Burglars were smoking.

by Niall Woodbridge

I open the door to my home and I smell it. I have never smoked, not even tobacco, and I do not allow smoking of anything in my home.

What I could smell was not tobacco, it was the other stuff. That told me that somebody had got inside, were they still there? I froze for I don't know how long, it may have been less than a minute but it seemed an age. Eventually my stomach un-knotted enough to let me move into the lounge.

I'd had a visitor or two alright, an army could have made the mess they left. A window in the kitchen had been busted open, seems this is how they got in and out.

Stolen = 42 of my treasured dvds, mostly sci-fi, some rare European. (Sad maybe, but that's what I like.) And a watch. They did not steal my dvd player or the television.

I opened every window in the place for a whole afternoon to get rid of the stench. I think I was more infuriated that they smoked in my home than I was about the things they stole.

All the cheap little catches on the windows have been replaced with locks and I have done other burglar proofing.

Getting my dvd collection back together although some titles are hard to replace.