Has anyone ever broken into your home?

Yup! When I was renting in a flat/house down the end of a long driveway, someone broke in while me and my flatmate were out and stole my laptop (and all the accessories) that had all of my Honours work on it (and no backup! Thank goodness I had finished by then), some jewellery, and all my flatmates PS2 games. Funnily enough, he left the tvs, dvd player and stereo. I was so upset- it was the one day I had decided to leave my laptop at home (instead of bringing it with me to uni). I moved out shortly after that. It's really unsettling knowing someone's been in your house and gone through your stuff.
 
Also, earlier this year, there was a big drama in the news about a lady getting stabbed in the mid-afternoon at the reserve/dog park about 10 minutes from my house, and that night I was in my room and heard some water running. I live by myself, and it was just me and Pocket (who was sleeping) so I freaked out. I thought someone (the stabber) was having a shower in my bathroom or something! It took me at least an hour to work up the guts to leave my room and go check out the sound, and it turns out it was my washing machine that I had put on delay start [&:].  Then later, it turns out the whole stabbing was a big farce as well.
 
I often panic when I hear strange noises (especially after watching scary movies). I try to calm myself down by thinking that if anything suspect was going on, Pocket would let me know...

My ex broke in while I was at work -- it was a few weeks after I'd kicked him out, and of course the dogs let him in *sigh*.  I knew instantly he'd been there and proved it to myself later by things 'moved', etc.  Thot I'd changed the hiding place for my key well enough and since then I don't HIDE keys -- I just make sure and certain I have them with me.

Thankfully, no.  But, in case anyone thinks of trying, that's why the speckled monster is here... []

No one has broken into my home, but someone has broken into my car once. They didn't get anything important except a cell phone and a wallet with no money, but it was a pain-in-the-butt for me because I had to replace my window and the other stuff in my wallet.
 
Now, if someone broke in my house while I was home, I'd like to think three large dogs would create enough of a diversion for me to react quickly. But who knows what I'd really do in that kind of situation. A few years ago, I was asleep, and Brett was coming in from work late one night. I didn't realize that I accidentally locked the storm door in the front, so he couldn't get in that way. So instead, he came through another door we rarely use, which is by our room. When I heard the noise, I flew out of bed, along with Brown and Grey, and got up in enough time to see the door knob turn. By that point, my heart was pounding out of my chest, and I nearly took Brett's head off with a baseball bat. He yelled in just enough time to save his face from a huge beating.
 

Unfortunately, yes.  Had a loopy guy on our porch once who reached in through the cat door and had pulled my work bag out and was going through the contents (it had Weight Watchers materials in it - no cash or any other goodies).  He was hunched over a bench in the dark going through the stuff and was all dressed in black.  Our dog, Jesse, had woken me and was concerned - I thought she needed to go out so actually opened the door to the porch on him as I was trying to figure out what was going on and how my work bag had ended up in front of that door, he wheeled around and came at me.  He kind of hissed while he did it.  I managed to slam the door in his face before he came through it, but he did push as I got the deadbolt.  And I screamed for DH and we called the cops.  Never found the dude.
 
Another time we realized someone tried to get in the kitchen from the porch by peeling some of the drywall away from the window and tried to bust through.  they damaged the screen.  Cops thought it was the unopened bottle of champagne on the table that caused the interest this time.
 
And my DH and two friends were held up at gunpoint in our own garage (second floor).  They were shopping for a wilderness canoe trip.  Had bought all the food at the co-op earlier. Went to the grocery store and bought nothing but many boxes of different sized zip lock baggies.  Someone apparently noticed these three guys, one with long hair, and one with an island accent and made an assumption about what the bags were for.  Showed up wanting the "stuff" -made them all lay face down, threatened the dog.  Finally realized with all the camping gear and food that was laid out that the guys were telling the truth about what the bags were for and left, but DH realized after that they had kicked our friend from Trinidad in the head or pistol whipped him.  He couldn't remember and they did not see.  So we were in the hospital getting head x-rays etc instead of them going on their trip.  They also stole the keys to my car and had rifled through that.  That was pretty awful.

i want to hear more about the haunted house..care to start another thread and tell of you haunting experiences?

About 8 yrs ago when I was in college my apartment was robbed, I had nothing of value but they took some of my roommates' stuff... we weren't home at the time.
 
A few years ago when I was living alone in Boston my bedroom window was ground-floor in the apt complex parking lot. All the windows had bars except for that one bc firemen had removed them once and they hadn't been replaced. I lived in kind of collegey area and not exactly the safest neighborhood in general. One hot summer night when I was sleeping with the window open, some drunk guy came to the window calling for "Bob." He knocked my screen in, onto the floor, and I just froze in terror, but fortunately he wandered off. I locked that window from then on and always slept with my cell phone right in the bed next to me.
 
