On Sun, 18 Mar 2001, Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote:
> Btw: Most burglars (at least here in Europe) wouldn't even dream of
> entering a house where the owners are still present. Much too risky.
> They'd rather wait until you have gone out.
Most of the burglars I read about in the newspaper seem to break in only
when nobody is home. It's the rapists that are more cause for concern.
(We've had 3 serial attackers of women in the city in the past 6 years
that I've heard of. Usually the attacker sticks to one area, and when a
third attack happens and there's a definite pattern, the media warns us
about it and the guy gets caught before it gets too much further.)
If I'm going out for a short period of time, I'll leave the dogs *inside*
the house, especially if it's lousy weather. (They don't like to be out
in rain & cold.) Anyone breaking in with those dogs inside is going to
get more than he bargained for. I don't know if they'd bite, but if they
didn't bite and get really defensive, they'd *affection* the intruder
excessively. If they're too excited and there's nobody around to haul one
of them off the person, it can get fairly unpleasant for the unsuspecting
intruder rather quickly. But anyone breaking in after hearing Miranda's
bark (she sounds bigger than she really is) would have to be stupid
anyway.
Julia
