27 Jul Crime Prevention Advice – Your Home
From the Offenders Mouth……….
The following content has been taken from interviews conducted with convicted offenders, providing an insight into their approach to committing burglary.
Burglary
A lot of lads may target a home based on the type of vehicle parked outside it……..most people advertise what cars they have as they don’t use their garages to park them in, they leave other stuff in there.
Most people are lax when it comes to security, it’s not on the agenda of 50% of people…..they are immune to security.
Dogs are a deterrent, don’t like them, too much noise and grief………if people could buy a device that made a noise like the bark of a dog then that’d be a good thing.
A lot of people are put off by dogs, but they have never really bothered me……..in fact I used to target houses at one point that had dogs, as you knew for a fact that the alarm wouldn’t be set.
Lighting on upstairs puts me off, ‘cos you don’t know if someone is in or not?
Wouldn’t consider burgling a house with a TV on in it.
I’ve never done a house when I’ve seen the TV on ‘cos you know someone is in………people leave downstairs lights on usually, but you can just see through the window and work out if they’re in or not……..but if the TV is on then 95% of the time there is someone in the house and you just don’t bother………if people left the upstairs lights on then you wouldn’t really take a chance on that either…….you could knock on the door, but they may just not have heard you if they were upstairs and it’d be a bit risky.
Would avoid houses with new alarms, but not so much houses with alarms that looked like they didn’t work anymore.
Sometimes you get opportunities if you’re walking an area, someone might leave their house as you’re passing them and you know for a fact that they haven’t set the alarm as you can’t hear it setting itself……..I’ve waited 5 or 10 minutes and then gone back and screwed the house.
You’ve got your creepers and your planners……..creepers will just try door handles until they find one open and your planners will put more thought into their work.
I think people are more security conscious than ever, but they still leave doors and windows unlocked or open……..this is a simple thing that would help to put a burglar off or otherwise it’s easy for us and you’re done, dusted and gone before they realise.
It’s noise that gets you caught 8 times out of 10.
Noise is one of the biggest things, if you make a noise doing a job I’d just want to completely get out of that area as quick as possible.
Don’t like dogs, they make too much noise…….don’t like high fences round back gardens……some alarms put me off ‘cos they’re linked to the Police, but the old alarms don’t bother that much ‘cos most of them don’t work and 8 out of 10 of them have weathered boxes…..wouldn’t do a job if I could hear noise in the house though or if the TV was on.
You can tell if folk are on holiday too ‘cos all the blinds are closed or there’s mail in the letterbox, papers sticking out or milk on the step sometimes……..I just look through a window to see if I can see mail on the floor……..if the blinds are closed a few days on the trot you know they’re away.
You stick with the areas you know, it’s rare that burglars travel.
They should hide valuables and have nothing on show, why would I go into a house if I didn’t know there was anything in there worth having?……..They should lock their doors, have good locks on windows and take the keys out of the doors when they’ve locked them……..if the keys are still in and I can see something through the kitchen window then I might smash the window, unlock the door and take the stuff.
The first thing that would attract me to a house if they’ve got a nice car ‘cos even if I wasn’t going to take the car I know they’d have nice stuff inside. They should use their garage if they’ve got one……people don’t realise how easy it can be to do a job, but they can do a few simple things to make it harder.
I’ve done sneak-ins, just go round trying the door handles and it’s like they say ‘1 in 4 don’t lock their door’.