I was going to write about living in Paris when I was a student but feel I should put a quick warning about burglars instead.

We too used to think and say that if a burglar ever broke in they would see that there was nothing worth bothering about. I too have masses of books and not much electrical equipment. I think the thing is that once they have broken in, they then tend to make the best of it. I was watching a TV programme where habitual burglars were confronted by burglary victims. The burglars all had the attitude that they were somehow forced into their way of life by 'Society' and that they normally only stole from people who would 'Get it all back on the Insurance', often, apparently, getting more money than the stuff was worth. The victims were reduced to hysterically shouting things like, 'I don't want the money, you creep, I want my mother's actual engagement ring and my son's first shoe'. Even at the end of the programme the burglars still had expressions of 'Sorry, I just don't get what you're on about. The insurance paid up didn't it?.'

In our case we were lucky because they were very young boys and not drunk or on drugs. So they didn't make any kind of vicious mess. As a joke, after the first burglary, I said that I would hide anything I really cared about in the bookcase as that is the one place a teenage burglar would never look. (I did put my 'jewellery' there and they didn't). They did tip out all the drawers all over the house though and the police said that normally burglars did stuff out of spite including ripping up books, setting them on fire or peeing all over them.

As we didn't have brilliant sound systems or anything like that, they took most of my son's things including all his video and computer games, lovingly collected over the years, and all the little quirky objects that decorated his room. They took his shoes and his nicest clothes. They took everything small and fun from my daughters' rooms including pictures and CDs and little necklaces with their names on from when they were babies. For literally months afterwards I would reach out for something like a pen or a bottle opener and realise that they must have stolen it. Even the control from the one TV they didn't take.

So I am saying here that you must never think that a burglar won't be interested in your house. In a way, the less obviously expensive stuff you have the more likely they are to take things you really care about.
- posted by Iris @ 11/23/2003 01:21:00 PM comment