Mike C

iTrader: (1)

Still trying to get my head round this, but I came into work yesterday morning and we'd suffered a break-in. Something which I've never experience before, but always been very fearful of.

They'd come in through the fire door at the rear of the building, the outside of which is pretty tucked away and secluded. We are in a compound which is securely locked with strong fences at the top, so no one could drive in anywhere, but they'd got in through the next sort of compound which has no gates, and then got over a fence at the back, which is now trampled down and crushed.

They'd smashed through the wooen door frame and through the main closing latch, forced open the padlock by bending it so that the door gave way (was only a wooden door with a pretty thin steel sheet on the outside). Then they would have been faced with our steel security shutter on the inside. Now this was a pretty strong thing, and secured with a substantial padlock at the bottom, but they'd managed to force it up about a third of the way. It had ripped the steel shutter near the bottom, just above the padlock, which hadn't given way.

Outside the door they'd left a bloody big scaffolding pole which they'd obviously used to force the door and then the shutter. Now they're properly strong things, and this was totally bent, and just the fact that we know how strong the steel shutter was tells us how much effort they must have put in to get in and how long they must have been at it, and what a racket they must have been making to break it!

Now when we moved in here we asked what the history of break-ins was at this site and everyone confirmed that in 25 years there had been 2 break-ins at the top unit and nothing had ever been stolen.

Then about a week after we moved in, the unit next door got broken into, just by smashing a window at the front. Again, nothing was taken,was suspected to be kids just after money as it was a pretty shoddy job.

Well, we can see this certainly wasn't kids, it was someone who really wanted to get in.

And that's the strange part, because they took nothing!

We can only assume they must have been disturbed and legged it.

We stock aluminium, which the insurance assessor told us was second only to gold in terms of attractiveness to thieves right now. It would be difficult for thieves to get in and get away with any substantial amount of or aluminium because it's 6.5metres long, and as said, they couldnt get a wagon big enough to take any of it round here without causing havoc, taking the gates out, etc etc

but on the shelves right next to where they broke in, there were plenty of tools etc for work, and some of my personal tools for working on cars etc. Nothing hugely valuable, but easy to grab and nickable.

Then at the other end of the warehouse I had a few shelves full off car stereo gear, speakers, subs, amps, several tv screens, couple of SS exhausts and other pretty valuable stuff. Plus I had one of my cars in there which I reckon most theives/vandals would have smashed to shit, but nothing at all.

And then if they'd got as far as the offices (locked doors, but one office would have been easy for them to break into compared to the steel shutter), there were computers, phones, faxes etc. Then the kitchen was unlocked, with fridge, microwave etc.

I was last there at 12 noon on saturday, and I knew where every item in the building was, how I left it, and everything was definiely untouched barring a tub of rubber gasket. For some reason, amongst all the stuff on show, they had lifted down a tub containing 150m of rubber gasket, totally worthless to anyone other than us or one of our customers, and only worth about £20 or so to us anyway, and then they'd put that down on the floor about halfway back to where they'd got in, and obviously gone back out again. And to get there, they would have walked past all the tools etc, and would have seen the car and plenty of other things.

So weird to put in all the effort to get in and then leave with nothing, even they'd lifted the gasket down, walked towards their escape with it, peeled the lid off slightly, then just left it.

They must have been disturbed, or were expecting to find something in there which wasnt, but still seems odd as the gasket suggests they spent more than a matter of seconds in there and the fact that if they werent disturbed whilst spending what must have been an age breaking in and making so much noise, it seems unlikely that anything would disturb them whilst they were inside.

Irony of it all is, we were having new double glazing and framework fitted at the front and a new FULLY STEEL fire door and frame at the rear yesterday, and we were waiting for that lot to go in before installing the alarm, as it would have meant changing a load of the sensors over again.

But now we're all secure again, and fully belled up with all singing, all dancing security system the insurance assessor recommended.

The worst of it all though, is if this happened on saturday night, the back could have been left open all through sunday day and night

cossiegreg1

not nice when this happens, just the thought of the cunts bein in your property.

someone came in my mams house the other week and stole her handbag, which was next to £20 and behind the door the was a laptop and a nokia n95. the thick cunts only took the bag which had no money and other non valuable stuff.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

Vandals yes, most thieves no. Aint worth the effort. Druggies/kids looking to steal who get empty handed might vandalise the car to "teach you a lesson" for daring to lock stuff away (those young shits think its thier right to steal!!) or out of anger but most professionals wont bother because its time and effort that could be better used escaping or hauling loot.

