Invaded


At 7.15 pm last night we received a telephone call from our neighbour, Roy. Whenever he visits his farm, to make progress on his building, he always goes walkabout - to check on everyone else's property. Eyes and ears - we all do it for each other.

However - the call was bad news.

Between lunchtime last Sunday and last night someone had broken into our little house.

Fearing the worst, RMan and RSon rushed up to the farm, arriving at 11.30pm.

The thieves had broken a small window at the back of the house, by our kitchen door. This space had enabled a very small child to enter, who then went to the one big windows behind the kitchen sink and opened it, allowing his accomplices to forcefully remove the two lowest burglar bars. Through this opening they proceeded to remove:

All, but one, of the baskets containing dried / tinned food, including every scrap of food in the house, as well as all the cutlery and kitchen implements, all the crockery / glasses / mugs and thermos flask, as well as all my casserole dishes, were taken.

My beautiful baskets which worked so well...

My singing  kettle...

They did not take the bedding, the cushions / pillows, camping chairs, nor the pots and pans ... and a lot of other things we were expecting to be gone.

After spending until 2.00 a.m. this morning cleaning up the worst of the mess, but still leaving vital evidence / fingerprints intact, RMan and RSon had the police there this morning and they reckon it is the work of kids ... there was a trail of sweet wrappers leading to the back fence.

It could've been a lot worse and the place could've been ransacked and cleaned out!  Children who are deprived of an education due to their parents poverty, who are bored  and who sniff glue / take drugs and drink, get up to a lot of trouble.

Hunger and unemployment also figure in the equation.

But, for us, the worst thing is that once you have been broken into, the thieves know how hard / easy it is, and they will be back.  So RMan and RSon have spent the day trying to fortify our burglar proofing, etc.  Not a nice situation - and one which I know is going to give us sleepless nights.

This is just another result of the world-wide recession and it's lingering consequences.

We are now going to have to replace whatever was taken, and that, when times are already so financially tough, is an added burden.

Thankfully, though, we were not there when it happened and were therefore not in any danger, and secondly none of the theives seems to have been hurt - there was no visible blood on the broken window - although RMan could, he said in his first reaction to the news, very happily have shed some had he caught anyone...  I somehow doubt that - he is a gentle man and a gentleman.

Update:

Point of entry - broken double glazed toughened safety glass window
and 2 X burglar bars removed