How scary!

Erwin Family — SPOOKY! Sorry you had to deal with that. As another Crestview resident, I would hope that these things don’t happen to the neighbors!

A quick and easy partial-fix is “the poor man’s burglar alarm”–some alarm company stickers that you put on your windows and back door, and a small yard sign that you post by the front door. I found an alarm company on Burnet that was willing to sell me a sign and stickers about five years ago.

Oh, no! So sorry. That’s an awful feeling, I know.

So sorry to hear about the burglary. I went through it 2 years ago and know the spooky feeling. I was able to secure my house without too much cost. Another huge burglary deterrent is a dog. Good luck!

Thanks, ya’ll. The crazy part is that we have an alarm. The burglars were pretty quick–it was a grab-and-carry operation and they were in and out before the alarm could have notified police. Our guess is that they spotted specific items through the window, small electronics not tied down, smashed the window of a back door and forced their entry, and then ran. The neighbor said they were here for less than five minutes.
We’ve heard of other stories like ours throughout the neighborhood, and I’m kicking myself for not being more careful. We left our curtains open, the items were all in plain sight, the back door was shaded from the street and was full glass and fairly easy to break with a hard whack of a hammer.
I suppose the up side is that we can design and build our own new back door other than that, it sucks!

Very sorry to hear about it.

Hi,
Midcentury homes are a challenge. I love all the glass – ceiling to floor. They are so OPEN compared to earlier styles. Bless ‘em! However, they also offer the fish-bowl effect for the curious and the criminal.
Standard items wanted by thieves (electronics, weapons, money, jewelry) can certainly be hidden from view (though most people hide them in stereotypical locations). Also, electronics, no matter how old, can always be installed in a cabinet, so at the very least they are not in constant view from the out of doors.
Let’s face it, the BLESSING about criminals (if there IS such a thing), is they’re STUPID. They wouldn’t know a George Nelson from an Ozzie Nelson. I have more concern about teenage style vandalism than stupid burglars, frankly.
Our neighborhood of mid-century homes is experiencing a small flurry of teenage style larcenies. We have “Neighborhood Watch” but this is not enough. It is too slow. I am in the process of designing a program I call “Neighborhood Alert”, which asks everyone to lightning-call 9-1-1 and then IMMEDIATELY call one or two assigned neighbors. It is not all finessed yet, but it will be, and I expect it to work… certainly better than not doing it at all.
Just some activist thoughts. Sorry you were violated. It happens to most of us at least once.
Ronn Ives/FUTURES Antiques