Break Ins in ED

[Barn Seeker]

Thought I would write a short note to let you all know of a series of break ins in the area a few days ago. Thankfully no one was home in any of the flats as the thieves were so violent - one of the doors was kicked in so hard that the entire door and frame came off and was lying in the hallway when we got home.

So watch out for vans parked suspiciously on the street (they must have had a van) - oh yeah, and also be wary of dodgy men bashing in front doors in the middle of the afternoon. How do people have the cheek to do that??

[SeanMacGabhann]

Sorry to hear that Barn Seeker - someone I know reported something similar a couple of days ago too.

It's happened to me before and emotions are raw - hopefull nothing too valuable (useful/sentimental as much as cashworth) was taken

[James]

Which part of ED is this?

[Elfy]

My next door neighbour had the same thing happen to him this week. He was in though and scared them away as he came running down the stairs. They kicked in the door in the middle of the day on a very busy road (East Dulwich Road). It's worrying that they seem so blase about it. Be wary!

[BlueOne]

Same thing happened to me - the whole door was kicked off and lying in the hall. They gained access through the unlocked communal front door then kicked the interior doors in under cover - so it's worth reminding people to be vigilant about locking up the communal doors, even if you have to put a note up to remind your neighbours. It's easy to get complacent, until something like this happens. Scary!

[Applespider]

I was burgled this time last year. They came through communal door (locked but just with Yale) and then bashed through two of the three flat doors before being disturbed.

If you do just have a Yale on a communal front door, it's worth seeing if you can get a better one installed that's less easy to jimmy open.

It's a horrible feeling to come home and find your door open/not there and stuff gone. Thoughts are with you.

[PeckhamRose]

Please let the police know.

Then go along to the Police Ward Panels (meetings between residents, police, police community support officers, community wardens, and other interested people) and tell them too.

The next one is at 7.00pm on Thursday 5th March at the school by the south end of the park.

Can't bring myself to write the words of the school so I shall shut my eyes and apologise for mistakes.

Harris carpets "academy" (regular school sponsored by carpet magnate)!

[fractionater]

DEADLOCKS GUYS DEADLOCKS!!!

Yales don't even need bashing they can easily be slipped with nothing more than a cut open plastic coke bottle (I know because I used this method years ago when I locke myself out of my flat)

[aicardo]

From an experience in Putney a few years back if you don't deadlock your front door, you're asking for trouble.

They can often look like quite 'respectable people', so not to raise suspicion, normally they'll ring the door bell, if there's no one in they'll push the door to see if the door is deadlocked... if not they can jam it open with one of their many tools. When they're in they start at the top flat and can make as much noise as they want... thankfully we were insured but would have preferred to have caught them in the act!

PS - sometimes even a fake alarm box outside is enough to put them off.

[Barn Seeker]

Thanks all - this happened on Landells Road - it could have been worse as nothing sentimental was taken. The interior doors were deadlocked (and they were completely shredded) but the exterior door unfortunately was not as one of the tenants didn't have keys to it. Lesson learned and it will be deadlocked forevermore! The police did come around and dust and they were lovely, although I don't know if anything will come of their findings.

[red devil]

fractionater Wrote:

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> DEADLOCKS GUYS DEADLOCKS!!!

>

> Yales don't even need bashing they can easily be

> slipped with nothing more than a cut open plastic

> coke bottle (I know because I used this method

> years ago when I locke myself out of my flat)

If you live in a communal block of flats and decide to deadlock the main entrance door, make sure the door can be opened in a panic situation e.g. fire escape, this might be a condition of your buildings insurance...you could leave a key in the communal hallway, but make sure it's not on view to would-be burglars!

[BlueOne]

Yeah the communal thing is tricky - especially in a rented place. Our communal door is actually heavily fortified - just carelessness in not using it in our case. Unfortunately even since the break-in and a heartfelt plea to the other tenants in the block, it is still being left unlocked. I've decided to leave them to it as everythng I owned of value is now gone. The cops told me about the plastic bottle thing too. I must have lived a sheltered life - I had no idea of such techniques..

[LegalEagle-ish]

When I moved to ED 2 yrs ago I felt naked and vulnerable without my metal grilles and gate potecting my place and was going to take them down from my old place and put them up on my ED place - but the neighbours said there is hardly any trouble here.

I haven't had any problems so far, but I am wondering if ED will end up looking like the prison-block-looking estate where I used to live.

[Sue]

red devil Wrote:

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>> If you live in a communal block of flats and

> decide to deadlock the main entrance door, make

> sure the door can be opened in a panic situation

> e.g. fire escape, this might be a condition of

> your buildings insurance...you could leave a key

> in the communal hallway, but make sure it's not on

> view to would-be burglars!

xxxxxx

Can I second this - one of my brothers very nearly died recently because he was in a new girlfriend's flat one night, the flat caught fire, they couldn't see anything for smoke, when he finally reached the front door he found that it was deadlocked with no key in it.

