Break-in My First Night Back :(

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  • #42284
    Avatar photoWoodWERD
    Participant

    Just wanted to share my story to remind others to stay vigilant no matter how secure you may feel. Long story short, thieves broke into my apartment while I was asleep and got my phone, laptop and tablet. I’m on the 5th floor (UESTC teacher building) and they came through my laundry room window. I was extremely lucky in that my backpack containing my wallet and passport was taken but left in another teacher’s apartment – presumably switched for a bigger backpack since that was stolen along with their laptop and iphone. For some reason they also ditched my Sony RX-100m2 on my laundry floor before leaving.

    Several other teacher apartments in the building were hit along with some of the other apartments in the complex which housed some high-ranking former Chinese teachers. Fortunately I had backed up all of my pictures and 25gb worth of music while I was in the states, but I did lose a lot of other data. It sucks but could have been a lot worse. Apparently this is the first time the teacher’s building was robbed, but I can’t help but feel it’s no coincidence that many of us had just moved in within the last few days. The area is gated with a security guard and video cameras, but they still got in. So, let this serve as warning that you should never feel too safe. Keep all your windows locked and don’t leave your valuables too accessible if you can help it.

    #42285
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    That really sucks, sorry to hear that this happened to you. Are there not bars on your windows? In the complex that I live in (which is old), there are bars on all the windows, I suspect to prevent exactly this from happening.

    In hindsight, is there anything that you could have done? I would worry about thieves just breaking a window to gain entry, but perhaps that’s a line that they won’t cross. Pretty incredible that there’s a guard and video cameras there and multiple places were still burgled.

    Thanks for sharing this though, hopefully this helps prevent others from experiencing this.

    #42292
    Avatar photoWoodWERD
    Participant

    Top and bottom floors have bars, they’re now installing them for all units. A couple things might have prevented it: 1) people leave the door into the building cracked so they don’t get locked out – thieves probably went to the roof and worked their way down. 2) I was gone for 6 weeks and may not have locked the laundry room window. I’d heard stories about this kind of thing but was naive to think it wouldn’t happen here.

    #42298
    Avatar photoVincent
    Participant

    While you were asleep? That’s scary. It’s one thing to break into a house with people inside, but picking an apartment that is presumably only ~100sqm with the owner sleeping in the next door room is another thing. These guys have balls. Imagine waking up and bumping into them.  I have no idea what would happen. I hope I’d flip and kick their asses, but maybe I’d get in shock, hide and start yelling. LOL

    #42299
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    I hope I’d flip and kick their asses, but maybe I’d get in shock, hide and start yelling. LOL

    That might be very dangerous. I would expect thieves of that magnitude to be carrying knifes or weapons of some type. Although encountering a thief in your house and beating them down would be very satisfying, it probably wouldn’t be very wise. I’m guessing they would do everything they could to avoid a physical confrontation with a foreigner, who would likely be larger than them and bring much greater potential repercussions.

    #42300
    Avatar photoVincent
    Participant

    That’s true. It’s probably smart to turn on lights and start making sound. Anything that draws attention to them will scare them away.

    #42301
    Avatar photoNWhit20
    Participant

    Thanks for the heads-up. Are thieves here in China really brazen enough to climb through several-stories high balconies? I didn’t realize. If my laptop gets stolen I’m F***ed, probably so much so that I’ll need to go home if it happens. I’ll be extra cautious, it’s only my 3rd day here.

    #42302
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    Thanks for the heads-up. Are thieves here in China really brazen enough to climb through several-stories high balconies? I didn’t realize. If my laptop gets stolen I’m F***ed, probably so much so that I’ll need to go home if it happens. I’ll be extra cautious, it’s only my 3rd day here.

    If you have bars on your window, you might not have to worry too much. It’s a good idea to change the lock on your front door if you want additional security – it won’t cost you much and you’ll be sure that no one else has a copy of your key. Also, be sure to befriend the guards at your security complex.

    #42305
    Avatar photoRick in China
    Participant

    That’s terrible dude, feel bad for you. I had something similar happen when I was staying at a complex next to Xinan Minzu Daxue 1st ring entrance – someone snuck in thru window on like, 5th floor, snatched my 27″ macbook pro 🙁 and some other stuff..

