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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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Bunnymonster
Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Location: Tokyo
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 Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 9:34 pm Post subject: Got burgled last night |
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I try to remember to lock my door every night but I obviously forgot last night as I woke up this morning to find my door open and my light on  . thankfully none of the cash in my desk, passort, handphone etc were missing, I figured my landlady had wandered in for something or maybe the cleaning ajumma. But on my outing to the store I found I had no cash in my wallet though all of my cards were still intact. Frankly I was very very lucky. No real point to this post other than to warn people to look after their stuff. I was dumb and thankfully was reminded of the lesson cheaply.
Peace
Paul |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 12:41 am Post subject: |
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| You've had a rough time of it, are things at least somewhat settled at school? |
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 4:05 am Post subject: |
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Usually landlords don't keep keys to apartments. Some of these landlords could be shifty characters, possibly narcoleptic.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these locksmiths we trust have bad habits such as this.
Does your school owe your landlord money? Think about it. |
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Demophobe
Joined: 17 May 2004
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 5:49 am Post subject: |
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So, you slept through someone entering your apartment, turning on your light and sifting through your stuff? Wow....I guess I am a light sleeper, but there's no way I would sleep through that.
I guess you will remember to lock your door now.
Where do you live that people go around trying evey door, turning on lights ion occupied apartments, and going through drawers, etc, with a person sleeping there?
Move. |
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Bunnymonster
Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Location: Tokyo
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 6:06 am Post subject: |
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I have no idea how I slept through this to be honest with you, though the fact that it was just the cash missing from my wallet leads me to believe that I may well have at least partially stirred and disturbed them. I honestly had no idea they were there which is really really odd for me because usually wake at the slightest thing. As I say I was infinitely lucky this time as the damage done was less than 'dropping' my wallet while out shopping for the day and could have been soooooo much worse, in London if that had happened I'd be thankful to be alive, as it is I'm out the cost of a night at gekkos (but with less hangover). Its just the perfect end to a stressful week.
Paul |
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desultude
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 6:12 am Post subject: I yelled, they screamed and fled. I yelled, they screamed a |
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Demophobe
So, you slept through someone entering your apartment, turning on your light and sifting through your stuff? Wow....I guess I am a light sleeper, but there's no way I would sleep through that.
I guess you will remember to lock your door now.
Where do you live that people go around trying evey door, turning on lights ion occupied apartments, and going through drawers, etc, with a person sleeping there? |
Thursday morning I woke up to find two ajuma spraying poison all over my room. It totally freaked me out- but I think I gave them heart failure. I yelled, they screamed and fled.
We had been told that the spraying would take place on Thursday, and it happens every semester. I usually put a note on my door saying no, I don't want my room sprayed. But I forgot this time. My neighbor swears that the ajuma rang my door bell. I believe that, and I just slept through it. I heard nothing until the ajuma started talking to each other, still not seeing me! I'm a light sleeper most of the time, but if I am sleeping deeply, I don't hear anything. |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:32 am Post subject: |
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| Koreans, generally speaking, have a different notion of privacy compared with westerners; the concept of personal space simply doesn't exist. Don't be surprised to find your landlord, or your boss, or his sister-in-law, rifling through your stuff while you're away at work. An obvious bit of advice: as soon as you move in to your new abode, change the locks! It might set you back 90,000 won, but the peace of mind is well worth it. I had my space violated by uni lowlifes while I was on vacation out of the country. Nothing was taken, but they had no business being in MY place. |
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mack the knife
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:39 am Post subject: |
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Ahhhhhh,
You just got drunk and blew all your dough on booze...c'mon! Out with it! |
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agraham
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Location: Daegu, Korea
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| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2004 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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| matthews_world wrote: |
| Usually landlords don't keep keys to apartments. Some of these landlords could be shifty characters, possibly narcoleptic. |
Yeah man.. the way they are prone to sudden attacks of deep sleep... total slimeballs.  |
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chronicpride
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:03 am Post subject: |
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Sorry. As soon as I saw the subject line....
Last seen in suburban Des Moines, peeking in windows and breaking into garages. Looks like he made his way over here and is going after ESL teachers.  |
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matthews_world
Joined: 15 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:07 am Post subject: |
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| agraham wrote: |
| matthews_world wrote: |
| Usually landlords don't keep keys to apartments. Some of these landlords could be shifty characters, possibly narcoleptic. |
Yeah man.. the way they are prone to sudden attacks of deep sleep... total slimeballs. |
Ha. That totally made sense to me.
What's the word I'm looking for? When people have steal every chance they can. |
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cheeky monkey
Joined: 18 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:11 am Post subject: |
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i believe kleptomania is the word you are looking for.
a harmless mistake, but make sure you never confuse either with necrophilia (a mistake i have made and regret  ) |
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Hagwon Muppet
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 3:16 am Post subject: |
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| matthews_world wrote: |
| Usually landlords don't keep keys to apartments. |
Everywhere in the world landlords usually keep keys to THEIR apartments. After all they own the place! If something happens and they need access you think they want to be tracking you down whilst the roof of their investment slowly caves in?
