Burglaries (or not)

We lived in Hungary for 7 years and 11 years in Luxemburg, we did not have ANY problems with crime (honestly I think also due to our big dogs (not for cameras or ...). Our neighbours tended to look out as well (and for them our dogs took care of that). So no problems whatsoever. My family live in Curacao and Netherlands and they have some problems (sadly), I am sure this happens also in Hungary. Where I live (in Turkey) no problems at all.Is it luck or good preparation? - @cdw057

We've been the victims of crime here in Hungary several times.   Car stolen and recovered 7 (yes, 7) years later plus car broken into plus a burglary. 

Now we have metal window and door shutters, security doors, alarm, security cameras, automatic lights, a dog and nosey neighbours with nothing better to do.

And no-one has tried it since then.

Most burglaries happen when people make silly mistakes, leaving windows slightly open etc... then on the other hand it can be purely being unlucky. Crime in my town in Austria is low, not heard of any crimes happening. A few years back a Turkish man killed all his family including the children because the wife threatened to leave him and wanted a divorce. The other one was a man held up the bank and try to get away on a push bike, the police soon picked him up.

But everyone knows everyone in my town, and anyone acting suspiciously is reported in our Facebook group. I once dropped my passport, I had it left in my postbox 📬 with in the hour and a message sent to me.

Out of my family it's only been my sister that has been broken into, 1st time it was a neighbour in her block of flats. (A real shitty area of Birmingham). The 2nd time it was a Romanian gang that had done the whole area used kids.

Back to my area I rarely lock my door, as I have to huge metal door at the front to get through first. I do have some flood lights that turn on in garden and by my bins.

Most burglaries happen when people make silly mistakes, leaving windows slightly open etc... then on the other hand it can be purely being unlucky. Crime in my town in Austria is low, not heard of any crimes happening. A few years back a Turkish man killed all his family including the children because the wife threatened to leave him and wanted a divorce. The other one was a man held up the bank and try to get away on a push bike, the police soon picked him up.
But everyone knows everyone in my town, and anyone acting suspiciously is reported in our Facebook group. I once dropped my passport, I had it left in my postbox 📬 with in the hour and a message sent to me.

Out of my family it's only been my sister that has been broken into, 1st time it was a neighbour in her block of flats. (A real shitty area of Birmingham). The 2nd time it was a Romanian gang that had done the whole area used kids.

Back to my area I rarely lock my door, as I have to huge metal door at the front to get through first. I do have some flood lights that turn on in garden and by my bins. - @SimCityAT

I think all these things are mostly it's a deterrent.  When we got burgled, they were spidermen.  My wife had gone to the kindergarten to collect our daughter.  The perps climbed up to the 1st floor balcony and used a large screwdriver to jemmy the patio door.   They stole our child's pocket money - about 1000 HUF.  One thing they did was put a stepladder in front of the apartment door. When my wife opened the door the stepladder clattered down, giving them warning and extra time to get away.

We think it was some building workers fixing the house behind us.  They had ladders, tools and opportunity.  We told the police but nothing ever came of it.  The damage to the door was quite a lot - like 1000 EUR to fix as they split the wood.  It would have been cheaper if they'd just asked for money by ringing the doorbell.

We had shutters but they were manual.  The cops said no-one gets burgled if they have shutters. 

We have shutters on our house and they are electric and when they are down, they are locked in position.  No way anyone can just push them up.  Obviously we do have ways to get out in the event of a fire.  We thought about it.

Interesting thing is they rifled through our sock drawers.  Apparently people keep their jewellery in their sock drawers.   We don't have anything valuable like that so they were sh*t out of luck.  But it's also useful not to keep your valuables in the sock drawers.

People are quite cavalier with their garden tools.  The burglars use whatever they can find to get in.  They don't carry stuff these days.   If all the tools are in the shed, then it's like a menu/selection box for tools to open anything.  We always lock our tools up .  But I see others in the area leaving tools in the garden.  Very dodgy.

Many times a burglary can be a inside job.

I know what I am speaking of.

Have to be careful about letting people know you are on holiday or staying out late.

I can not believe all the people on FB who post holiday photos, telling the whole world they are not home.

Our next door neighbor set up a automatic light that turns on by any movement. First it was a bit much having it announced every time we pasted her door on the way to our flat. Now, since we hardly go out in the dark, it is not big deal and in many ways also protects us without having to set up our own light;

Our friend who has since passed used to live with a guy that now lives here in Hungary. The one still living we know by the grapevine set up his room mate to get robbed.

What?, I know so rude.

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The deceased guy was a professional photographer and had some nice cameras. The one invited the other out and a 3rd party pulled the heist while they were out.

Heard many of these set up tales over the years.