupboard and drawers and thrown all the papers around. The worst was what they did to my my steel cupboard. They had made it sleep on the floor and pried it open by bending the rods inside and bending the door. They had used chemical and other tools to remove from the hinges the heavy door of my safe locker. 

My steel cupboard

My steel cupboard from another angle

All the contents of my safe locker had been taken out and were strewn all over our bed. All the contents were examined and they took all the gold and precious stones jewelry that they found. They didn't bother with the silverware and silver and costume jewelry. There was some emergency cash that I had kept in a pouch which was also found and taken. They checked and threw all my papers, ids, bank check books  credit cards etc all over the place but didn't take any of them. They didn't touch any electronic gadgets like TVs, music system, desktop etc. They opened the cupboards in all the bedrooms. Another set of cupboards in which I had kept all my heavy silk sarees were also locked and they broke open the locks and cut off the door handles but didn't take anything as there was no jewelry. I lost about 6 lakhs worth of items.

Mind you all this they did in the afternoon in around an hour or two. There definitely must have been noise as my steel cupboard was very heavy but no one in the building paid attention to the noise if there was any. All the lights were on during the day but again no one paid attention to it as they probably rationalized it as negligence on the part of my maid. This was the work of professional thieves who were very efficient. 

I learnt some very valuable lessons from this unfortunate episode.

• What hurt the most was violation of our privacy. Strangers ransacked our house and went through our personal belongings without our permission.
• The loss of material things only hurt because of the sentimental value attached to the items like my mangalsutra, pair of ear rings gifted by my husband etc.
• My day to day wear jewelry was in the safe in my cupboard and not in the Bank vault because of my perception of value. What I wore occasionally or at weddings was perceived as valuable and in the vault. Even though my daily wear jewelry items were valuable in absolute terms as they were made of precious stones and gold but in my mind I wore them everyday.
• I had two new pieces of jewelry that I was planning to take with me on my travels but decided at the last moment that I would not take them. I left them in my cupboard safe even though there was a small voice telling me that I should take them to the vault early in the morning before leaving for Mumbai. If only I had listened to my inner voice. 
• We ourselves tell the whole world that we are going to be away from our house for a period of time. These are likely to be part of the burglars' information network.
• Newspaper agent
• Milk man
• Car cleaner and washer
• Maid
• Neighbors
• Dog kennel owner and workers
• Watchman 
• Cable TV
• Internet Service Provider etc.
• Any other regular service provider
• We believe that a heavy metallic security door, wooden door with multi-lever locks are safe and will keep intruders out. Actually it is very easy to break in with all this security. The burglars are well prepared with tools that make you appear like a fool for thinking your house was safe. 
• The perception of the thieves is that more the locks and doors the more valuable stuff is in the house.  Don't put a big lock on the outside door as that is a clear signal that you are out. 
• The house should give an impression of a house that is occupied and being lived in. Don't close all the windows and balcony doors. Let them be open. Keep something in the balconies that gives an impression that someone is there. Leave a light on in the house.
•  I had kept the Society money in a pouch that was under my dupattas on one of the shelves. They didn't find it and it was safe. Keep money under clothes and jewelry under your bed. Keep your valuables in unlikely places. They won't even look. Even the police told me this. Don't keep a safe as it is not really safe. We are expressing our fear of loss and robbery by putting in obvious security measures.
• Get a house insurance. Fortunately I had got a policy just two months before this happened.
• Catalog all your valuable possessions and maintain it. Keep all the bills of your jewelry purchases.  
• We all have to look after ourselves and our spaces and not expect others to do that. Security, police etc are deterrents and reduce the probability that there will be a violation. 
• Life is most precious and we must do our utmost to protect it. Material things if lost can always be replaced.

I think all of us need to think about our personal safety and the safety of our house with a different perspective in keeping with the realities of today. I thought I should share my experience and learning so that others could benefit from the same.