What would you do?
Our house was broken into last week. My 3 and 5 year old and wife were all asleep in the house with me. Thankfully all they did was steal and leave, but as you can imagine, having an intruder in our home, while our children were asleep in their beds was horrifying.
We of course called the police who came and did very little, gave us a police report number and left. A little while later the forensic team comes, find nothing and leaves. After logging all the stolen items with the police online portal, and realised how little they could do, we decided to start thinking about fort knoxing our home to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Fast forward a week (yesterday), I'm at work and I get a call from an unknown number. It's a contractor doing maintenance on a vacant community housing property and they've found some of my belongings. I tell him I'll be shortly, and after explaining it to my work I head over. On the way I call the local police station after advice from a colleague who was a former police colleague, to let them know the situation, in case they want to attend the property to collect the items to maintain any forensic evidence. The police told me I could just go and collect, which felt odd to me, but whatever.
Upon arriving, i met the contractor and he tells me the property has been vacant since May 2023 and since they've been here this time, it's been used by the same guy who leaves when they arrive in the morning. They know he's there before they go in because his push bike is out back. So he shows me in and I find a heartbreaking scene. Clearly someone squatting there. In one bedroom I find a makeshift bed, bits of food rubbish, warm clothes, a backpack, drug paraphernalia and empty baggies. I also find obviously stolen items, jewelery boxes with jewelery still in them, packets from an actual jewelery store (Prouds) with jewlery still inside, portable speakers etc. In another bedroom I find everything he's discarded as rubbish. Thankfully in there I find our wallets with all our cards, my wifes handbag, the documentation that was inside it, my kids phone (no sim card, just an old phone we just use it to stream tv for them), my prescription sunglasses, my wifes work keys, and some other small items that had been discarded from my work bag. Unfortunately no electronic items, like my laptop or ear buds, but whatever.
I take photos of the rooms as well as another ID amongst others that I found on the floor and head off to the police station with this information.
I give them all the new info as above and ask what they're going to do with the information. Their response was, discouraging. 'They might send a car by'... 'they don't really have the resources to check every report'... 'getting a conviction is almost impossible as it's a squat house and the person just has to say they're not the only person squatting there.' Just an aisde, this property is less than a km away, from the police station and my house each, like ½ a mile for my American friends. I of course am not satisfied by their apparent lack of concern that a squat house so close to my home is being used as a base for B&E's, so I ask what they would do if it were them, and their local PD gave them the response they were given. They sympathised but did not alter what they'd said and warned me about taken matters into my own hards as I could be arrested.
I leave and go home to fill my wife in before heading to work. She's of course furious and disappointed with the system, as she's always been a much bigger supporter of police than I, despite being indigenous herself (not great representation for indigenous Australian's and police involvement). Regardless of her disappointment, when I get home that night, we talk and decide we should take them a sleeping bag and some food because no one should go to sleep hungry and cold. I know, crazy, but if you can't love your enemies, do we really do what Jesus did? I left it on the porch and came home, don't worry.
I am still frustrated by the policing response, and wish there was something to be done to ensure this threat to my family wasn't literally around the corner from my house. At the same time know life is hard, however life being hard doesn't give anyone the right to make my wife and kids unsafe in their own home.
So, knowing where the individual sleeps each night, and with the police doing nothing, knowing they've broken into your home once already, and knowing they're so close you can drive there in 2 minutes, what do you do?
Our house was broken into last week. My 3 and 5 year old and wife were all asleep in the house with me. Thankfully all they did was steal and leave, but as you can imagine, having an intruder in our home, while our children were asleep in their beds was horrifying.
We of course called the police who came and did very little, gave us a police report number and left. A little while later the forensic team comes, find nothing and leaves. After logging all the stolen items with the police online portal, and realised how little they could do, we decided to start thinking about fort knoxing our home to ensure this doesn't happen again.
Fast forward a week (yesterday), I'm at work and I get a call from an unknown number. It's a contractor doing maintenance on a vacant community housing property and they've found some of my belongings. I tell him I'll be shortly, and after explaining it to my work I head over. On the way I call the local police station after advice from a colleague who was a former police colleague, to let them know the situation, in case they want to attend the property to collect the items to maintain any forensic evidence. The police told me I could just go and collect, which felt odd to me, but whatever.
Upon arriving, i met the contractor and he tells me the property has been vacant since May 2023 and since they've been here this time, it's been used by the same guy who leaves when they arrive in the morning. They know he's there before they go in because his push bike is out back. So he shows me in and I find a heartbreaking scene. Clearly someone squatting there. In one bedroom I find a makeshift bed, bits of food rubbish, warm clothes, a backpack, drug paraphernalia and empty baggies. I also find obviously stolen items, jewelery boxes with jewelery still in them, packets from an actual jewelery store (Prouds) with jewlery still inside, portable speakers etc. In another bedroom I find everything he's discarded as rubbish. Thankfully in there I find our wallets with all our cards, my wifes handbag, the documentation that was inside it, my kids phone (no sim card, just an old phone we just use it to stream tv for them), my prescription sunglasses, my wifes work keys, and some other small items that had been discarded from my work bag. Unfortunately no electronic items, like my laptop or ear buds, but whatever.
I take photos of the rooms as well as another ID amongst others that I found on the floor and head off to the police station with this information.
I give them all the new info as above and ask what they're going to do with the information. Their response was, discouraging. 'They might send a car by'... 'they don't really have the resources to check every report'... 'getting a conviction is almost impossible as it's a squat house and the person just has to say they're not the only person squatting there.' Just an aisde, this property is less than a km away, from the police station and my house each, like ½ a mile for my American friends. I of course am not satisfied by their apparent lack of concern that a squat house so close to my home is being used as a base for B&E's, so I ask what they would do if it were them, and their local PD gave them the response they were given. They sympathised but did not alter what they'd said and warned me about taken matters into my own hards as I could be arrested.
I leave and go home to fill my wife in before heading to work. She's of course furious and disappointed with the system, as she's always been a much bigger supporter of police than I, despite being indigenous herself (not great representation for indigenous Australian's and police involvement). Regardless of her disappointment, when I get home that night, we talk and decide we should take them a sleeping bag and some food because no one should go to sleep hungry and cold. I know, crazy, but if you can't love your enemies, do we really do what Jesus did? I left it on the porch and came home, don't worry.
I am still frustrated by the policing response, and wish there was something to be done to ensure this threat to my family wasn't literally around the corner from my house. At the same time know life is hard, however life being hard doesn't give anyone the right to make my wife and kids unsafe in their own home.
So, knowing where the individual sleeps each night, and with the police doing nothing, knowing they've broken into your home once already, and knowing they're so close you can drive there in 2 minutes, what do you do?
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