19 Ex-Thieves Teach You How to Avoid Getting Robbed

1.

I would check out a house several times over two days. If there was no sign of movement — no lights coming on or off, no curtains moved, newspapers left on the driveway — I was interested.Is the house in a nice neighborhood? Is it well kept? If so I figured they had nice stuff.Next question: Is there an easy escape route? Woods in the backyard were excellent.

2.

A recent study showed that burglars come back to the same houses quite often. They do this because of a number of motives.1: They want to take things they, for some reason, couldn’t take the first time.2: They’re kinda familiar with the house.3: It’s guaranteed that the people they robbed replaced the stuff they stole the first time, often these replacements are of better quality than the original.So after you get raided take good security measures.

3.

Don’t leave empty boxes from high-end electronics on the curb outside your house. People tend to do this right after the holidays. Put that stuff in your car and throw it out somewhere else. Any burglar casing your neighborhood will see that and know without even coming near your house and looking suspicious that you just got a bunch of valuable stuff just ready to be taken.

4.

Let me give you the low-down on dogs: they aren’t protection or security.A dog can be easily tamed usually. Act friendly, give it a few rubs, and they’ll happily follow you around. If that doesn’t work, after my first run-in with an annoying dog (a small, yappy dog), I started carrying rawhide sticks with me. That stopped them very fast.

5.

I’m not a burglar, but I worked for the largest security company in this country for half a decade.Burglar alarms do not deter burglars. They just alert you that you have been burglarized. Most of the time the police will take very little action in response due to the fact that 98% of burglar alarm activation constitutes false alarms.The sign that comes with the alarm though? That thing is worth more than the alarm as far as deterring burglars.

6.

Double pane windows. A pain to smash with anything short of a sledgehammer.

7.

Those family car stickers certainly tell me how easy a home invasion will be.

8.

You’d be surprised how often people get robbed by people they know or people connected to people they know.

9.

When I was young and dumb I would boost rims off cars, cause you could make quick money and it was less than a felony. The number one deterrent hands down……lights. If a place is lit up like a Christmas tree on the outside of a house you stay clear cause it means anyone can see you and see you clearly

10.

Even if your house is well-locked, if your shed isn’t, I likely have access to a plethora of tools I can use to gain access. Don’t help the burglar. Lock your shed.

11.

I use to do door-to-door sales for ADT… people would let me in the house and just tell me where all the important stuff was before even verifying I was legit….. don’t do that.

12.

I stuck with commercial burglary, residential burglary carried a risk of getting hit with a home invasion charge which increases your sentence if convicted. It helps to hit the places that hire felons (fast food joints, video stores, etc.) because the cops are gonna waste a lot of time looking into the staff members who have a criminal history. The closer they’re looking at them, the better off I am.

13.

A good burglar will rob you when it’s raining. The rain masks sound when you’re breaking into a garage. I had my garage broken in during torrential rain, all tools stolen, didn’t hear a thing and neither did my dog that sleeps outside.

14.

Had my house burglarized by a so-called friend. He missed by far the most valuable thing. it’s just a safe sitting on the laundry room floor. He missed it because I’m a scumbag and had it covered with a mountain of dirty clothes and towels. So not being tidy saved me upwards of 35k.

15.

Fake rocks are a dead giveaway. Sock drawers are cliché. If you have a small safe that’s not bolted down, we are taking that thing. We all have a ‘safe guy.’ Our goal is to get in and out pretty quickly. If you hide something in a random box all the way up in your attic, it’s probably safe.

16.

For the college kids that might read this, don’t keep your textbooks in your car. On the day of my finals, I had about 6 textbooks I was gonna sell after my finals, I left the books in my car while I took my tests. Came back to find someone broke my window out to steal the textbooks. Cop told me that it’s very common and unlikely they will catch the guy, so I was out ~$700, which was huge as a college student.

17.

I’ve seen people make false outlets for hiding valuables like cash and jewelry. Just an idea, a burglar would have to be at your home for a long time to start checking outlets.

18.

Don’t post anything on social media until you have gotten back home. I can’t tell you how many neighbors and family have gotten robbed because of this.

19.

Consider putting 3-1/2″ screws into your door frame to make it stronger, and to make kicking it in that much harder.