Please be on the look out

I have been burgled twice in my life, both times out of my car, and the loss of the items was not nearly as much the issue as the feeling of being invaded. And of course, in this case having personal items stolen that cannot be just replaced by another in the case of some of the jewelry adds to that.

I join all the others here in extending my sympathies, and hope you and yours can soon put this behind you both financially and emotionally.

You have my sympathies. Not wishing to be unkind but be aware thieves have a tendency to revisit after a few weeks when they think equipment may have been replaced by insurance companies and strike again!! Please bare this in mind.

Consider CCTV and a monitored intruder alarm.

Regards,

Ken

Maybe time for a topic on protection of audio gear? Many of us have a NAS which can be a crucial part in such a thing.

I have to admit that I'm afraid that my house will get visitited too.

Offsite physical physical or cloud backups are important here. If someone stole my music collection (NAS/Storage Array) I don't think I would be able to recreate it again after 25+ years of collecting. CD's in the loft wouldn't cover half my collection these days.

I'm sorry to hear of this horrific and gut-wrenching event - it must be hard to cope with the loss of personal and probably sentimental items (let alone the Naim). There is a saying that what comes around goes around, so those scumbags will get caught and good things will come to you and may end up with a better system! Don't think of what's happened too much (it's tough not to) but only to say it's happened and irreversible. Think positive and how to shape the future. 

I an extremely sorry to hear of your loss and you must feel terrible.  I cannot express in words the gruesome fate these cretinous wretches should meet as a result of their heinous actions.  I will keep an eye out on the forums and auctions sites.  This kind of thing does make me wary about posting photo's of my own equipment online as you never know who is looking.  Sad times.  I can only hope that your insurance provides you with the monetary value of your lost items. These days I keep an ice axe in my room, and anyone venturing into my lounge in the depths of the night with aspirations of stealing from me will find it buried firmly in their back

On a relevant note, I purchased two 135's recently and received one, however, the second box has gone AWOL whilst under the responsibility of Parcel Force.  After numerous phone calls and emails it has not been found, and I suspect this has been stolen also, so please keep your eyes peeled gents.  Unfortunately for the seller he did not fully insure the item so will be out of pocket.  I feel annoyed for him and also maddened by the incompetence of the couriers for losing a priceless piece of audio history.  Unbelievable. 

It's also the damage these wonderful people cause. Although nothing is ever 100% safe from their pilfering little fingers I invested in a professionally installed centrally monitored alarm system a few years back. It's serviced twice a  year and helps keep the insurance premium down a little. On the two occasions it has false triggered in the last 16 years the Police have been on the doorstep in under 15 minutes. Some comfort although the most determined will probably have a go....nothing like trying to make life a little more difficult for them though....

We were burgled on holiday once a few years ago.  I think the worst part was knowing someone else had been in your house (ours was a rented cottage luckily) and has been invading your space.  They didn't get much thankfully but you are left feeling violated.  It's hard to describe.  There is something to be said for owning a viscous hound of some kind to deter any intruders! 

Ardbeg10y posted:

Maybe time for a topic on protection of audio gear? Many of us have a NAS which can be a crucial part in such a thing.

I have to admit that I'm afraid that my house will get visitited too.

There have been several on the Streaming Audio sub-forum.

How about improving the page where you can lookup naim serial numbers and determine their age? I've always found Naim serial numbers a bit hard to read and would prefer having the option to type them in. As a side effect it would allow for instant notification when a match is found against the stolen database.

Also, as people looking up serial numbers have good intent ( I assume) , you could hook up a form that allows you to post a link to the page where the item is listed. One could have that then trigger an email to the owner of the missing gear. 

(I design & implement these systems, would be happy to help out)

Lewis posted:

We were burgled on holiday once a few years ago.  I think the worst part was knowing someone else had been in your house (ours was a rented cottage luckily) and has been invading your space.  They didn't get much thankfully but you are left feeling violated.  It's hard to describe.  There is something to be said for owning a viscous hound of some kind to deter any intruders! 

A viscous hound would only be effective against very slow moving intruders though. 

Hi all, thanks for the good wishes and here's a little update.

Still no word from the Police about the goods that were stolen or the people that took them, but still early days i guess. We have CCTV of the car (black / dark blue , maybe a Renault Megane, plates not visible unfortunately) that the goods were being loaded into arriving at / leaving our house between 7.55pm and 8.07pm, so in and out in 12 mins. There were 2 perps, one male, one female. We also have cctv of a young adult with a back-pack scoping our house out at 6.05pm that same night. He was carefully walking just out of detailed view of the cctv down the road, also avoidning flood lights going off. He got to our house, turned around and left the estate it would appear, maybe to go and get his partner / car, who knows. It can't have been a tip off from someone in the TV shop (or from a hi-fi shop as some have suggested on other sites) as our estate isn't on the sat-nav network yet, you can't find us (we even needed to guid the police to our house over the phone). Also, i never have any of my kit delivered anywhere other than my office. I think we were singled out becasue we didn't have an alarm at the time (we do now, and CCTV) and our locks were cheap builder fit items (again, they aren't any more). They also took (we have since discovered) a bluetooth speaker (but left the charger), a tub of my partners face-cream, a bag full of chocolate that was for our children and my Garmin. The anxiety we are feeling is massive and at all times of the day, even with the extra security we've now installed. Obviously, this isn't anywhere near as serious as a lot of other crimes, but none-the-less, it's very tough to deal with.

