phoenixgirl
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2003
- Messages
- 3,390
I realize this topic has been visited many times before, but I was thinking about how to better hide my jewelry today and found those hidden compartment food and toiletry cans, etc. Then I read the posts on here about how burglars are onto that.
No one mentioned the hidden compartments in books . . . Does anyone have any knowledge of burglars pulling all your books off the shelf looking for those?
Honestly, I don't really worry about being robbed here (third floor, front entrance has security code and we're the last unit, back alley entrance passes 18 other back doors and leads to very narrow alley with about 2 feet of space to reach street). We know all our neighbors . . . two of them got the dates we were supposed to be gone wrong and told us how worried they were about us, so I know they wouldn't just ignore suspicious activity. But I don't want to leave my valuables in some stupid place . . . DH has a brother with problems, and it wouldn't surprise me if something "went missing" while he was here, and you never know.
What's funny is that I feel a lot safer here in the city than I did in one of those nice complexes out in the suburbs. But I was on the ground floor and really afraid of somebody breaking in and attacking me. I got an alarm system installed with alarms on all points of entry. The alarm company guy told me I didn't need to put on one the window because chances were burglars would enter by the sliding glass doors, but I was like, "Um hello, I am spending hundreds of dollars to install this thing, obviously I want every point secure!" I never opened my door for men, and I learned my lesson when I had called the cops on my upstairs neighbors who were dropping beer bottles missile style from their balcony at 4 pm, and he sent his girlfriend to yell at me the next day. So now I don't open the door, period.
So I was wondering what tips and people have . . . I've read some of the old threads, so no need to repeat yourself if you don't feel like it. Where is a good place to store extra checks, passports, jewelry, etc? We have a hollow space behind our mirror in the bathroom, but I feel like it is really obvious so I just store the bathmat there. We also have those tiny spaces above our closets that old houses have, and mine is so full of junk that you have to balance on a ladder and carefully remove each item. So that would be a very inconvenient place for a robber to find something, but the problem is that the same applies to me. DH and I have a bunch of three ring binders from college on our bookcase, and I have slipped some things into those (hard to find even if you know to look there).
Aphisiglovessae mentioned a scary incident where someone came to ask to use the phone, let himself into the kitchen, asked really personal questions, and had to be urged to leave (and then was spotted hanging around outside for a month!). The point was brought up that you never know what you would do until it happens to you. That's definitely true. A year ago I had to travel up one floor in a hotel and a creepy guy started talking to me. It never occurred to me that he would ride from the 5th to the 6th floor with me, but thank goodness there were other people on the elevator. He was still really creepy and was in the lobby and trying to make eye contact with me whenever I went through there.
DH and I saw the Tour de France finish up in Paris last month, and while DH was in the bathroom some creepy old man came up to me and asked if I spoke English. I just shook my head (when they ask you that they are looking to take advantage of you somehow), and he started patting my knee and shoulder and asking different questions in both French and English. When I said, "Don't touch me!" that just seemed to encourage him (probably because I revealed that I spoke English). There were millions of people everywhere. I wasn't annoyed enough to give up my spot on the bench (they are scarce on the Champs Elysees the last day of the tour), and I didn't want to cause a big scene by screaming. I briefly considered driving my fingernails into his hand, but I didn't want to get into any legal trouble in a foreign country or hit by him. So don't ask me why, but I decided that the best thing to do was to beat him at his own game. I started batting my eyelashes and giving him a maniacal smile and saying, "Ooooh! I like it SO MUCH when you touch me! Oh yes! Oh, you are so good!" And his expression was like, "What the crap?" and he ran away, so however perverse my instinct was, it accomplished my goal.
I do carry pepperspray in my purse (and it's illegal to carry it onto school property in my state, but that's just too bad because there have been several shootings recently involving students, one across from school, and a gang was living in the apartment complex across the street trying to recruit students until a year ago), but I wasn't sure if it was legal in France so I left it at home. It's disguised as a really big pen. In Europe I always walked with my purse turned backwards so that the front part with my credit cards was against my abdomen. I always carry it over my head anyway (can't slip off that way). DH didn't carry a wallet, which made me feel better (and I always got to be in charge of what we spent money on -- a wife can't complain about that).
At Mont Martre we saw some poor American kids being conned by these African guys selling bracelets (they leap out at you, tie the bracelet on, and then demand that you pay them), and just after that a very suspicious guy was obviously looking for someone to pickpocket. He somehow got between me and my parents, and when I lunged back and blocked his access to my dad's back pocket where his wallet made an obvious bulge, the guy gave me a dirty look. My dad's pocket button was undone, which may have been an accident, or it may mean the guy had gotten farther than I thought.
Another time in Spain two men tried to rob my dad in broad daylight on a busy street -- one of them basically tackled my dad around the legs and wouldn't let go while the other went for the wallet. My dad always liked to walk behind us so that he could keep an eye on us, but I think me getting my butt pinched by some jerk is a lot less of a problem than him getting his wallet stolen while we're obliviously walking ahead of him. Six weeks ago he had a mini-stroke and lost 40% of his vision, so I felt like I had a good excuse to turn the tables and be the one to walk behind him.