They managed to smash their way out of a back window (I think) but were marooned on a small balcony with no way out. Luckily neighbours heard them shouting and called the fire service. They both had to go to hospital (smoke inhalation etc). If there hadn't been a balcony, they would have had it.

I'm concerned at these posts above because I often work at home, but I often don't deadlock the door when I'm working because my remote working cryptocard is on my keyring - think I will have to make some changes ....

[PeckhamRose]

Me and my next door neighbour bought and had installed a wrought iron gate at the end of our balcony.

We have quite a long balcony so if the worst happened we'd have quite a bit of space.

I recommend this as an idea if you are in a similar sort of situation.

It also means we can leave plants and bicycles and so on on the balcony.

And cheaper contents insurance.

[BlueOne]

Sue - that's what scared me too at the time, especially as I had been working from home the day before. I never answer the buzzer either during the day because I assume it is not going to be for me, so i had nightmares for days about me sitting in the flat as the door got kicked in! Luckily though I began to see sense once I calmed down, and realised that if I had been there, there would have been open curtains, lights, the radio on etc,so it probably would never have happened.

[mrs f]

Hi, we had our communal front door kicked in whilst we were on holiday this summer, it was only on the yale, so really easy. Luckely though our flat front door opens outwards (impossible to kick in- somone would need specialist tools to drill out the deadlocks) and our neighbours door has a 'london bar'(?) (I think it's called this) which is a metal bar over her locks (obviously I don't understand how it works!) but anyway dispite kicking so hard they cracked the door frame away from the wall they didn't get the door in! what a lucky escape

We now use the Deadlock on the communal front door... but I do worry about getting out in a fire, I will hide one in the hall way from now on- thanks for the prompt!

The police said they had had seen similar incidents reported when we reported ours.

[Sue]

mrs f Wrote:

> but I do worry about getting out in a

> fire, I will hide one in the hall way from now on-

> thanks for the prompt!

xxxxxx

Sorry if this is an obvious thing to say, but make sure everyone who might need to get out in an emergency knows where it is ......

>

[Applespider]

The lock that we got added to our communal front door is one that is a deadlock but from the inside, you just have to turn a knob around several times. Callows on LL fitted it for us. From the outside, you need the key but from the inside, if you needed to get out in a hurry, it's a few seconds just to turn it. The bad thing is that it doesn't link to the entry lock system so we have to hike downstairs but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I had deadlocks on my interior door and a London bar but they managed to kick through it. I now have two deadlocks which have proper metal faceplates sunk into the wood and a new London bar.

In terms of you being home, yes, the lights etc might put them off. But their modus operandi also seems to be to ring the doorbells to see if anyone is home (presumably they'll make something up if someone answers) and if not, they go in.

[fractionater]

You can also get one of those knob thingies (don't know what they are called now!) that will open your dead-lock internally without a key - especially for the fire escape case you describe.

The deadlock is then locked with a key from the outside only (the knob thingy will also lock internally without the key).

So there is absolutely no excuse to not use a deadlock on your front door! (and your internal flat door for that matter)

[fractionater]

just beat me to it Applespider!

[MrBen]

I was also burgled in the same incident this thread refers to. These guys were organised, dressed as removal men, whistling, broad day light (Wed lunchtime) on a nice central ED street before systematically emptying my flat into their van. They'd also been walking around my place with a table leg in their hand...shame I left the 5 shot pump action 12 bore back up north as I would have had no hesitation in using it!

A few other details I cant go into on the forum but police have a good lead - problem is they're simply too busy working stuff that matters much much more e.g. our forensic guy was off to do a rape after. It's kind of hard for me to moan about losing my TV, lap tops, 21st birthday presents and the rest when you hear that.

Anyway - all communal flat owners - cant stress enough get a bolt thumb lock in addition to the Yale, a note on the inside of the door reminding all residents to keep it locked. And buy an external hard drive to back up your lap top photo's etc...you don't realise what you have lost until its gone. Anyway - instant karma is going to get them. Mark my words....

[annaj]

Thanks for the warning Barn Seeker and MrBen and really sorry to hear about your break-in.

We live near by in a similar building of three flats and will definitely be increasing security.

MrBen, I admire your attitude that more serious crimes are a higher priority, but I can imagine how the loss of those special things must feel and I'm really sorry.

[Kells]

Post removed, because it has absolutely nothing to do with ED...sorry!

[ianr]

MrBen Wrote:

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> These guys were organised, dressed as removal men, whistling,

> broad day light (Wed lunchtime) on a nice central ED street

> before systematically emptying my flat into their van.

That's interesting. Can I ask how many flats in the building? I'd have thought it would be rather risky for them unless they knew that all occupants were out for some time.