Fear itself

I think last night/this morning was one of the most frightening times of my life. We were broken into in the middle of the night. I woke up about 4am and heard someone moving about downstairs. I knew my brother hadn't been sleeping well and thought it might've been him but somehow I knew something was really wrong and I tentatively opened my bedroom door to check. My brother's snoring from his room opposite confirmed it. They'd even been as brazen as to switch the light on in the room they were robbing. I could'nt quite believe it was happening (you never think it'll happen to you) and terrified, I grabbed my mobile phone and dashed across the landing to my brother's room to wake him. I think I swore at him for some reason. Fear probably. I was too panicky to use my mobile so he used the land line in his room and called the police. They were here so quickly. We were trying to be quiet so when the policeman arrived and nearly drove past the house I used my mobile LED light to signal to him which house it was. (As far as he would've been able to tell, the house was in complete darkness). The thief had probably done a runner by then anyway, alerted by me leaving my room or bro's voice calling the cops. More signalling that the scrote was round the back somewhere, then some terrified waiting while they brought in the dogs and searched the area and then we were safe and finally we could switch the lights on and see what had been taken. Which in the end, wasn't much.

We're both ok but a bit shaken. It hasn't really sunk in yet which I'm trying to force by doing this because I need to get it out of my system. I nearly cried when the policewoman was taking my statement but managed to keep it in check, which isn't the best thing really. I'm being far too calm. Its not good.

Lessons learned and a warning to anyone who's actually reading this:

If you have a burglar alarm, put it on at night when you go to bed. My mum does this but for some reason we don't. We've never really felt the need. Didn't think it'd happen to us I guess.

Take purses, wallets, ipods, mobiles etc up to bed with you. Don't leave them in coat pockets or on the table or whatever.

And don't, whatever you do, try to confront the burglars. I begged my brother not go go downstairs a couple of times. Fortunately he listened.

Oh and listen to your instincts. If they're telling you something is wrong, then something is wrong. Who cares if you look like an idiot if you're mistaken? If I hadn't I'd have just gone back to sleep assuming that my brother was causing the noise and then god knows what would've happened.