No one mentioned the hidden compartments in books . . . Does anyone have any knowledge of burglars pulling all your books off the shelf looking for those?
Honestly, I don't really worry about being robbed here (third floor, front entrance has security code and we're the last unit, back alley entrance passes 18 other back doors and leads to very narrow alley with about 2 feet of space to reach street). We know all our neighbors . . . two of them got the dates we were supposed to be gone wrong and told us how worried they were about us, so I know they wouldn't just ignore suspicious activity. But I don't want to leave my valuables in some stupid place . . . DH has a brother with problems, and it wouldn't surprise me if something "went missing" while he was here, and you never know.
What's funny is that I feel a lot safer here in the city than I did in one of those nice complexes out in the suburbs. But I was on the ground floor and really afraid of somebody breaking in and attacking me. I got an alarm system installed with alarms on all points of entry. The alarm company guy told me I didn't need to put on one the window because chances were burglars would enter by the sliding glass doors, but I was like, "Um hello, I am spending hundreds of dollars to install this thing, obviously I want every point secure!" I never opened my door for men, and I learned my lesson when I had called the cops on my upstairs neighbors who were dropping beer bottles missile style from their balcony at 4 pm, and he sent his girlfriend to yell at me the next day. So now I don't open the door, period.
So I was wondering what tips and people have . . . I've read some of the old threads, so no need to repeat yourself if you don't feel like it. Where is a good place to store extra checks, passports, jewelry, etc? We have a hollow space behind our mirror in the bathroom, but I feel like it is really obvious so I just store the bathmat there. We also have those tiny spaces above our closets that old houses have, and mine is so full of junk that you have to balance on a ladder and carefully remove each item. So that would be a very inconvenient place for a robber to find something, but the problem is that the same applies to me. DH and I have a bunch of three ring binders from college on our bookcase, and I have slipped some things into those (hard to find even if you know to look there).
Aphisiglovessae mentioned a scary incident where someone came to ask to use the phone, let himself into the kitchen, asked really personal questions, and had to be urged to leave (and then was spotted hanging around outside for a month!). The point was brought up that you never know what you would do until it happens to you. That's definitely true. A year ago I had to travel up one floor in a hotel and a creepy guy started talking to me. It never occurred to me that he would ride from the 5th to the 6th floor with me, but thank goodness there were other people on the elevator. He was still really creepy and was in the lobby and trying to make eye contact with me whenever I went through there.
DH and I saw the Tour de France finish up in Paris last month, and while DH was in the bathroom some creepy old man came up to me and asked if I spoke English. I just shook my head (when they ask you that they are looking to take advantage of you somehow), and he started patting my knee and shoulder and asking different questions in both French and English. When I said, "Don't touch me!" that just seemed to encourage him (probably because I revealed that I spoke English). There were millions of people everywhere. I wasn't annoyed enough to give up my spot on the bench (they are scarce on the Champs Elysees the last day of the tour), and I didn't want to cause a big scene by screaming. I briefly considered driving my fingernails into his hand, but I didn't want to get into any legal trouble in a foreign country or hit by him. So don't ask me why, but I decided that the best thing to do was to beat him at his own game. I started batting my eyelashes and giving him a maniacal smile and saying, "Ooooh! I like it SO MUCH when you touch me! Oh yes! Oh, you are so good!" And his expression was like, "What the crap?" and he ran away, so however perverse my instinct was, it accomplished my goal.
I do carry pepperspray in my purse (and it's illegal to carry it onto school property in my state, but that's just too bad because there have been several shootings recently involving students, one across from school, and a gang was living in the apartment complex across the street trying to recruit students until a year ago), but I wasn't sure if it was legal in France so I left it at home. It's disguised as a really big pen. In Europe I always walked with my purse turned backwards so that the front part with my credit cards was against my abdomen. I always carry it over my head anyway (can't slip off that way). DH didn't carry a wallet, which made me feel better (and I always got to be in charge of what we spent money on -- a wife can't complain about that).
At Mont Martre we saw some poor American kids being conned by these African guys selling bracelets (they leap out at you, tie the bracelet on, and then demand that you pay them), and just after that a very suspicious guy was obviously looking for someone to pickpocket. He somehow got between me and my parents, and when I lunged back and blocked his access to my dad's back pocket where his wallet made an obvious bulge, the guy gave me a dirty look. My dad's pocket button was undone, which may have been an accident, or it may mean the guy had gotten farther than I thought.
Another time in Spain two men tried to rob my dad in broad daylight on a busy street -- one of them basically tackled my dad around the legs and wouldn't let go while the other went for the wallet. My dad always liked to walk behind us so that he could keep an eye on us, but I think me getting my butt pinched by some jerk is a lot less of a problem than him getting his wallet stolen while we're obliviously walking ahead of him. Six weeks ago he had a mini-stroke and lost 40% of his vision, so I felt like I had a good excuse to turn the tables and be the one to walk behind him.