The only burgling I've been subject to is a car break-in. Apparently the burglar was either very young or very stupid (or both): he (they?) broke the driver's window and tried to pop the ignition to steal the car but only succeeded in breaking off one of the plastic flanges where the key goes in. So he popped the hood and stole the battery, and also took a small cassette-tape case. (He also smashed a window in the car beside mine, but apparently had to run before any more damage could be done there.)

Aside from the annoyance of calling the police from a neighbor's phone (I'd just moved into the apartment and hadn't hooked up the phone yet), the car-insurance hassle, the hassle of replacing the window-glass and battery, and the hassle of picking pieces of glass out of the car for the rest of its life, I was really upset at the thought that the thief probably threw away my tapes once he found they contained Patsy Cline songs and hammered dulcimer music!

Neighbors were no help ("We heard the thumping across the lot but we didn't look to see what it was"). Best deterrent to having the ignition damaged would have been "The Club" but it wouldn't have saved the window or battery. However, I did learn where NOT to park – under the trees – in the lot at my new apartment building! From then on I parked in the open, as close to the neighbors' windows as I could (even if they didn't look, the next potential thief might assume they would)!

Still, it took a while before I lost that he's-coming-back-to-get-me-tonight feeling.