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Be Careful !!


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Saw some British friends yesterday.

Two days before, somebody entered their house while they were out on their patio, literally metres away from the ***hole.

Happily, nothing irreplaceable was taken. Insurance will cover it, but not nice to say the least.

Salutory lesson perhaps for all of us. Summertime - all the doors open, sitting outside, would never dream that somebody would just walk in ............
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'Twas ever thus. Same thing happened when I was staying with a friend down near St Tropez years ago, five of us in the house, bloke strolls in out of view and steals our host's man bag containing all his papers. He would probably have got more but we saw him and he legged it.
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[quote user="Gardian"]Summertime - all the doors open, sitting outside, would never dream that somebody would just walk in ............[/quote]

I was quickly disabused of that notion, initially I was camping on the ground floor of my building the front door of which opens onto the trottoir outside, when I was in it was not locked and could be opened by the handle.

Several times people walked in without knocking and were confronted by me in what was then very poor French, they all made mumbling excuses about getting the wrong door but as mine was the only inhabitated dwelling in a long terrace of empty for décades buildings, that mine had also been derelict for décades but now a new (assumed to be rich) foreigner had moved in made me doubt their claims.

The vast majority of people though would just stop their cars to walk onto my land to pi55 up the side of the building as they and thousands of others had done for décades, being a bar it was probably at one time a pissoir, there was no mortar left between the bricks to a height of 1.5m and the whole gable end wall was not far from collapse.

I still get dodgy people walking in but a whole lot less, now they have to cross my car park, enter through the side gate and walk across a private patio to get to my front door, the rear door of the building or my outbuildings, the only ones that do it now are genuine or have a plausible pretext to hand.

But for all that the thefts have been minimal and I have always found the culprits to be living very close, I never tell people when I am going away though as that is when they happen or the fly tipping.

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I don't know why they were surprised, have they not seen french news where people on say the 6th floor and sometimes higher in appt,  blocks have had people getting onto their balconies and into their appts as they have left the french window open!

The only time we would leave doors unlocked was when we were literally in and out of the garage door, the front door was always locked. And if I was at home alone and sitting in the garden, the house would have been locked up....... that in France, same here.

Seems mad to me that I should do otherwise.

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Idun, your self righteous comments miss the point.

Which was ..... be careful lest you get caught out.

It wasn't to invite comments along the lines of "I always lock up so I never get caught out - weren't these people daft".

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So why did you warn us, do you think the rest of us are as daft as your friends? I think I rather object to being tarred with that particular brush. Incidentally, theives will get in, if they really want, no matter what I do, but I'd rather make it hard for them.

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Well, it's only recently that we have been locking out kitchen door when we are out in the garden. We have a large garden, 3000 sq m, with a fence all round and the 6' gate is always closed, but we still decided it's a good idea. The garage door isn't locked, but that faces directly onto my workshop.

I think it's a huge shame when people are designated as 'daft' because they don't lock up/nail down/electrify everything and why the hell should it be necessary! And as for giving an example as a warning to others is a good idea IMHO as it reminds us to be careful.

We are also members of out Vosines Vigilants. That is a direct 'steal' of neighbourhood watch in the U.K., just in case you haven't heard of it. Have a look, there may be one by you and they are well worth joining. It has certainly bought our immediate neighbours closer together.

http://www.voisinsvigilants.org/recherche_de_communautes_de_voisins_vigilants

Also, there is a system where you can inform the gendarmes when you are going to be away, holidays, etc. and they keep an eye on your house for you. The form is near the bottom of the page.

http://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/fre/Zooms/Operation-tranquillite-vacances

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There seems to me more of the guys who say they are looking for work cleaning roof tiles off about . I had one who entered through my gates passed my bell which has a cord attached to the clapper and it wakes the dead , and did not use it . I came round from the garden and found him and he then asked me if I wanted my new roof cleaned . You cant be too careful .

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Just a thought, I was a bank clerk and one of the first things we were taught when we manned the tills was never to put temptation in anyone's way, not even our colleagues, that is 'never' to leave our till open when we left, even for a few seconds. My colleagues were my good friends in the end, and none of us ever left our tills open, or our personal possessions other than in locked cupboards.

I would not leave my handbag on my shopping trolley or on the back of a pram/pushchair when I used to push one. I see plenty who do.

Why should we all take responsibility for keeping our own homes and our 'things' safe?  Well either we value them or we don't. Daresay no one says, 'I never lock my car' as if it is some sort of freedom or right, never heard that, but people seem to think that because it is their home, they can. And yet, I would personally feel a million times worse if my home was invaded than if my car was stolen. I think I would have to move to be honest.

A choice we all make. My Dad rarely locks his door, and I swear money has gone missing, but there you go, there is no convincing some people that if you leave easy access then you can have your stuff half inched. And yes, I have told him that he is daft etc. Water off a duck's back, apparently where he lives is very safe........ mon oeil! It isn't 'safe' anywhere.

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jonzjob, do the gendarmes really really do that, keep an eye on property? Seems like a wonderful idea, but knowing the gendarmes where I used to live, I cannot believe that they would 'really' do it. Was hard to get them to do anything other than check motorists.

ie, my husband found a safe in the woods where he walked the dog. Called them and they came out about a week later, now I would have thought that a safe would be 'interesting'. He took them up to the woods and the front of the safe was intact. Like Laurel and Hardy they decided that the people hadn't got into it....... they didn't notice, as it was on it's side that there was bloody big hole in the back until he pointed it out. And then they were scratching their heads wondering where it was from ........ and yet there were Intermarché  can't remember where receipts blowing around the woodland floor. Took them weeks to go back and pick the thing up. No finger prints taken etc.

So I would love to believe in them doing this very good act, but would they?

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I remember the Jeremy Vine show a few years back when a lot of Brits who then lived in France talked about their lives. One woman proudly stated that she never locked her house, nor her car, because there was no crime in France, unlike the UK.
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That is a fascinating  thing for her to say and I wonder if she ever wondered just why there are so many bars on ground floor windows??

I doubt that they were put on there a hundred or so years back to stop people getting out?? [:-))]

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