[OCB]

Yeah, so our village (just a tad south of Brussels) has at least 2 teams of full time burglars on the go just now, have been for several months. One team got caught, been quickly replaced.

We have a "village" FaceBook page, folks are posting when they've been broken into - or the attempted break-ins. My neighbour 2 doors up and across the road got burgled a few nights back, the gits were disturbed - but their get-away route included running through/over 3 of my neighbours. Within about a 200m radius, there have been about a dozen confirmed break-ins, and those are only the ones we know about.

Last night it was 2 scrotes, caught perfectly on rear-house camera (which is rare for here - public facing cameras are illegal). They were clad top to toe, gloves, hats/scarves military boots, backpacks, hardly an inch of skin showing.

I'd never fancied getting "nasty" with boundary protection, but I'm going to install 1.8m high fencing with razor tape on top where our (2m+) hedges have suffered die-off.

Been talking to the missus about what additional security we can put in place.
Let's just say we have different ideas...

Simple rules don't change - first is physical security. It's easy to go overboard...and the missus has already gotten worried about some of my suggestions (wtf is wrong with "bird scarers"?)

Second rule is - we have a dog. I've advertised the fact.
Scrotes don't need to know it's 15kg of uselessly cuddly French Bulldog, do they?

Third rule is alarm - which we have to accept nowadays is nothing more than a minor annoyance to burglars.

Ours is centrally monitored - the main advantage being we also have the fire detection also linked up, so in the event we have a house fire when we're out; they'll call the fire brigade. We know that either if we are in (and upstairs at night), or out - burglars will have wrecked the place in the 5-10 mins before the cavalry arrive.

Even though I could easily get myself a legal firearm here (shot for years in the UK, handgun and longbore), I'd never go down that route. One day yes, my kids will go to a gun club and learn firearm safety - but the (gawd awful) home firearm stats from most countries speak for themselves. I am considering an "alarm" blank firer, the missus doesn't agree...meh...

Would be curious to hear others experience with "holding the fort".

[Sooty25]

You could try a couple of these, just remember to disarm them when the pooch goes out though.

https://www.henrykrank.com/cleaning-maintenance-storage/security/alarm-mine.html

[GolfHotel]

My daughter lives in not the best part of town. But she has never had a break in.

It may be related to her dog. Shown here with a 9 year old child for scale.



Our friends who live in Brussels had a break in recently. The scroats emptying there wine cellar while someone was in the house.

[johnm]

After alarm and serious locks, noise, big high PIR lights and cameras in that order would be my favoured approach.

The cynical advice is make yours harder than next door's, burglars are fundamentally lazy otherwise they'd have a proper job.....

[Flyin'Dutch']

What John says re lights.

I would not get a gun even a fake one, but pepperspray to fend off any wild animals is off course highly effective and legal I think in Belgium too for that purpose.

Can I assume you have already been in touch with the Police and asked them for advice and given them guidance on how important it is that your house is not burglared. I have no experience myself but understand additional subs may be due.

[rikur_]

I'm looking for ideas too...
A couple of weeks before Christmas, CCTV at house 2 recorded a chap all in black with hat and scarf obscuring most of his face, crowbar in hand, mid-afternoon in the back garden having a good look through all the windows, trying the back door, patio door, etc... Two nights later, CCTV captures a strong torch being shone through the front/side windows just after midnight. Being 200 miles away, not much we can do but wait.

House 1 is also surrounded by a mini-crime wave since early November. A flurry of '2 in 1' around local villages including ours - typically house locks picked in the middle of the night to break-in, get car keys and take car. We've had classic daytime break a window and take jewellery etc. Several of the 'dodgy door traders' - that claim to be selling stuff door to door, but seem strangely interested in which of the neighbours has dogs etc. Just before Christmas one of the neighbouring villages had one a 6.30pm in the evening where burglars forced their way in whilst a family was at home and took cash and car keys. Farms and farm equipment also being targeted. In the past week we've even had a hilux driving around the local villages at around 10pm - midnight, with three men in balaclavas in it - not overly concerned about being noticed. Speaking to the local police sergeant - it's not a perceived issue, but a real one. They've got less than half the number of officers on duty in an evening than they had two years ago, and the PCC wants them deployed on high visibility roles in the city centres where more of her electorate notice them.

I've got conventional alarms, 12 x HD CCTV across the two houses, and some electronic fingerprint wizardry. I'm toying with the idea of rigging up some theatre pyrotechnics/fireworks in the garden to the house alarm. Not that it would do anything practical other than completely confuse them and hopefully scare the living daylights out of them, and draw attention to the house.

