'I felt like we were being watched': Burgled family left with 'feeling of violation'

Daisy Howe's children Taika, 9, and Stella Young, 6, could not sleep after someone broke into their Dunedin house last year. Photo / Linda Robertson

For weeks after it happened, Daisy Howes' children were too scared to sleep.

They had left their Dunedin home for about an hour and a half last July for a family trip to the library.

When they returned, they discovered someone had broken into the Calton Hill house.

Items such as a speaker and cellphone were taken, and drawers and jewellery boxes were rifled through.

"Someone being in your safe space like that is just awful," Howes said.

This was one of 1310 unlawful entry incidents in Otago last year.

Howes did not have contents insurance at the time, but had since got it.

She believed the house was being scoped out by the offender, because they broke in during the short time the family were out.

"It's frightening, really."

She reported the break-in to police, who came out the next day and searched for fingerprints.

But nobody had been caught for the crime, she said.

She lied to her two children and said someone had been caught, just so they could sleep at night.

"It was awful. I felt like we were being watched for a long time afterwards. It's just that feeling of violation."