Manchester is the fourth most burgled city in the UK

‘They left a knife in my room’

8 years ago

Keep your windows locked because Manchester has been named the fourth most burgled city in the UK.

The recent study by private security firm Canary also said that 60 per cent of people would ignore their neighbour’s burglar alarm if they heard it going off.

According to Canary, one in three people in the UK have been burgled. Out of the 78 per cent of these crimes reported to the police, only 19 per cent result in a conviction.

We spoke to some students who had been affected first hand by the depressing statistics.

Lucy Mullan, second year, History and American studies

Lucy wasn’t this smiley when she discovered there’d been an intruder in her house

Lucy was living on Heaton Road with nine other students when someone broke into her house at 7:30 am: “Someone climbed in through my friend’s window while he was sleeping.

“It made me feel really unsafe because the people obviously don’t care whether people are in or not I don’t know what I would of done if it was me and I’d woken up.”

Two laptops, an Ipod and some cash were stolen before the burglar walked into one of her housemates room where she woke up and he ran away.

Lucy and her housemates called the police but they weren’t very helpful: “The police took quite a while to come. I feel like there should be a much larger police presence on the streets that are frequently burgled to try lower the rate.”

Despite taking extra precautions to make sure it didn’t happen again, someone kicked their door down on a separate occasion. Luckily this was seen by a housemate before anything got taken.

Luke, third year, Drama

Living on Derby road with 5 others, Luke thought that if he kept his window closed and door locked he’d be safe from intruders. Unfortunately he came home from a night out to discover the disaster that had unfolded.

“It was chilling. They broke my window with a screw driver an opened it from the inside and jumped in. They just took my things and bolted it back out the window.

“I was frustrated and angry, but surprised at their expertise.”

The burglar took Luke’s Macbook, the charger and an irreplaceable signet ring.

Once again the police were unable to offer any consolation: “The attitude from police was “unlucky mate, you’ve been burgled. Not much we can do about it really.”

Alex Cockeram, third year, Politics and Modern History

Alex and his housemates who lived on Kingswood Road had a not so merry christmas break last year when his female housemate was staying at the house with a friend.

He said: “Our burglars must have been stalking the house.

“They kicked down her bedroom door and no one else’s’. They took her Mac, Ipad and two cars (the keys were in her room)which we later recovered. They also took the Playstation.”

After calling the police they dusted for prints but there was none left behind.

“They seemed like they had to show their face and then get going. The experience felt absolutely violating and made everyone feel on edge on their own.”

Alex’s housemate now has to go to extreme measures and park her car a road away from the house as whoever stole it still has a copy of the keys.

Hannah James, third year, Management and Marketing of Fashion Textiles

Hannah and her housemates were at the library when someone “completely obliterated” her bedroom window at the back of the house and broke in.

They gained access to all the rooms in the house but luckily they all had their laptops with them at the library, however one of her housemates had their desktop Mac and speakers stolen.

She said: “Despite the police insisting that the burglars weren’t likely to be violent, they also left a knife in mt room which was pretty terrifying.”

Hannah was left windowless for about a week. “For a while being in the house alone was really scary. Now when we’re out we leave our lights and radio on to make it look like we’re in.

The policeman sent out was a really nice guy. But it was pretty clear from the beginning there would be no effort made to try and track the guys down and retrieve our stuff.”