11958 Burglary in Ostuni

We arrived at our house in Ostuni last Thursday 12/03 only to find that we had been burgled some time after we left in October. The house had been completely emptied including windows, front steel door, all furniture, kitchen, sanitary ware, all electrical fittings including power points, lights, switches, water pumps, radiators, gas boiler etc. They had even taken the food and toiletries!!! We are now left with just an empty shell. Obviously we have reported this to the local police but they do not hold out much hope of catching the thieves. We had steel bars on all the windows one of which had been cut through and the window smashed to gain entry, but local neighbours did not hear a thing. It will take some time to get the house habitable again but we don’t intend to be “run out of town”.
This post is a word of warning to all who have holiday homes, make sure you are fully insured, get an alarm fitted and hooked up to your local security firm and if you can get a neighbour to check your house regularly.
What we have experienced has been heart breaking and we would not like the same thing to happen to others.
On a positive note the Mayor, Chief of Police, Press and TV have been very supportive and without the help of our local Project Manager who helped with our initial renovation we would have been totally lost, we have even received offers from local suppliers to replace some of the sanitary ware.

I know it's a very very slim but on the off chance that any of our property is offered for sale I have created a web site with details of what was taken. If you could take a look and let me know if anything turns up I would be appreciative.

[url]http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.gray11/b...y_in_ostuni.htm[/url]

JnK

Category
Puglia

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 14:28

So sorry to hear this, it must have been awful for you to come and find everything gone, I wonder if you are in a very isolated spot? sadly these things do happen.
I hope you where insured. Did anybody report it to the police before your return?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 15:44

Our house is down a dead end lane on the back road between Ostuni and Carovigno so quite isolated. Unfortunately it had only just been completed and we had to return to the UK unexpectedly and quite quickly last October so had not had time to insure. We were the first to notice the breakin and reported to the police immediately so it could have happened anytime in the last 5 months

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/19/2009 - 17:15

How absolutely awful for you both, I really do feel sorry for you. I was burgled three times in the UK and once in Germany so I pray it never happens here.
It's hard I know to believe but it is not personal it's professional. Your stuff is probably in another house by now and maybe not even in Italy........
With time the feeling will fade and you will love being in your Italian home. :smile:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/07/2009 - 12:13

Dreadful ..... we saw it in the local paper, and then the following week another burglery of an english owned home, also in the Ostuni area .... do heed JnKs advice.
We have security in place and in nearly 3 and half years we had one attempt, the man lifted a shutter set off the alarm and scarpered over the back wall. We saw him on the video surveillence. This was about 2 years ago, since then nothing - we think the word is out that we have good security. Plus there is nearly always someone in the house.