 

For me the cloest thing to a break in was a homeless guy who sleeped in my car. It was a few years ago and I sorta live out in the country so locking doors was not something I relly worried about. Well, in the middle of the night I hear a car door open and close, thinking it was my imagination I fell back asleep. Early in the morning the doorbell rings and an old guy was stading there, he asked if he could come inside and have coffee, I told him that I was sorry I don't drink coffee. Suddenly he just started running away and I noteced he was holding a blanket I had in my car. I went to my car to check on things and it smelled like poop and urine, really discusting[&:] My best guess was he sleeped in there all night. From then on I always lock my doors. I find out later that others in the area had similar stories about a guy that looked the same.

our house was broken into when i was a little kid (maybe 5 y.o.). we werent home when it happened. at the time my dad was going to night school (to get his a.s.), and my mom is a hair stylist so she has always worked long weird hours. i remember it was cold out, but i dont remember if it was in december or early in the year. we (me, my mom, and my little brother) got home after dark, walked up to the door, and my mom, for some reason, turned the door knob before putting the key into the lock. when the door started to open she freaked out and we all ran back to the car and went to my grandparents house. my granpa went back to our house with his shot gun while we were waiting for the police to show. the robbers had been long gone for a while.

they did finally catch the guy(s), but i dont think we really got back any of our stuff. the funny thing was walking through trying to identify our stuff after they caught them. these guys stole so outrageous stuff. like refrigerator (full of food), lawn mower (with grass seed and fertilizer), un-monitored alarm system (i guess they figured they didnt want anyone to steal their stuff!), dresser drawer with lingerie in it (? not the whole dresser just the one drawer), .....

i know when they were at our house, they didnt feel any need to hurry. they made themselves a sandwich and  drank some tea. breaking into/robbing someone's house is definitely one of the more cowardly crimes a derelict S.O.B. could commit.

roxie, if you are afraid of someone messing around your house, get a shot-gun. the light on a cell phone may or may not scare them off, but i can almost guarantee the sound of chambering a round with a pump shot gun will most likely scare them off/make them crap their pants. if you do get a gun, make sure and go to a firing range and learn how to use it though.

We have had a few break-ins into our home.  Luckilly they were all animals instead of people. One time a hawk flew right into my brother's window and broke thorugh, when he was little and he wouldn't sleep in his room for weeks afterwards. The bird lived. Another time a bird broke into my dad's office, but it wasn't so lucky. We didn't find it until weeks after when the smell became so bad[:'(]
And the last time something broke into our house, it was an opposum. It lived under our refridgerator for a while before my parents chased it out.
A few finches have entered our house and stolen some errant hamster food off the floor, but we just considered them our clean-up crew and let them go back out the same way they came in.
We have a shady squirrel hanging around my parents bathroom. I think he wants to get in and steal some toothpaste. He also keeps talking the calking around our windows. Yet somehow my parents still leave their bathroom window slightly open. I have caught the squirrel actually in the bathroom at least twice... maybe he just wants to stay clean?

We also have a lot of 'gang' activity. All these guys hang around our front yard with guns. Luckilly they are air-soft guns, and the 'gang' is a group of nicely behaved teenaged guys (well, as nice as they can get) and my brother is the 'gang' leader.

Really, we have had someone steal my mom's purse from our car, but other than that we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, with a rather low crime rate, thankfully. I hope that doesn't change.

Last winter, before I moved in, the people (our friends), were robbed.  They left the garage door open (the remote controlled one that the car goes through), and locked the door knob of the smaller door that people go through.  The robbers pried the door open, stole some money, a camera, and other things from the garage.  The scariest part is that they were all asleep upstairs, so the robbers could have gone up and killed them.
 
I get scared all the time!  It is a huge house, and it is dark and makes strange noises.  Not to mention, whenever I close my bedroom door, my closet door opens all by itself.  It keeps doing that, and I hate it.  Ooohh, one time my sister turned off the lights in the kitchen in our basement, and as she was going up the stairs, they turned on again!
 
And yes, we did move into our friends' house down the street!

Unfortunately, yes.  My car got broken into 5 days (!) after we moved to Savannah.  Luckily there was nothing in the car besides a bunch of burned CD's (luckily NO originals).
 
The second time it was the apartment we were living in (same location when my car was broken into).  Our neighbors downstairs had been broken into twice the month before us.  So ever since the 1st time, I always had a habbit of looking up at our door when pulling into the alley.  I was coming home for lunch when I looked up and saw the door was ajar!  I ran upstairs (the jerk was gone), and called the cops.  Luckily he only TRIED taking a broken dvd player (haha on him).  I later found it on the ground next to the stairs.  I think that when he broke the door the cats hauled @$$ and made some noise to think that someone was home.  He grabbed the dvd player and ran.  The one thing that still baffles me is why it was on the ground.  I happy to find out that both my cats were safe & sound!  After all the break ins (4 in 9 months) and the slumlord (it took him almost a week to replace our door with one that was too short for the frame in the middle of FEB) we got the L out of there!!

roxie, if you are afraid of someone messing around your house, get a shot-gun. the light on a cell phone may or may not scare them off, but i can almost guarantee the sound of chambering a round with a pump shot gun will most likely scare them off/make them crap their pants. if you do get a gun, make sure and go to a firing range and learn how to use it though.

Last night was fairly mild, compared to some nights/sounds.  I just decided to share it with everyone.  LOL! 

As for a gun ... I doubt it.  My experience with guns hasn't been great, so I wouldn't want one in my home.  I've heard of robbers using the homeowner's gun to get what they want, so I don't want to help their malicious ways. 

My house is haunted.  I know and believe this with ever fiber of my being.  It's time to call the Ghostbusters.

You guys all have pretty freaky stories!