Last night I heard a noise – a noise that shouldn’t have been there. A single footstep, upstairs. I don’t scare easy, and once I’d been upstairs and checked, I decided it was probably just a strange effect of the wind outside, or maybe a radiator expanding or contracting.
I don’t feel lonely, and generally I don’t miss having someone around – but at times like that it would be nice to know someone at least had your back!!
Also, being on my own means there’s only one person checking that the door’s locked and the alarm’s set.
I don’t lay awake worrying about it – the ‘it’ll never happen to me’ streak is strong, thank goodness.
It did happen to me once though, many years ago . Due to a combination of circumstances that I won’t bore you with, my husband ended up going to work, overnight, with both sets of house keys. It meant I couldn’t lock the front door at bedtime. So – I piled lots of things up behind the door – ironing board, kid’s bike, that sort of thing. If anyone tried to get in it would either make a noise and frighten them away, or slow them down while they disentangled themselves. I went to bed and read for a bit – and lo and behold someone tried the door. While my light was still on.
I couldn’t believe it. I stormed straight downstairs, really really cross that someone had had the barefaced cheek to try the door. They’d run off by the time I got there (so my plan worked). I can honestly say I wasn’t scared – but I was fucking angry. Think lioness – my own cub was asleep upstairs, and yes, I would have attacked if provoked.
And after that, I always wondered how many times the door had been tried whilst it was locked. It’s unlikely to have been a coincidence, that they happened to try it the one night it wasn’t locked.
I always check the doors before I go out and before I go up to bed. Even if I know I haven’t been out, I still check. I always set the alarm, even if I’m just popping out to post a letter. I have a light that comes on with a timer in the evening, regardless of whether I’m at work or not. I think it makes it look like the house has someone in it – or that I’m not in on my own.
I set an alarm when I leave the house too, and I get a text if the alarm is triggered while I’m out. The only time it’s ever happened was when I was at the hairdressers!! I had to run home with wet hair, only to discover that there was nothing wrong and no obvious reason for the alarm to go off.
At the end of the day all we can do is take sensible precautions and keep the insurance up to date. It’s only stuff, after all. But it’s my stuff, and regardless of value some of it is irreplaceable. Anyone thinking of laying a finger on it really doesn’t want to see me angry.
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