A Woman's Weekly

This happened on the Good Friday public holiday last weekend.

We came home to find our kitchen window opened and the stack of plastic chairs we had kept at our backyard, moved to where the window is. An old handbag that I no longer used that the Children now play with, was on the floor next to the chairs. When we checked for any missing things, we found all our broomsticks detached from its brooms, and the sticks nowhere to be seen. “Stupid broomstick thieves!” the Hubby muttered. I, on the other hand, found it odd that they would take the sticks and to find my old handbag outside when clearly they were not able to gain entry into the house. My first instinct after that was that it was likely the thugs may try again.

As we were making our exit from the door of our home to send the Kids to school this morning, our neighbour stopped us on our tracks and proceeded to inform us that he had an attempted break-in to his home last night.

We proceeded to respond that we too had an attempted break-in last weekend when we were away. The jerks forced our kitchen window open but since they were unsuccessful in getting in, they carted off the broomsticks from our backyard. Or so we thought. Our neighbour then showed us how the thugs attached four broomsticks together to make a long pole and tied an S hook to its end. Two of the poles that was tied to each other looked a lot like our missing broomsticks.

Using this self-made pole, they then tried to fish things out of my neighbours window and unfortunately for this family, the thieves managed to lift off some keys and a handbag. The offenders would’ve probably got off with more had my neighbour not wake up at 4am to go to get a drink downstairs. He has since changed all the locks in his home and is re-thinking how he stores his keys.

Since the attempt on our home, we too have taken measures to further protect our home. One friend suggested setting ‘invisible’ booby traps at possible entry points before switching the lights off for the night, to delay the intent of would-be thieves, using fish lines and maybe cactus plants no less!

You know, that might not be a bad idea after all.

Rats!