Be careful when placing stuff openly in your house.
I bought that place in Whiterun.
Now, don't remember where i got it, but i had a "butterfly in a jar".
Placed it on top of a bookshelf as a decorational item, as it had no apparent other uses.
Few days later i noticed it was gone.
I had also noticed NPCs entering and leaving my house at will.
But i wasn't concerned, coz one of the loading screen tips clearly states, that the stuff in your own place is safe from being stolen.
Errr.....yeah, right !
Ok, so just a deco item gone, no big deal.
But why can't i LOCK the door to my house ? Even the NPC houses are locked..at night at least.
Afterall, i DID get the key after purchasing the place. Can't be that difficult to implement a small thing like that ?
Right....any tips as to which nogood NPC nicked my butterfly are welcome. :biggrin:

Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll. You ever hear guards say that? I'm betting it's a reference to this AI problem.

The thing is, I've only seen NPCs enter my house when they're standing next to me as I transition. It seems like it's part of the transition bug teleporting people with you. Not people breaking into your house. Locking the door would have no effect.

Are you sure you have not knocked it off the shelf? I have knocked lots of things of my shelf. I think the house in Whiterun is a bit small.

Have you checked everywhere in your house? Sometimes something that I've placed somewhere ends up somewhere else entirely next time I enter the house. Hopefully your butterfly in a jar has just wandered to another corner of the house - mine did that a while ago.

your key was consumed when you first unlocked the door

Or perhaps the Jarl has allowed the citizens of whiterun to pilfer your non chest belongings to help recoup the losses of random loose change in all the city that have been mysteriously dissapearing since you have entered the city?

Hehe...i like the sweet roll reference.
And yes, now that you mention it, it was during transitions those incidents with NPCs in my house happened.
Also, i HAVE checked the entire house and i didn't knock it off the shelve either.
See i'm this irritating methodic type of person, who always is on top of things when it comes to sorting and storing stuff in RPGs. :rolleyes:
I usually don't "misplace" anything.
As i said...no big deal, just a heads up. Keep your stuff in chests or drawers. Never had anything gone missing from those.
It's just a bug of some sort, i'm sure.
Thx for the replies.

I only have two houses, Whiterun and Solitude. However, I have had things stolen from my house in Whiterun. I had two weapons on my rack in there and they are gone. One of the weapons is for a quest too (a note came from someone who wants it). Almost every time I am in there, I see an NPC in the house. I left my housecarl there as she is supposed to protect things, but she just sits upstairs.

Nothing has been taken from a container, at least from what I can tell.

So far, my house in Solitude has been safe, at least from what I have noticed.

The butterfly had to go.

His planet needed him.

You must've knocked it down or it knocked itself down... It often happens that things get misplaced when you return later on..

Thx for the info, Cat Herder....i removed the gear from my weapons rack now.
I re-checked the house too, AND checked for the "kocked off the shelve" theory.
No such luck...it's gone alright.
At least now i know i'm not the onlyone that's happened to.
cheers

lol off topic and nooby but, where can you get the butterfly in jar?

I've noticed that items I place in the house, but not in a container, will sometimes be moved around. I have not yet had anything disappear, but have only placed the butterfly in a jar and torchbug in a jar. Both were by the front door the next time I entered. Oddly enough, I'm also having issues where the skeleton of a dragon I have defeated keeps moving around. The first dragon you defeat near Whiterun, way over at the tower, has been by the farms, at the front gate, and is currently residing on top of the horse and carriage. Not sure if these are related issues or not, where the game is accidentally(?) moving entities.

My burtterfly in the jar ended up on the floor every time I placed it on a shelf. But at least it's still there!

I bought the house in Whiterun as well. Last night, when I entered, I was standing in front of one of the kid in the town. I was wondering what in the world they were doing in my house. And then I was wondering why my servant lady was hanging out in her room. Way to protect my stuff. But I dont know if the kid took anything.

It's actually a reference to one of the character class development questions in Morrowind. I don't know if it goes back further than that, though.

i've never had my house robbed thankfully, but i don't really put thing out in the open, mostly just in the chests

one thing i've noticed thats probably a bug, is that when you walk by people and they say something random, if you enter the house before they finish they magically appear in the house to finish what they said and then just leave

Just question about house sizes. Which of them are bigger than Whiterun's house and the biggest?

I found one in an Alchemist's cabin in the mountains. I would say it is roughly south of where the Greybeards live. I left it there as I had too much to carry.

It's a bug.

Everytime you enter a house, things that you place on shelves, desks, etc will end up on the floor. Most of the time they are 1 ft away.

This kind of svcks in Whiterun i've had items knocked into the firepit. It's impossible to retrieve items out of it, and that's probably what happened to you (or something simalair... fell through world).

I prefer the firefly (or what ever it's called) in a Jar

Was it stolen? Items that I have "accidentally" stolen that I've placed in my house never stay where I put them. I have a shovel that falls down everytime I leave and it is stolen (w/red text). A few of them have even gone missing from inside my house. I assumed a guard took it back or the person I originally stole it from was coming in to reclaim it. I had the butterfly in the jar from the same place you're talking about and I can't remember if it was considered stolen or not.

Try open the console click on the door and type in: "lock"
I haven't try it for Skyrim, but it worked in Oblivion.

same thing! i put my butterfly on my top shelf i came back and it was on the floor. damn you lydia just go home you no good vigilante.

I saw this dragon (skeleton) moving his head around the other day... very strange, but now I think this skeleton might just get up and walk away if he wants to!

It was the Grey Fox