On Saturday Night 20th Jan. 2007 I went to bed early with my wife Sue,and got woken up at 9 o'clock by my Son Allister. Seeing the stair light on I opened the bedroom door, two men came in to the bedroom saying they were from the local Neighbourhood Watch; that there had been two burglaries locally; that our house had just been burgled; the police were on the way to check for fingerprints; could I check to see if I had any valuables missing in the house?
In a very sleepy daze, thinking that my son had just let them in; and they spoke with such urgent authority, I checked my coin box for coins, no problem there; and then checked my brief case. No problem there.
I asked how did the burglars whom they were referring to get in? The balkier bloc said, through a window down stairs.
So we all walk down stairs to check the window in the kitchen to find it was open. There were three of these Neighbourhood watch men.
They then said, could I check in the toilet and other room? which I did.
I then came back and said; that was ok but I had better go and get some cloths on, and went upstairs.
It click in the back of my mind "check your brief case again". I did, and my money was gone and the brief case locks broken.
I went downstairs and the "Neighbourhood watch men" had GONE. All in three minutes.
I dialled 999 and contacted the police who came 1/2 hour later.
Before the Police came I went round to the next door neighbour's place who said that he had heard a Knock on the back door and his dog, tail between his legs went to the front of their house. As there was a light on; the burglars lost interest.
By 10:45 pm I was sitting down very tense with two policemen one of which was taking notes from me as it happened to me and the other one was on his mobile keeping in touch with HQ with control room chit chat going on in the background.
As I started the process of describing these three men I made the comment that I wasn't worried about the £1000.00 being stolen I was just glad that I hadn't been stabbed with a knife and now being writhing on the floor asking my wife to phone for an ambulance under immergency.
The policeman taking down the notes said that I was being very positive.
One of the burglars was about 40 years old stocky with light hair. The second was about 20 wearing a black batman type headress. The younger one about 20 was stocky but shorter and apparentley had a Irish accent.
It transpired that the one with the Irish accent was the one that came into Allister's room with the announcement that he was from Neighbourhood Watch and check your valuables.
When I said I had informed the guy next door, the Policeman not taking down notes said he would go and have a chat with the neighbour.
After one hour the Police gave me some forms to fill in and asked "Would I be prepared to stand up in Court, to which I said yes" and then they both left saying that "Forensics would call tommorow and safety would come about 4 days time.
Finally I asked them would this story appear in the press and they said it might.
Sunday 21st Jan the forensics lady arrived and did finger print checks all over the place in the space of about one and half hours.
A couple of days later the main copper turned up to collect the forms that I had filled in. He said that a number of "similar" burglaries had occurred at about the same time.
On the thursday of that week the security police arrived and showed me how I could improve the security of the house.
The story did not appear in the Farnborough News the following week so I told the papers the story myself. They sent a photographer out and the story appeared front page on the 9th Feb.
Alex