    I don’t know that there’s a whole lot people can do here. My friend’s place was on top floor of a place, someone just smashed a window from an outside ledge and climbed in. I’ve personally installed wifi cams that I can watch from my phone, and can notify on movement in ‘watch this section’ portions of the filmed area via sms/etc..

    #42309
    Avatar photoCharlie
    Keymaster

    I’ve personally installed wifi cams that I can watch from my phone, and can notify on movement in ‘watch this section’ portions of the filmed area via sms/etc..

    What kind of system did you use to set this up? I got a Synology NAS recently that has this kind of functionality built in, with cameras which are evidently plug and play. Seems like a cool thing to have.

    #42310
    Avatar photoChris Ziich
    Moderator

    Thanks for the heads-up. Are thieves here in China really brazen enough to climb through several-stories high balconies? I didn’t realize. If my laptop gets stolen I’m F***ed, probably so much so that I’ll need to go home if it happens. I’ll be extra cautious, it’s only my 3rd day here.

    A notice for all newcomers. Everything that you own is a target for theft. Your locked bike, the iPhone in your pocket, the pile of cash on your kitchen table, the iPad in your hands on the metro, your pet kitten. You really can’t be too cautious, especially as a white foreigner. I feel like thieves target them with 元 signs in their eyes. I’ve experienced and or heard about too many incidences. It’s quite common.

    Lock up all your shit and keep an eye on everything.

    #42313
    Avatar photoMaz
    Participant

    This is really awful to hear. I’m due to arrive in Chengdu in 3 days.

    I will take all of the above advice, especially this one from Chris:

    “Lock up all your shit and keep an eye on everything.”

    #42314
    Avatar photoMr. Klink
    Participant

    A notice for all newcomers. Everything that you own is a target for theft. Your locked bike, the iPhone in your pocket, the pile of cash on your kitchen table, the iPad in your hands on the metro, your pet kitten.

    So long, Sal!  This is solid advice regardless.  Best thing you can do to prevent theft is assume it’ll happen and be mindful to take whatever precaution to prevent it.  Even if it seems in excess.  Overdoing it is a healthy habit to form here.

    #42316
    Avatar photoRick in China
    Participant

    I don’t actually record anything constantly, instead, notifications allow me to control recording via phone — and interact with the camera, using Samsung SmartCam software. Can set it to record on events and such I suppose, but I haven’t bothered..right now there’s just an SD in the camera itself to record to. It would be far better to utilize a ceiling hole or something to hide a NAS to dump a huge archive of video footage to (when I built my apartment, I intentionally built secret storage spaces in my apartment. Seriously 😛 One reason was to specifically run a storage unit to keep security footage recording just never got around to it)

    The cam itself is simple, it’s one of these Samsung SNH-P6410BN at https://www.samsungsmartcam.com/web/ (can also view/control from web)

    #42319
    Avatar photoBen
    Moderator

    I’d like to get my hands on a few of these for my flat

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/505428730/blink-wire-free-hd-home-monitoring-and-alert-syste

     

     

    #42320
    Avatar photoRick in China
    Participant

    I would like to get my hands on a lot of things that are on kickstarter and don’t exist, but when I looked at affordable simple solutions that exist, picked up what I have now for like 1200rmb or something/ea 😀 and it works.

    There was another cool thing I saw on crowdfunding sites was thinking about it for a baby monitor purpose, but couldn’t wait to see if it actually worked when they claimed it was going to come out.. it is this: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/canary-the-first-smart-home-security-device-for-everyone

    They raised 2mil and ended last year. I don’t see anything significantly better in the alternatives offered more recently.. In fact, what I hate seeing, is so much shit earn so much money and miss deadlines enormously and then flop and not live up to the hype.

    My buddy stupidly paid out 2k for 3 of these obviously photoshopped ‘smartwatches’. The whole company was a hoax of sorts. He’s an idiot and I yelled at him for a bit for not letting me see the obviously bullshit site first, but, I strongly encourage people to buy things that currently exist. 😀

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