Does seem odd that it was just before you are having new security installed, maybe someone knows it was going to be fitted and knowing you have valuable aluminium wanted to have a go. Does seem like they were disturbed or you didnt have what they thought you did.

kevnoize

anyone got a grudge against you mike? might of just done it to hit your pocket?

Mike C

iTrader: (1)

Well no one would have mentioned there was no alarm, so don't know how anyone would have known one was just about to go in.

Yeah it's the thought of someone having been in there who shouldn't have been that makes me feel a bit weird at the moment.

As for anyone with a grudge, I sure as hell don't think so...

orion_crazy_carl

iTrader: (3)

bad luck mate,but u got off lightly,they must of been big fookers to,that would scare me more i think!

Mike C

iTrader: (1)

It was definitely someone with some strength, and someone clued up on breaking and entering

mrjenrst

mate tbh the first thing i thought when you said about the gasket is it flamable?

vroooom ptssssh

Maybe they bent the shutter up enough to get a jack in and used that to bend up the shutter and bending the pole, who knows but sounds like a whole load of effort for nothing, maybe casing the place out to see what they needed to get the loot?

Maria.

At least it was no more than an 'inconvenience' i guess.

did anyone else near you get broken in to or have any damage?

mrjenrst

a nice friendly daytime visit will sort that out, if your gonna go through all that fucking about chances are they knew what was there and probably have been or visited before.

Mike C

iTrader: (1)

The gasket is used for commercial windows/doors etc and as flameproof. The thought of someone starting a fire never occurred to me tbh, but if anyone would have wanted to do that, our storage bins for storing pieces of wood, cardboard, plastic etc ready to chuck away/re-use were pretty full at the time and they'd have been the obvious targets.

Again, as for casing it out, it just seems like a lot of effort. I mean, they put a LOT of effort into getting in, while they were in there in the middle of the night, they might as well have helped themselves to a few things at least, plenty of small, but valuable items on offer if they had the chance to take a look.

I make a point of keeping the front warehouse shutter closed at any time unless it's absolutely necessary, so anyone who is around can't have a good look at what we have in there.

Next door and the other unit in the compound, currently empty do not have any real protection on their windows/doors, and they're only wooden single glazed units. People may look and see that we've got a mototised security shutter, all locked up that covers the whole front, and see several locking devices on the warehouse shutter and think that must be a sign that we have something worth going to the effort to protect.

The door at the back, which they got through was the only sort of "weak spot" so to speak, you saw that from the outside and it looked like a possible point of entry. But now it's fully steel, frame as well, so the only real way through would be with burning gear, and if anyone did get through there now, they'd be faced with a 3 tonne forklift which I've now parked right up against the door, and as pukka an alarm system as we could get.

And no, no one else had any problems as far as I am aware. First thing I did was go round next door and check with them, but no. Their fire door at the back has no shutter or protection whatsoever, but it was untouched.

Mike C

iTrader: (1)

Here's the shutter as it was found



The scaffold pole left just outside the door



Along with a plank of wood



The door catch





Trampled down fence



And a perspective view of how the gasket went walkies. The tub on the floor was lifted from the second shelf where you can see a gap



and now there's another obstacle for any would-be thieves to tackle, a 3 tonne Jungheinrich!

And on/under those shelves near it there was a trolley jack and various other tools

Paul_RS

iTrader: (4)

Maybe they thought whatever was in the tubs, was something other than they found it to be when they broke in?

Either that or they were disturbd just as they were checking your tools, dropped the tub and ran off?

Ex-Finesse

Glad nothing was taken mate!

Take it your aluminium stock is to the left of the last pic?

Just so I can pass it on to Kenny and Kenny... useless pricks

Mike C

iTrader: (1)

I can only assume something must have disturbed them, nothing else makes sense, but even so, a lot of things don't make sense either way!

And I had been storing this there for quite a while. Was parked on the other side of the racks in the picture, but still totally unmissable, just surprised and relieved to see it untouched



Yep, that's the aluminium, well, some of it