[Paul_Sengupta]

The addition of one of these would be a nice touch.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=scarecrow+water+repeller

[Sooty25]

I'm toying with the idea of rigging up some theatre pyrotechnics/fireworks in the garden to the house alarm. Not that it would do anything practical other than completely confuse them and hopefully scare the living daylights out of them, and draw attention to the house.

TBH, it wouldn't be that difficult to remotely control the pyro's whilst watching your remote CCTV.

IMO, if they are breaking into your home, they are fair game, if they get burnt in the process, that is fair and justified.

If I'm on your jury, you'll be fine!

[kanga]

In a small and coherent community, with a high level of engagement (a lot of 'if's, I know ), a formal or informal 'neighbourhood watch' can be quite effective:

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... ce-2366705

When I was a NW coordinator in a previous house, the local PC (we still had one there then) told me that the rates of various sorts of acquisitive crime were closely related to the custody status of very few people ..

[Paul_Sengupta]

When I was a NW coordinator in a previous house, the local PC (we still had one there then) told me that the rates of various sorts of acquisitive crime were closely related to the custody status of very few people ..

It's like that round here in Wales, or at least it used to be. There were certain criminal families who everyone knew. If they were in prison there would be a bit of respite, but when they came up, the crime wave would start again.

If all these criminals could be locked up and stay locked up, the world would be a nicer place. I have mentioned before my scheme of doubling sentences each time.... 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, etc...

[JoeC]

But I'd have 1000 points on my driving licence !

[Paul_Sengupta]

But I'd have 1000 points on my driving licence !

[rikur_]

TBH, it wouldn't be that difficult to remotely control the pyro's whilst watching your remote CCTV.

Routinely done already each Halloween ...... definitely found an evil streak in my six year old as he cackles at the controls whilst scaring his school friends

[OCB]

On my phone at lunch, so forgive brevity etc.

Local Facebook has sort of become informal neighbourhood watch. People are almost daily posting photos of “unknowns”. At least once in the past few days a pair of scrotes apparently on a casing mission got huckled. Released after, but we know our local cops are politically incorrect enough to be effective.

Pepper spray I don’t believe is legal - will have to check if that’s changed recently.

Definitely going to get a blank firer. I know myself- I would need a lot of self restraint not to go downstairs at night if I heard someone. Firing off a couple of rounds out the window then a couple at the top of the stairs would at least give them a sporting chance. I’ll not comment on a public forum on anything that could follow.

Missus has been off ill for months, so I’d like her at least to have something to scare off a daytime intruder, although I know her and she is pig-headed with this subject.

Pyro - been on my list for years. I’ve mocked up an electronic version using a solenoid from a pinball machine. Need to get round to ordering the wireless controller and doing the programming. Started off as a mini project for my (70m away) shed with bikes and lawnmower, think I’ll test out there first, then progressively add to exterior around the house. I did think about quarter strength thunder flash, but risk of accidental detonation would blow my marriage...

Cameras- had covert very low light ip camera at front of house for years, works happily in 0.01lux. Attached to Sighthound software which makes searching an absolute joy. Been nagging the developer for years to improve his product:(

Added covert camera at back, going to switch to “smart video doorbells” at main door and back door.

Lighting, already have, adding more. We have ruddy huge foxes around, impossible with PIR to filter them out. Don’t want permanent lights at rear as I most definitely appreciate the almost total darkness we have - great for the telescope!

I will finally get round to fitting the IR illuminator I bought years ago, not the type where you can see the red led, completely invisible to us yumans. Works well with the ultra low light cameras I have.

Need to add “anti climb” spikes to 1.8m high side gate.

One thing I looked at years ago, and looking at again is “fog bandit”. Actually a Belgian product, fills room(s) with fog in less than a second and with a strobe, completely impossible to stay in the room. Pricey though...and I’d need two to cover ground floor and stairs.

[rikur_]

In a small and coherent community, with a high level of engagement (a lot of 'if's, I know ), a formal or informal 'neighbourhood watch' can be quite effective:

We used to have a formal one, but nowadays it's mostly informal information sharing on the village facebook group. Local sergeant lives in the village, so we're kept informed of what we're allowed to know.
What surprised me was the hostility of a small number of people that always object to those sharing information, calling them scaremongers, bigots, etc .... but in general people's senses have been right, and those that seemed suspicious, turned out to be dodgy.
I believe one criminal group was a 'full service' outfit ... they were first spotted doing dodgy door to door sales, but also apparently had links to performance car thefts and jewellery burglaries. When they came to our house, one of them got about a stride up the front path, when his mate tapped him on the shoulder, and pointed at one of the CCTV cameras, and both then left. Fairly obvious they we're legitimate.