Do you have a weapon ready in case of burglars and is it a good idea?

Talk of finding a stranger in your bedroom reminded me of that strange episode of Michael Fagan who got into the queen's bedroom in spite of all the so-called security. Can you imagine it happening to the President of the USA?
I have no worries about being burgled,but when I did live in more vulnerable houses, I always thought feigning deep sleep would be my strategy. I certainly would not tackle a man with any kind of weapon, as he would almost certainly be able to take it from me and use it against me.
I have never been the victim of crime - have I just been lucky?

My dear old dad, 88, is very careful about burglars! He has three locks on a single glazed back door which any old hand could get into easily. He has locks and bolts on every internal door downstairs but leaves the front door on a dodgy Yale lock so the falls team can get in at night if needed.

I have the devils own job to try and remember what key is hidden where if I try to go downstairs in the middle of the night when there, and occasionally, I find that although he insists on being last to bed so he can lock up properly, the main internal door to the kitchen with the dodgy outside door has been left open!

As I am a heavy sleeper once I drop off, I have no chance of defending us. Dad has limited vision and cranky knees and I live in dread of him falling downstairs if he thinks he hears a noise in the night. He would definitely try to fight them off.

This all sounds very serious but I try to tell myself it is a very safe area. Good job I am not the worrying kind as he is not going to change now.

Obviously you also have something worth stealing...
tiaras etc?
My shared drive neighbour has 2 cars like that. I dont think either of them would start. They don't really bug me but I do wish he would set his mind to their disposal. He got rid of one, and now 2 have taken its place.
I am pleased to report that in 10 years of parking my car outside school, which is in an area most people think is dodgy, never a finger was laid upon it, day or night.

" Threw it on the bed in disgust."
Not funny but you made me smile Nfk.
Obviously a CLASSY burglar!

I always leave a jewellery box on my dressing table with everyday stuff in and called it my burglars jewellery. At least I did until we were burgled. He ripped the box apart and threw it in the bed in disgust.

Bags, I had a Fiesta that conformed to your description. It wasn't stolen, but, while I was at a school governors' meeting, it was broken into. There was nothing in it worth stealing, but the locks were broken and various belongings strewn around the street and the school grounds. I now have a Yaris that is equally tatty, thanks to a number of too-close encounters with pillars in car parks.

Bags your car might not have been immune fom theft or damage by a young offender I remember a few years back. When he was commenting about cheap or decrepit cars owned by the probation staff supervising the group he was in, I said 'well at least our cars are not at risk from you and your pals.' 'Yeah, well that's where you're wrong' he grinned. As he turned away to speak to another youth also convicted of car thefts we heard him say 'set fire to the old wrecks, wouldn't we?' Cheeky so and so!

Sounds like DD2's car Bags. Known to her very-fussy-about-cars DH as The Wheelbarrow

How to prevent your car being stolen: have an old one that isn't very powerful, let moss grow on it, use it like an extension to your garden shed and let that be obvious, leave it unlocked, don't repair any dents in the bumper, and lastly, when it's at home in your drive, leave the keys in the ignition.

Believe me, it works a treat!

Loved the image cat-hurling. What's not to adore?
But seriously!
USA full of people who are completely deluded that having guns in their house will help in the case of burglary, against all evidence to the contrary.
The only way a middle aged woman might fell a burglar with a baseball bat is if she managed to creep down the stairs without him noticing her and whack him from above - in which case MAW would be in big trouble.
3 examples from family members:
1. sister in law asleep in her mezzazine bedroom in Dublin micro flat. Someone broke into front door. She woke up and screamed down at him "What the F... are you doing in my house" he ran away with only one or two small items. (burglars are notoriously nervous)
2. MIL, quite fragile, woke to find young man trying to climb through her open bedroom window (the number of conversations i have had about the evils of open windows .... but she is firmly of the opinion that the house needs constant airing day and night) Again she shouted, he fell down (it was one of those small, at the top, windows that only agile skinny people could attempt). She then gets worried in case he is injured and struggles out on her walking frame to check!!!!! (he had run off) What IS she like?
3. another older relative who has a big 3 story house in london, woke to see reflection of man on stairs in her mirror. She kept extremely quiet. She was afraid her DH would wake up, tackle him and get hurt. Burglar took car and left. Nobody hurt. Good result I'd say.
The car is the single most valuable portable item and is commonly taken - some people recommend that you actually leave the car keys near the door so that burglars will find them and drive away, without causing any further problems.
I conclude that either yelling like a banshee or pretending to be asleep are the best strategies. And a phone near the bed.

A friend of mine keeps a can of fly spray by the bed. She says the spray is accurate and covers a large area but what happens if you grab it in a panic and it's the wrong way round?

My ex and his wife live in Florida, they have several guns between them. They'd use them too and probably get away with it. I do lock up the house at night but the only weapon I take to bed is my cat, who doesn't like strangers and will hiss at them in a very nasty way.

I could set up Mr Moser to talk at them until they ran away in despair.

I had a mental image of absent hurling MrA at the burglar....

Nanadogs

I've a mental I age of absent hurling her 5 cats one after the other at some poor unsuspecting burglar.... ! Sort of like a catling gun?

That's a relief jeni though I had a rogue one

I had a friend who woke up one night to find a strange man in his bedroom. So he picked up the cat sleeping on his bed and hurled it at the burglar. Cat was fine, burglar was not. I have five cats – but none of them is allowed to sleep on the bed. Mr absent is smaller and lighter than me …

I'm not concerned about being burgled but terrified of unexpectedly finding someone in my bedroom. Downstairs rooms with access from the back garden have locks on the doors which lead to the rest of the house. I don't care about damage to the doors because they're locked, the noise will wake me, that's all I care about. My daughter lives with me but if she's away, I lock my bedroom door from the inside. It would give way with a good shove, but at least I'd hear it. I keep a cosh and a can of hairspray by my bed as weapons. If I have to use them and as a result am prosecuted...well fine. At least I'd be alive to attend Court. I am truly not bothered about the possibility of being fined or imprisoned for sticking up for myself and injuring a burglar in the process.

nanadog they all are!

When I was with ex dh, (living even more rurally than I do now), he was often away for days (and nights) at a time.

He removed all the shot from a cartridge, re-filled it with poultry corn and left it loaded in one of the guns for me to keep to hand!

Thank heavens I never needed it.

My iPad is dyslexic!

I went on a self-defence course some years ago.We were strongly advised NOT to have knives visible in the kitchen.
I used to keep a hockey stick by my bed but no longer.I don't have any antiques or much worth stealing.
Had break-in in at a previous address early evening when I was out.They jemmied back door and stole TV , video recorder and a watch.Main expense for insurance was repair of door.
During the night I think I would follow example of an elderly woman near a previous address and pretend to be asleep.She survived unharmed and very little
stolen or damaged.

DH won't let me have geese as he was attacked by one when he was a child. Guinea Fowl also make a racket when alarmed and they're very tasty if you can catch the blighters.

Geese are very good deterrents I believe; I've known some pretty scary ones in my time..there was one at a local farm museum that everyone was scared of.