Sophia James, 21, is LUU’s Equality and Diversity Officer and previously studied Politics and Sociology at Leeds University. Her house, not far from the Royal Park pub, was recently broken into on a Wednesday afternoon just before 4pm.
“I was in the house at the time, off work as I had swine flu. The burglar broke through the back door with relative ease in two attempts as only one of the back door locks had been applied because our landlady had been slow at giving us the keys for the others. As soon as I heard feet scutter in and no one say hello, I shouted “oi” and grabbed the head of the vacuum cleaner to bang on the stairs. When it went quiet downstairs I ran into my room, locked the door and called the police.”
Despite there being a Digibox, DVD player and a packaged, brand new Sony Walkman MP3 player in the lounge, the burglar didn’t take a thing.
“The police were great and within five minutes I had eight police officers running around my house. They didn't catch the burglar but since then we've had extra locks put on our doors by the landlady and I've got insurance (something I'd not done in previous years). We also always leave a light on so it never looks like we're out.”
Sophia had a really lucky escape. However, if her locks had been fitted properly in the first place, the intruder probably wouldn’t have got as far as they did. If there are any outstanding security issues with your house, make sure you write to your landlord or letting agent, listing what the problems are and how they should be resolved. Also if you’re not already insured, don’t wait until something like this happens to you before looking into it… by then it may be too late.