rowan

...and I was inside when he did it! He knocked on the door, walked around the front trying to peer in the window, then came back and forced the door. At that point I'd just grabbed my camera but I hadn't switched it on. He got a nice shock when he saw me standing right behind the door he'd just forced.

I said "what the fuck are you doing", then he stepped towards me with the tire iron above his shoulder before running off. I held the door closed for about 10 sec because I didn't know if he was going to come back with his buddy in the car. By the time I went out again they were long gone.

Cops got here in about 5 mins because they were nearby investigating another "at home" burglary where the guys walked out with a TV while the kids were upstairs. Probably the same guys that did my place.

I got a good look at him but unfortunately I only saw a small portion of the car through the gap in our blinds.

The scary thing was how easily he got the door open, you wouldn't even know it had been forced unless you were looking closely for scruff or scratch marks. Turns out the aluminium frame is easily warped which means all you need to do is some minor levering before the bolt pops in and the door opens.

Three things I'm doing today-

1. Buying a CCTV camera and setting up one of my home server boxes to record when someone moves into an "area of interest" in the frame.

2. Buying a fake alarm box.

3. Buying a baseball bat.

A deadlock was installed last night and the frame will be strengthened today.

If it happens again I think I'll give the camera a miss, I was thinking logically rather than of my own personal safety.