St. Cloud home security issues—and family safety as a whole—are always high priorities named by future homeowners. A recent Mortgage Professionals Association survey found safety and security to be “the most important” factors for homeowners deciding where to move.

That growing concern could be why last week’s dispatch from afar was picked up by many U.S. media outlets. Knowing that today’s homeowners are becoming increasingly edgy about the issue, they brought word from the far side of the globe of a threat that few had previously considered. The Guardian said it all with last week’s dramatic headline:

“Seal breaks into New Zealand home, traumatizes cat and hangs out on couch.”

Seldom has a headline packed so much detailed breach-of-security information into so few words. As a result, St. Cloud readers really knew most of the important details without having to delve much further into the saga of the Ross family of Mt. Maunganui, NZ—and of the harrowing home invasion by a young fur seal that included the harassment of their cat. It did have a comforting conclusion with the invader’s return to the South Pacific Ocean. But that happy ending came only after a couple of hours that saw the invader “hanging about in the hallway” while “the children slept upstairs.” And with a greatly irritated family cat.

The flippered intruder’s premeditation was self-evident. It had had to brave the 150m overland distance from the ocean to the house. Phil Ross had not been home during the siege—that was unfortunate since, as a marine biologist, he might have had better luck in determining a motive for the break-in. In any case, the method used for the breach was obvious since the two cat flaps provided evidence that the seal had followed Coco the cat through them. “The seal must have followed her,” according to Ross. Oddly, the mammal didn’t destroy anything in the home. The N.Y. Post reports that after a couple of hours, the wife was able to coax the young seal out into the yard before the Department of Conservation arrived to return it to the sea.

Although St. Cloud homeowners can be confident that this particular security breach has little chance of recurring here, it may trigger a heightened degree of cat flap awareness. It turns out there ARE such intrusions in America—but almost always for those that have been installed through doors: burglars manage to reach inside to unlock them. Installing deadbolts out of reach is one solution—installation through a wall is another.

I’m always happy to discuss home security and any other real estate-related issues—do call!

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