Changing locks as suggested is NOT a good idea. Unless you want to be held responsible for any complications further down the line. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 10:40 am Post subject: |
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Bunnymonster,
If misery loves company, then I bring you tidings of great joy. We were burgled too! Just three weeks ago. That adventure is worth a whole thread (or a small chapter in a forthcoming book) by itself. It'll have to wait till I have more time.
Now, however, on a point another poster brought up....
| Hagwon Muppet wrote: |
| matthews_world wrote: |
| Usually landlords don't keep keys to apartments. |
Everywhere in the world landlords usually keep keys to THEIR apartments. After all they own the place! If something happens and they need access you think they want to be tracking you down whilst the roof of their investment slowly caves in?
Changing locks as suggested is NOT a good idea. Unless you want to be held responsible for any complications further down the line. |
Granted, landlords the world over keep keys to their rental units. It may even be illegal to change locks w/o a landlord's permission.
But how is someone supposed to safeguard their belongings from a dishonest or snoopy landlord or their kids, relatives, etc.? I don't mean cash, cards & passports, which you can (and should) carry on your person. I mean computers, stereos, jewelry, bicycles, private letters & important documents?
Beyond that, how can tenants protect themselves against unwelcome, uninvited, unannounced intrusions by landlords & their kin? Presumably, even installing a deadbolt lock would require a landlord's permission, which might not be given.
I had landlords/landladies all through college, and in Asia as well. Hong Kong & Japan. Never had a problem until I got to Korea. 3 out of 7 Korean landlords/ladies were okay. The others... Let's just say they're damned lucky they don't live in a country where people own guns or are handy with a pig-sticker.
Very Abridged List of Landlord High Jinks:
(1) Opened my eyes one night to discover my 60-ish landlord standing silently in the doorway of my bedroom, just hovering in the darkness staring at me and my girlfriend, who was asleep. 
(2) (kinda similar, but different place, landlord & girl) It's a steamy Sunday afternoon in high summer, my girlfriend is over, and we'd just finished showering. The weather was HOT, and I didn't have A/C then. So we went to the living room (curtains drawn, of course) and lied down, au natural, beside a big electric fan.
We had almost drifted off to sleep when there was a "BANG, BANG, BANG!" on the door. Before we could even respond, there's a rattle of keys, open swings the door and in barges the landlady, along with a middle-aged woman and her college-age son. (They wanted to inspect the flat, which I would be vacating a month later.) We're thrashing about trying to cover up with really dinky hand-towels, sofa cushions -- anything we could lay our hands on. That girlfriend refused to visit me again until I moved out of there.
3) (yet another place & landlord) Had this fairly big stack of crisp 5,000 won notes sitting on my bedroom dresser. Went out for dinner & drinks, locking the door behind me. Stumbled home well past midnight, went straight to bed. The next day I couldn't find the 5,000 won notes anywhere. Turned the bedroom upside down, pulled out drawers, rifled through closets, searched trouser/shirt/jacket pockets over and over again, under the bed, behind the dresser -- places I knew full well I hadn't put the money.
The following day, I come home from lunch. My landlady is in the garden yelling at her 9-year-old grandson and his friend. I pay them no mind and go upstairs. Later, I come out on the balcony and see half the garden covered with brand-new toys, some still in their packages. Model airplanes & ships, kites, masks, a little wind-up car set, balls -- you name it. The boy's crying and the landlady is scolding him. Then I see it -- she's shaking a thick wad of new-looking 5,000 won notes in the kid's face.
I tell her about the theft, she grabs her grandson and demands a confession. Yes, he took the money; yes, he bought as many toys as he & his buddy could carry; yes, he'll show her where he hid the rest of the loot. (Under a brick in the garden) How did he get into my place? He found a set of keys in his grandmother's (my landlady's) house, and tried every one until he found the key for my door.
The Kicker: She asked me how much money I'd lost. I couldn't say precisely (I'd spent a little of it), but I knew it was between 270,000 and 300,000 won. Now, I don't know about the rest of you posters, but I can guarantee you that if it had been my mother or grandmother, they would have forked over the full 300,000 won -- out of shame, out of decency, out of whatever. So, what do you think I received? Right. Two hundred seventy thousand -- and not a solitary won more. 
The Guru |
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kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2004 9:21 pm Post subject: Ham-burgled? |
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I'm very sorry that your space was invaded and your cash absconded with. I wish I could think of a way for you to protect yourself. Hmm. If you were handy with a soldering iron, you might be able to wrangle a sort of alarm-thingy that you could set while you are out... that would not prevent anything, but could certainly shame someone into getting the hell out. Or maybe a web-camera? You could even check your apartment-cam while you were out. Okay, these ideas are ridiculous, but when you used the word "burgled" you put me in a really silly mood.
Burgled, burgled, burgly burgly burgly. |
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