www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24842680

Apparently the police in Yorkshire may lawfully break into your home - to warn you about people breaking into your home

They thoughtfully leave you a nice balloon to remind you that your home was broken into not by burglars but the police.

home alone antics ensue

A balloon is left to remind you that they all float down here.

Hmmm. So if the police lawfully break into my house and happen to discover a few grammes of dance-sherbert on the table I can't be arrested?

I could be cynical and say that it gives them a chance to plant something illegal and pop back later with a warrant.

And, if all would-be burgulars carried a pack of balloons with them they could claim to be there to alert members of the public just how easy it is to kick in their back door and make off with their electrical goods.

hugorune wrote:

I don't think it should be legal anyway. There's too much scope for things to go horribly wrong, like the property owner thinks he's being invaded by
criminals (not far from the truth) and has a heart attack. Or someone attacks the intruders thinking he's defending himself and gets done for assaulting a police officer / tazed to death. The family dog goes into action and gets put down as a result.

That's quite aside from the fact that it's yet another infringement on people's privacy.

If they think your home looks vulnerable, they could go about advising you in a more acceptable way.

They started doing this about 18 months ago where I used to live.

I think it all came to a halt though, after they broke into one particular house, got a bit messy apparently.

Bloody kids today have got it easy.

We used to have to wait for the rag n bone man to come round and give him some household item to get a free balloon now you just have to leave your door unlocked.