I sleep very lightly and it would be unusual for me not to awaken at least once a night when either of the children stirs in their sleep. We leave the door to our bedroom open for this reason. So it was no surprise on Saturday night when I woke up in the middle of the night. What was a surprise was the sound that woke me up. Even in my semi-dazed state I instantly knew it was the sound of our front door opening – it has a swishing sound as the weather proof barrier passes over the tiles in the porch.
It was 4am and Barbara was asleep beside me, there was no reason the front door should be opening. I got up out of bed thinking I must have left it open when Little Waster 1 and I came back from cycling around the canal – this wouldn’t have been the first time. Several years ago I had similarly descended the stairs to find a neighbour in our hall who was just checking to see if everything was okay.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs I noticed a shadowy shape in our porch, which was entirely dark. As I approached they fled. When I got to the front door I found the lock on the latch and couldn’t get it to lock. The lock had stuck a few times in the past and I assumed that it had just gotten stuck open and some opportune burglar had come to see if there was anything worth taking. Using the other lock I secured the door and pottered around the house for a hour or so until I could go back to sleep.
The next day when Barbara went out with Little Waster 2 she immediately noticed that the lock had been forced open. At this stage I was very grateful that I was such a light sleeper as I didn’t like the idea of someone prowling around our house. Talking to our neighbours it appears that someone is targeting houses on our street, which is normally very safe, as there have been two other attempted break ins.
We have decided to be more security conscious and will now make sure we always chubb our front door and leave a light on at night. We might even start using the alarm. Cost of replacing the broken lock was €30 and we will likely have €20 cost in getting additional keys cut. This is however a necessary expenditure and doesn’t get added to the wasterous score – unlike the €10 that I spent on a hammer becuase I couldn’t find my other one. I also burnt 3 slices of bread adding another 20c.
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