Bad surprise – cable thieves strike

The actual construction in the house began around October 2008. The plans were in place and the first walls had been removed or torn out. Little by little we had brought tools and materials into the house and stored them there.

Our house was secured by a solid wooden entrance door but was now completely accessible inside. And so it happened, as it unfortunately has to happen far too often in our area. We experienced our first break-in.

What happened? One Monday afternoon I drove back to the construction site straight after work, parked at the house and went to the door. Somehow I noticed that the lock on the front door looked a little different. But since everything was locked, I didn’t worry and went back to the car to get the things out of the trunk. But then I immediately noticed that the ground was covered with broken glass and one of the basement windows was broken. So I quickly ran into the basement and found the remains of the broken window and countless shards.

 

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I then walked the entire house in the direction of our materials storage in the hope that everything would be there unchanged. But no, it would have been too nice in this situation. But all the cable rolls were gone. The Friday before I had brought four 100m frets into the house and they were now gone. Our cordless screwdriver was also missing.

What was to be done now? Of course, call the police immediately and report the break-in. A little later the CSI Pößneck team was on site. Somehow the two reminded me of Totto and Harri from the TV documentary. We explored the house together again and noticed that, in addition to the cables and screws, two full crates of beer were missing. Now the fun finally stopped. And the two cops were in top form. They looked for finger and shoe prints throughout the house. The latter could not be overlooked due to the dusty floor, so photos and prints were taken here.

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Offensichtlich hatten die Täter das gesamte Haus durchsucht konnten aber neben den Kabeln und dem Bier nichts brauchbares für sich entdecken. Zugang und Abgang erfolgte jeweils über das Kellerfenster. Irgendwie muß man die akrobatischen Fähigkeiten der Diebe dennoch bewundern. Das Kellerfenster war knapp 40cm hoch und im Kellerraum in einer Höhe von gut 1,80m eingebaut. Reinkommen ins Haus war so kein Problem, aber das wieder hinaus kommen stellte ich mir wesentlich schwerer vor.

 

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After the two cops had driven away again and we had arranged a subsequent appointment at the station, the real horror followed! The thieves had cut all the power lines in the house. Firstly, we no longer had any construction electricity available and secondly, cutting the cables caused an enormous short circuit. This must have been so powerful that it blew the main fuses on the house power connection box.

Well, life had to go on. On the same day we closed the window hole with thick wooden panels and screwed them together. As a precaution, we also replaced another cellar window that was not protected by a grille from the outside with a solid wooden board. Since then, all tools and materials have been well locked in a separate room. Secretly, we were still glad that we suffered this slump so early in the construction phase. A few weeks later and the damage would have been considerably greater.

Speaking of damage, it shows again and again that good insurance can do more than just offer low prices. SV Sparkassenversicherung reimbursed us for all of the damage in an unbureaucratic manner. This is not the case with every insurer when it comes to construction site damage!

Shortly after this incident, I installed contact bridges on all the windows and connected them to an alarm system. The rooms in the house itself were monitored by motion detectors which were also connected to the alarm system.

It’s a strange feeling when someone breaks into your home. The fear of being robbed again came with me every time we went to the construction site. But to date nothing has happened. And if anyone should try it, I still have my alarm system installed in the house.