Burglary a year on

(Wow that photo is a bit dark - it's taken from upstairs looking into the extension, to show the Christmas lights)

This time last year a burglar was settling in for the night somewhere in East London. It's a busy time of year for burglars, with lots of booty up for grabs and merry revellers not being as cautious as they should be. This week we heard of a local policewoman who had her door kicked in at 3pm and had everything taken from her home - presents included. In hindsight we got off lightly as our burglar only took electronic items and cash.

Only yesterday someone asked what the outcome of the burglary was for us - and I had to explain that we didn't get a penny of insurance because MoreThan are an unfair company. According to them, I should have double bolted the doors and slept with the alarm on - even though Rob was still out. Actually he was out til around 4.45am, and I would not have been a happy camper being woken up by him unable to get in. We have switched to a more ethical insurance company who mention that 'reasonable precautions' are made but none of the nonsense that MoreThan say we should have done. It has to be said, if you do happen to double lock your doors and sleep with your alarm on you probably won't need insurance against burglary, or fire for that matter as the chances of escaping in order to claim would be fairly slim. (Ok I am officially in a bad mood about this now - but thinking about losing £2,000+ worth of stuff that we had to replace despite paying premiums for so many years because of a ridiculous clause is irkesome).

Anyway - in other semi-related news: earlier this week the car alarm went off at 4am, repeatedly. It could only be reset by locking the door with a key and Rob gallantly made me do it. The same week one of the sensors in our security system decided it needed a new battery and it took 3 days of waiting for an ADT engineer to come round to replace it. Also in the same week, one of the wires on the garage door wiggled free which meant the entire mechanism wouldn't work (thankfully Rob has fixed it, for now). The theory that things happen in threes seems to hold true here!

Pictured above: Church Street in Stoke Newington, great way to spend a Saturday FYI.

Fake dog

I had some great feedback about owning a dog on my Facebook page, mostly from friends who are dog owners. It has definitely put me off: Everything from the cost of replacing damaged furniture to hiring dog walkers and finding time to take it to the vet, through to some of the more colourful medical conditions they get (swollen anal glands, anyone?)

I bought Marlo a life-size Dalmation for her birthday and I have to say it's pretty convincing. A neighbour saw me arrive home with it on the back of my bike a couple of months ago, but even she did a double take from her garden when she saw it propped up against the window. I'm hoping that potential burglars will see it when they poke their faces over the fence and think it's real. Regardless, the neighbours on the other side are chipping in to buy a security gate for our communal alleyway this summer so no-one will be able to get to our garden gate once that goes in.

But it's not all gloom and doom and dwelling on burglars - I found a wall mounted bottle opener at Oliver Bonas for £8.50 and it's been useful to have in the garden when there are beers to be drunk.

Bump my lock

It's been a month since we were burgled, and over two weeks since the assessor came around and still no word. I have learned something this week though - that as soon as a high-tech security lock comes into existence, someone is out there trying to exploit it. Yes, there are discussion forums for security experts to out-nerd each other.

The most common way of exploiting a lock is by something called Lock Bumping.

Thanks to Saunderson Security for the overview:

"All you need is a special key called a bump key and a hitting tool like the handle of a screwdriver. A bump key is a key which has been cut down to the deepest cut at each pin position. Any key that will fit into the lock can be filed down to create a bump key"

It also says: "Little evidence of intrusion: The lock should not be damaged when bumped, so it is very difficult to prove the lock has been bypassed. Some insurers require evidence of a break-in or some use of force to gain entrance to the property in the advent of a burglary, so insurance claims may be rejected."

Oh yeah drat, if we'd known about this I guess we could've smashed a window.

And if I wanted to make my own? Well, there are many websites who'll sort you out, including UK Bump Keys. 'The best Lock Pick Shop forum for all Lock Picks, techniques, books and discussion' - currently over 4,400 members!

It's baffling why insurance companies are so determined to deny a claim when a little online investigation can throw up any number of options that give grounds for an appeal. I guess they rely on the majority of the public being too passive to argue. Or people like us who might say "Well, it's two grand's worth of stuff, we should be grateful it wasn't more."

Oh - and Rob discovered that his prescription sunglasses - which cost £500 as he's quite blind without them - were in his satchel (the one that got nicked). Curses to these overcast wintery days or he may've realised weeks ago.

In other insurance news...

I was about to insure my new mobile via a company that specialises in small gadgets, £54 for a years cover seemed reasonable. But then I read the small print - the phone would not be covered if it was stolen from my office, as the building wouldn't show any forced signs of entry. These loopholes are getting silly. I didn't bother, but am grateful to my burglar for making me read the small print.

Also, we've been paying Domestic & General 8+ years for washing machine cover for the Indesit appliance at our flat. The machine hasn't worked at all since November. The service man's scheduled visits are at least a week apart and last time he didn't show up at all. Understandably my tenants are getting fractious - but today's conversation with D&G really took the biscuit. When I explained that week days are not practical as people have jobs and can't stay in, and that a weekend or evening slot would be preferable, the guy on the phone had the gall to say "It's in our terms and conditions". OH SHUT UP.

