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Our (rental) house in Greece got broken into this morning while my girlfriend slept alone inside. Exactly while I was getting onto a boat to begin my freediving training, my girlfriend woke up to a loud noise, opened the bedroom door, and faced three masked men in the kitchen.
Thankfully they were so shocked that they immediately ran away and stole only some cash we had on the table and my girlfriend's purse (thankfully all her stuff fell out as they ran away). We later learned from the police and one of the neighbors that these were young Roma men who break into houses to steal cash and jewelry (my girlfriend heard them say a word in a different language than Greek and the police confirmed who they were).
They must have watched me leave earlier in the morning and assumed the house was empty.
It's our third year in a row coming to the same place and nothing has ever happened. I've always felt super safe here. But it shows that shit can happen any time. And we're on a fenced property with two dogs (that did F*ck all - thanks, dogs!) and we always lock everything up because I'm paranoid by nature and wake up at the slightest weird noise. But this time I wasn't at home to react in any way and it wasn't even at night.
I know logically that if I had been at home, they wouldn't have broken in (because they would have seen the car in the driveway) and would have instead come another day when the two of us would be gone and then they could have stolen everything. But at the same time I'm F*cking pissed off I couldn't do anything. Yet if I could have done something and hurt these little F*ckers, it's highly likely I would have then become a target of the local Roma gang.
So I just wanted to post this because I'm kind of f*cked up now. We're laughing about it with my girlfriend now (she scared them off with a F*cking broom and even threw it at them), logically I know they won't come back here, yet I'm wondering...
What could I have done better? What can I do better from now on? And hell, why not, since it's an entrepreneur's forum, what kind of business opportunities do you see here?
From now on we'll implement even more safety measures than before. We'll start closing all the shutters but this isn't a big obstacle if they broke the (locked) balcony door (through which they entered) in 3 seconds. I asked the owner to install an alarm and maybe he'll also install a camera. I'll also hide weapons (unfortunately no guns here) throughout the house for easy access in case I'm at home when there's an intruder.
But I still don't feel safe anymore, particularly to leave my girlfriend alone at home. The alarm can go off and not deter intruders, the closed shutter maybe means 2 seconds more to break into the house, and I (or my girlfriend) can't actually even use a weapon if these people belong to a larger gang. Moving to another place won't solve anything, either, because here at least we can be relatively sure they won't be back anytime soon.
I'm asking in general for the future, particularly when traveling - how can you prevent such situations if you take all basic preventive measures? What else can you do that I may have missed? How do you process it, particularly when blaming yourself that you weren't there? How do you not become ultra-paranoid after such a thing happens?
As always, I'd appreciate any thoughts and input as I'm really struggling with this today...
Thankfully they were so shocked that they immediately ran away and stole only some cash we had on the table and my girlfriend's purse (thankfully all her stuff fell out as they ran away). We later learned from the police and one of the neighbors that these were young Roma men who break into houses to steal cash and jewelry (my girlfriend heard them say a word in a different language than Greek and the police confirmed who they were).
They must have watched me leave earlier in the morning and assumed the house was empty.
It's our third year in a row coming to the same place and nothing has ever happened. I've always felt super safe here. But it shows that shit can happen any time. And we're on a fenced property with two dogs (that did F*ck all - thanks, dogs!) and we always lock everything up because I'm paranoid by nature and wake up at the slightest weird noise. But this time I wasn't at home to react in any way and it wasn't even at night.
I know logically that if I had been at home, they wouldn't have broken in (because they would have seen the car in the driveway) and would have instead come another day when the two of us would be gone and then they could have stolen everything. But at the same time I'm F*cking pissed off I couldn't do anything. Yet if I could have done something and hurt these little F*ckers, it's highly likely I would have then become a target of the local Roma gang.
So I just wanted to post this because I'm kind of f*cked up now. We're laughing about it with my girlfriend now (she scared them off with a F*cking broom and even threw it at them), logically I know they won't come back here, yet I'm wondering...
What could I have done better? What can I do better from now on? And hell, why not, since it's an entrepreneur's forum, what kind of business opportunities do you see here?
From now on we'll implement even more safety measures than before. We'll start closing all the shutters but this isn't a big obstacle if they broke the (locked) balcony door (through which they entered) in 3 seconds. I asked the owner to install an alarm and maybe he'll also install a camera. I'll also hide weapons (unfortunately no guns here) throughout the house for easy access in case I'm at home when there's an intruder.
But I still don't feel safe anymore, particularly to leave my girlfriend alone at home. The alarm can go off and not deter intruders, the closed shutter maybe means 2 seconds more to break into the house, and I (or my girlfriend) can't actually even use a weapon if these people belong to a larger gang. Moving to another place won't solve anything, either, because here at least we can be relatively sure they won't be back anytime soon.
I'm asking in general for the future, particularly when traveling - how can you prevent such situations if you take all basic preventive measures? What else can you do that I may have missed? How do you process it, particularly when blaming yourself that you weren't there? How do you not become ultra-paranoid after such a thing happens?
As always, I'd appreciate any thoughts and input as I'm really struggling with this today...
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