Lowther Hill burglary

Just been burgled on Lowther Hill - no signs of entry but laptop, passports and some sentimental jewellery taken. Take extra precautions…

Really sorry to hear that, Irmani

Always horrible to be burgled - I’m very sorry.

Are you on the park side of Lowther? If so I’m working from home and happy to have a look through their tomorrow to see if anything was dumped etc - unlikely but happy to look.

Do any of your neighbours, even on the other side of the road, have any CCTV that might help?

So sorry to hear. It’s the sentimental stuff that’s the worst.

Thanks guys, no we’re on the other side of the road from the park and all that was taken was passports, laptop and some gold cufflinks belonging to my husband’s deceased Grandad. All very easy to disappear in a city like London - just grateful there was no ransacking beyond them emptying out some boxes of costume jewellery, we don’t really own much they’d want (not sure there’s a market for elderly paperbacks and CDs!) so nothing really to look for. We suspect it was someone known to us as it seems like they entered using a key safe which is only known to our mobile cleaning app provider. Suffice it to say the key safe is out of use, that account cancelled and locks changed tomorrow.

Sorry to hear you’ve been burgled. It’s so horrible to experience.

Do you have a Yale lock? When we were burgled they ‘slipped’ our lock with a credit card type thing as our second lock wasn’t locked.

Same here - the one time our door wasn’t double locked we got burgled - it’s scary thinking about the number of times people probably attempted to break in but couldn’t because of the double lock. We now have a more expensive lock put in which can’t be “slipped”, even if we forget to double lock

Look on the internet for lock bumping. The basic locks are not secure.

Picking combination key safes is quite easy, so it might not have been the cleaner:

(video removed at moderators request)

Good to know. Looks like anyone with a key safe may want to reconsider.

7 posts were split to a new topic: Security of Key Locks/Safes

I have split the posts off from her to clean up the thread and moved them to a new topic…

I’m really sorry to hear this happened to you guys , thanks for the heads up.
Hope you are all doing well considering

Thanks to everyone for kindness. To be honest what upset us much more that the burglary was the ‘reassurance’ visit from a PCSO who walked into our house today and joked for about fifteen minutes that the locksmith also in attendance was likely to burglarise us next and that we should not have (our Fensa approved) french doors. So inappropriate and I asked him to leave in tears after he told me how easy it would be to break into our house and how essentially it was all our fault. Massively inappropriate jokey considering we’d just been burgled. I feel sorry for the people he was about to visit on Bexhill Road for the same purpose. Both I and the locksmith (Terry’s from Crofton Park - brilliant guys) have lodged complaints. Of all the people to come see and talk to you when you’re feeling vulnerable this guy was the worst choice. Treated me like a stupid child and this was an opportunity to take the piss out of someone. Not great.

I’m also not someone who is very easily bullied or moved to tears and whilst I don’t think he had negative intentions is just not the person to send round after a burglary. He was shocked when I burst into tears and so was I - but he handled it so appallingly badly, I’d never normally complain about a police officer or ask them to leave my house. It was such a stark contrast to the brilliant women from forensics who had come round a few hours earlier and were so respectful, kind and decent.

Thanks Pea - we had both Yale and mortise lock which were both locked when we left and bizarrely when we entered. We had both changed today at very short notice by the lovely guys from Terry’s locks in Crofton Park, the Yale they have installed now acts as a double upper lock.

My uncle was in security and said that there was really no level of security that would guarantee security. It was a question of how much money you have available or want to spend.

I have used Terrys many times and find it bizarre to say that he may be a burglar!

When I was locked out of my digs at university a policeman helped me get back in. I was surprised how easy it was to enter secured premises.

What was the response from the police when you complained?

It was a standard form, they acknowledged receipt and I haven’t heard more - didn’t expect to for a little while.

Let’s hope it’s not too long. Please let us know if you hear anything further.