We won't bother renewing the insurance on our washing machine (due any day now, ha!) as paying £70 a year is a waste of money if they can't fix it within a week. Might as well pay a regular washing machine person the call-out fee. Blimey, on their website they advertise it as £39 a year - we've been seriously ripped off. To quote someone on Twitter, insurance is legalised theft. Too right.

No insurance update

This is Gwen, snapped 10 days ago for her first day at Big School. Life is going to be so much easier having the girls at the same school and finishing at the same time - mostly for my childminder but also for the endless juggling of extra curricular activities (kid related) and our various social commitments (mostly pub related).

The insurance company was supposed to let us know a week ago what the outcome of our claim was, but so far not a peep. I've heard numerous horror stories about insurance companies avoiding paying out for all kinds of trivial reasons in the last couple of weeks. I've gone a bit OCD at night, checking the doors are properly locked and ensuring anything remotely gadget like is hidden from view.

Still very glad that no keys, credit cards or passports were nicked. Just the hassle of replacing these things would have been infuriating. If there's a trade off to be had I'd rather be out of pocket (slowly) replacing stuff than having to change all the locks etc.

It still peeves me no end that there are people out there who are happy for you to work, who think it's acceptable to then take what you've worked for. Our burglar's haul is a month's salary for a lot of people, and to think we might have been one of many households he'd hit that week. Scumbag. Grade A scumbag.

Burglary update

The insurance assessor came around last Friday and the news isn't good. Apparently we are unlikely to be successful with our claim because the front door wasn't double locked. This is baffling - the intruder came in through the back door, so it should be irrelevant, really. We never double lock when we're home - who does? There's the argument that you shouldn't because if there was a fire it would make it difficult to escape, or allow firefighters in. A chain lock is considered a secondary lock, but as Rob was out boozing til the wee hours on this particular evening, I wouldn't have put a chain on even if we had one - how would he get inside?

The small print on an insurance policy is badly worded - upon reading and deciphering it turns out that if we'd been burgled and the doors were locked, and the alarm was on but a window was open upstairs, the policy wouldn't pay out! Likewise if any keys were left in any doors (admittedly we used to go to work with the back door key in the door - obviously we've removed it since). If we'd been burgled while we were at work, we could've easily lost 10-15x what we're claiming for and the insurers wouldn't have paid out due to one of their loopholes.

Insurance companies are happy to take your premiums - paid for years in good faith - but it seems they'll do whatever they can do avoid paying out. All this has taught us is to lie: if we'd known the double locking issue was going to be a deal breaker, we could've said the door was double locked.

I'm trying to look at the bright side - this will ensure we question ridiculous policy notes, and secure windows/doors etc - but if we don't get paid out we still have to replace all the stuff that was nicked - around £2,000 worth of gadgets and related bits. Rob's company won't replace his laptop as the excess is so high, so he's using an old one for the forseeable future. The kids won't be getting 20 replacement Nintendo games for their DS Lites. Oh and two weeks after we were robbed we noticed that the Toshiba Journe tablet (pictured) had been stolen too - which we weren't claiming for as they're not even on sale in the UK (it was such a piece of rubbish I expect Toshiba isn't going to bother launching it).

We find out the ruling in the next few days, watch this space.

Bodum and burglary

This is the new Bodum kettle I bought when our old one limped into oblivion. I bought it on the internet so wasn't sure about the exact colour but I'm pleased to say it becomes suitably camouflaged against the splashback. It's also incredibly light so pouring water for a pot of tea doesn't feel as much of a chore.

On the downside, I got up two days before Christmas to find we'd been robbed while we slept. Some chancer had jumped over the (locked) garden gate and come in through the back door (which I was sure I'd locked) and had a quick spree. He picked up my freshly updated iPod (full Christmas playlists - grrr), the Numark headphones from my mixer (which have a huge jack and don't fit the iPod), Rob's satchel which contained his work laptop, personal papers, a few hundred pounds cash, both kids DS consoles and their games pack which had about 20 games inside, and then my HTC phone and charger. He ignored my work Blackberry (which admittedly has seen better days) and the presents under the tree.

The Hackney burglary squad were around within two hours and the forensics lady came an hour after that. The burglar was a pro - no fingerprints, no footprints - and he'd pointed our security light towards the moon.

I guess we should be grateful that nothing sentimental or irreplaceable was taken. The insurance assessor is coming next week to check things over, and hopefully everything will be covered (We've had contents insurance forever and this will be our first claim). The upside is now we'll be super vigilent about locking up and checking things over - and will probably alarm the downstairs of the house even when we're home, so he's done us a favour really.

Not nice to be a statistic/cliche but it could have been so much worse.