‘I don’t feel safe in my own home since an armed intruder broke in’

Recently, in the early hours of the morning, I was subjected to an armed home invasion. At the time I had been unable to sleep and was sitting in the lounge room with all lights and the television on. My husband was in bed and the dog was with him asleep on the bedroom floor.

I heard a noise outside and at first ignored it, then heard it again, this time louder. Because we have had previous attempts to break into the car, I immediately thought that this was happening again. I turned on the outside lights and was just reaching for the front door when there was an almighty crash and a person wearing the obligatory hoodie, crashed through the dining room sliding doors, reached to the table where I had stupidly left my handbag, grabbed it and headed back outside the doors.

In an effort to raise the alarm, I screamed my lungs out. I don’t know who got the biggest shock, me or the burglar.

Guess what? Not one of our neighbours responded, and we live in a semi-detached cottage. The dog responded, a bit late in the piece, and added to the racket by barking his nut off, still no response from any neighbour. I called 000 and the police response was rapid.

When they arrived they found the most evil looking knife I have ever seen dropped just outside the dining room doors. The burglar must have dropped it as he ran off. They also found a length of green plastic, which they said was usually used to open locks.

After they left I hit the phones. I first called the bank to cancel all of my cards, then the insurance company to repair the broken doors and locks. I had to cancel the balance of the documents, drivers license, medicare card, pension card, Opal cards, Coles and Woolworths reward cards. The response of the police, insurance company and banks was amazing.

The things that I am most concerned about are the family photos, which I cannot replace, the two cards containing all of the details of my pacemaker and cataract surgery. My biggest fear is that of identity theft as I believe that sometimes robbers sell the identity documents on for a tidy sum. If the little sods were hoping to get any money, they are in for a big surprise – I had the grand total of $5.45 in cash. Not going to buy much with that.

The worst part is we no longer feel safe in our own home, and even worse is the knowledge our neighbours will not come to our aid if another emergency happens. Our dog is also up for a very rapid performance appraisal as he failed in several of his key performance indicators.

It is a very sad world.

Have you ever been involved in a situation like this? Do you feel safe in your own home?

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