Hi Andrew,
Sorry to hear your news mate - bastards.
I know that this might be a case of closing the stable door once the horse has bolted, but have you considered a monitored alarm?
We've had one for about three years, £27 per month to ADT and that includes a monitored fire alarm too. If you have a fire in the house and you're not there, the fire brigade turn up in short order too
If the house gets tanned, and being as the cops no longer respond to audible house alarms (i.e. ringing bells etc.), if the silent alarm is tripped, a signal is sent to a switchboard who call the nearest area car and the cops are there in minutes - I know this to be the case as when we first had it fitted (before having it 'modified' and expanded
), the post man putting post through the letterbox set it off whilst we weren't there and the cops were there in quick sticks. We know this coz the nextdoor neighnour was cutting his lawn and saw the postie arrive followed very shortly by a cop car screaming to a screeching halt in my drive; one cop went to the front door and looked through the windows whilst the other went round the back in a 'we'll head 'em off at the pass' move.
They then asked my neighbour was he a registered key-holder so they could gain access to the house to check it out
So if you'd like the opportunity to catch the twats who did this whilst they're still in your house, I can recommend it. It works.
Hope that helps mate