Again, thanks for all the good wishes and support.

oh, and the delaers i've had my kit from previously have been amazing in digging out invoices and serial numbers etc to help with the insurance. Right here and now though, having that level of stuff again in our home does not appeal to me..... 

Now listen here, Cheekymonkey. You love listening to music on a good stereo. You'll get the insurance money. Why should you settle for less because someone burgled your house? Don't let your world become smaller. Get another good system. As most on here know, I was knocked of my bike and nearly died at the end of August. I couldn't ride a bike straightaway because my balance was too unreliable and to be honest I was scared. But a few weeks ago I got on the lovely new Felt that the insurance paid for, strapped on my new helmet and off I jolly well went. I could have died but I didn't and I'm making the best of things. You too should get back on your bike. Don't let the burglars win. 

Well said HH.

Cheekymonkey - don't let those bas**rds win by spoiling your enjoyment of a hobby you love!

You're both right of course, but like every loss there's a process you have to go through and I'm just at the start of it. I will no doubt (boyed on by my amazing other half) come full circle and replace wholesale what I have lost. Glad you're back out there HH, I'm a Bianchi man myself....;-) 

You can also look at it this way - you could not possibly deprive us of a pleasure of advising you what to choose 

nigelb posted:

Well said HH.

Cheekymonkey - don't let those bas**rds win by spoiling your enjoyment of a hobby you love!

To quote from the original Irish boys band U2 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'

Cheekymonkey71 posted:

You're both right of course, but like every loss there's a process you have to go through and I'm just at the start of it. I will no doubt (boyed on by my amazing other half) come full circle and replace wholesale what I have lost. Glad you're back out there HH, I'm a Bianchi man myself....;-) 

I'm glad you took my post in the spirit it was intended. It's horrid, but you'll get over it. Just before we moved into our little Close, a thief had broken in to every house, and all they took was women's underwear. Nothing else. Just pants. Weird. 

I know exactly what you're going through and can tell you from experience it gets much better with time, provided you are convinced you have addressed the obvious weaknesses in your security, which you now have.

As HH has said, don't let your world become smaller. Take comfort in the fact that they didn't want to be seen, like the vast majority of this type of scum. Having a working alarm, which should be set off 'accidentally' for a few seconds every now and then so everyone knows it works, is the biggest deterrent you can have. I've only ever been burgled in houses without an alarm.

If you're not sleeping at night, get into the habit of setting the alarm downstairs if this is feasible. This means that you will rapidly relax about all the normal night noises that occur, but right now will probably be keeping you awake.

I'm looking forward to hearing which kit you go for with the insurance money, but in the meantime a Qb will help keep the music flowing if you can run to it - without too much time needing to be spent auditioning

I hope the return of your peace of mind is rapid and complete...

I'm very sorry to hear. 

Concur with the general view on here. I was relieved of my hifi + CD collection in about 1994 [credit card? They chucked it on the floor] and for a few weeks was fully of the opinion that the scum who thought they could just help themselves to my kit should swing from the nearest lamppost. Tbh I still do sometimes. But the insurance coughed up, they let me choose better CDs in place of some of the more dodgy choices I might have made [the then g/f wanted those obvs.. ]. All comes to all I ended up with better kit, once the dust had settled.

The sense of personal space being violated soon went, the better hifi was a nice upgrade and life very soon returned to an even keel. Don't be dragged into dwelling on it; it happens all the while and it's not a personal attack just an unfortunate event. Enjoy the upgrade that results, even if it does cost you a few quid that you end up paying on top to move up a level. 

To HH, hope you got over it, but a Felt??? BMC, with Di2. It's the only way.

I wouldn't go out right away and replace. The reason? I have been burgled more times than I care to count.
On one occasion when hifi was stolen, by luck, it was returned in good condition. A dog walker found it in a field and took it to his local police station, which happened to be my local police station, so they knew where it had come from.
On another occasion, the petrol lawnmower, trimmer, hedge trimmers and "Billy Goat" vacuum  were all stolen. I replaced them all and they were all stolen again 6 weeks later.. The police simply told me that they often return to the same place knowing you'll have replaced it.
I ended up fitting CCTV, electric gates, security lights and improving the alarm as well as fitting massive steel plated covers on the door jams etc.
On another occasion at a different house, around £1000 worth of damage was caused and the only thing of mention they stole was my video camera. Unfortunately, it still contained the tape of my parents 40th wedding anniversary party from the previous weekend. Never to be seen again and the last time my father was well enough to speak publicly.
Did I feel violated? Angry? You damn well bet I did! I wanted to personally get revenge on the low-life scum if I ever found out who they were.
After burglary number 4, I started to feel immune to the violation feeling and it became a game of "what could I do to stop them"...
Living in a very remote rural area at the time didn't help!
I'd say, wait until after Christmas. You've upgraded your security, Take your time.

ChrisR_EPL 

To HH, hope you got over it, but a Felt??? BMC, with Di2. It's the only way.

Pah! Keep it simple and light. Trek Emonda for me with full mechanical Dura-Ace

this has got me thinking about security in my place now, got a lot of nice stuff like the bike (wife's included) and the rack of Naim. Even thought of packing it all away somewhere while I'm away skiing in the darker months of the year. 

I have a Nest cam in my kitchen that I use to annoy the wife while I'm out working, they're cheap cctv and they do outdoor ones now too. 

Drewy posted:

ChrisR_EPL 

To HH, hope you got over it, but a Felt??? BMC, with Di2. It's the only way.

Pah! Keep it simple and light. Trek Emonda for me with full mechanical Dura-Ace

Forget those....Colnago C60 with Super Record Eps FTW