Someone Asked Ex-Burglars To Share Tips On How To Protect Your Home Against Theft, 30 People Delivered

This doesn't exactly answer the question asked, but it is a tip on potentially protecting your valuables. Bear with me because it's a bit strange: Glue a spare key (not one that opens something important) under your door mat. Weird right?

A few years ago I did this in addition to installing cameras. Over the last couple of years I've seen this exact scenario play out: thief walks to the door, checks under the mat, unsuccessfully tries to grab the key, backs up, looks around to see if anyone is watching (presumably because they think they have fallen for some trap/prank where they are being surveilled), and LEAVES. They don't even search for another way in because it spooks them.

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.

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.

My husband is so good at hiding things from burglars that there are a number of valuable items that we have never found again. So hiding things is fine, but remembering where you hid them is just as important.

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 tings 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.

Getting to know your neighbors is a great thing. There were a few times, growing up, that we noticed someone snooping around our neighbors' house, or that they noticed someone snooping around ours. It was always someone who had some legitimate reason to be there, but we always felt good knowing that our neighbors had our backs.

One thing on Reddit I read was that having a pair of large work boots on the porch next to the door can deter burglars (unless they know you). It basically says "Someone is home right now, it its possibly a big dude who can hurt you."

Not a burglar but some broke into my family's house 4 or 5 years ago when we were out on a concert. They checked everything - took all money and jewelry they could find.

Except! My room was a mess to begin with. I left piles of clothes on the floor, my study desk messy af, left piles of papers on both desk and floor (i was in a hurry before we all left and was searching for something I can quite remember now.

Now. I had 800€ and golden earrings on my desk, just sitting there.

The burglars opened the doors... and didn't move a thing. Left my 800€ and golden earrings alone and moved to another room.

From then on I have been using this as an excuse why I don't need to clean up my room.

If a family member dies, leave someone to house sit the house the deceased lived in.
Years ago a bunch of thieves would look at the funerals section and they would go burglarize houses of the deceased, knowing full well that the whole family was away, down to the exact hour the funerals started.

My grandfather had a huge safe in the basement.

Inside that safe was another, smaller safe.

And inside that other smaller safe was, you guessed it, an even smaller safe.

When he got sick and had to be in the hospital for awhile he started telling everybody, from the people in line at the fast food place to the nurses, how we was okay because all his stuff was in this unbreakable safe in his basement. People thought he was crazy.

Of course what was bound to happen happened and one time when he was out to the hospital someone broke into his home. When he got back maybe a week later, he saw that the first 2 safes we're opened but the guy gave up on the smallest one. Good for him because there wasn't anything in that last safe either. We had a good laugh about it for the 3 years he was still alive, trying to picture the would-be robber's face when he saw the third safe.

So I guess one place you SHOULD keep your valuables is a safe inside a safe inside another safe. Robbers are lazy.

Not a burglar, but a homeowner.

Tips that we have followed:

Do not "hide" a key outside of the house. Under the flowerpot or one of those fake stones? Yeah, professionals can spot those immediately. We have a key safe located in a not-so-obvious location outside of the house, so even if someone sees the box, they still can't get to the key without knowing the combination.

Motion detectors and automatic lighting. We have motion detectors all around the house. If you come up the driveway, into the carport or walk around the side of the house, a floodlight will light your way. This makes it hard to remain undetected if there is a light shining on you.

We have installed locking window handles in our basement and all of the windows in our house are triple-pane glass, so if you want to break in, it is going to be loud and pretty dangerous for you.

Basically, all of these things are related to the "Saint Florian principle" - we try to make our house less attractive for burglars so that they go break into someone else's house instead.

Your shed. Seriously. LOCK YOUR SHED. 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.

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 constitute false alarms.

The sign that comes with the alarm though? That thing is worth more than the alarm as far as deterring burglars.

My job was to take reports from customers who had been burglarized. (see my first point above)

In all my time doing these interviews and I never interviewed one single burglary victim who owned a medium sized or large sized dog. Not one single time.

That is not to say that no one who owns a dog ever gets burglarized.

I'm just saying that in 5 years of spending 8 hours a day interviewing people who had been, not one single time did I encounter the situation.

I think there is at least SOME statistical validity in that.

TL:DR A big dog is the best burglary deterrent you can possibly have. Better than burglar alarms, signs, guns or expensive locks.

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.

Lock your doors and dont leave windows open when you're out.

Dont leave ladders or big garbage bins accessable, they are great for getting to that 1st floor window that's probably not locked.

Going on vacation? dont tell the entire world 2 weeks in advance. Burglars have facebook too.

Dont leave your car keys next to your front door. you're giving potential burglers a great fast exit and a free car.

Leave a light on when you're out. Burglars want empty houses.

If you do hear somebody in your house at night, DONT GO LOOK. Even if you are armed, you're still setting yourself up for a nasty situation. Lock yourself in, baricade your door, call 911.

I'm not a burglar though....

I'm going to assume having a cop for a neighbor that parks his cruiser in the driveway facing my house is a nice burglar deterrent.

Fun fact - aunt died, and had valuables hidden throughout the house. She was a cranky old cur, the one who had a ton of dough, no offspring, didn't donate, and thought she could take it with her. Well, hell. When she died, I helped out my elderly parents clean out her place. Instead of just being able to throw away the junk and pile up the clothes and other items to donation centers, we had to rifle through every pocket, every damn planter, pot and pan, etc. It was sort of fun, but took a hell of a long time. From what I recall, there was a few hundred bucks inside a few planters, 4.5k in the bottom part of an unused planter, under some little foam brick you stick fake flowers into, that was tucked way in the back of a cabinet, jewelry stashed in the arm of a leather couch, more money in some sewing drawer, a few hundred bucks in several jackets, etc. I took forever to go through every goddamn pocket, sock, drawer, container of nails and buttons, etc. Gotta admit, sorta fun as well. She never told any of us that she had money hidden. My mother just had a hunch.

Any safe that's not bolted down and is small enough for 1-2 people to carry isn't safe at all.

Buy a Mastiff.

There's not much you can do to stop a determined intruder. Fortunately, those are very, very rare. Most neighborhood crimes are those of opportunity. I.e., someone left something valuable in an unlocked car or someone left a garage door open all night.

Make your home an undesirable target by installing/maintaining some outside lighting at night (at least a porch light, more if possible). Keep your bushes trimmed and change the landscaping if necessary to prevent natural hiding spots near doors and windows.

Window treatments should include some kind of shear material in addition to any curtains, drapes, or blinds that can be closed. The shear material stays in place (particularly in the front) even when the curtains/blinds are open. This allows light in and you can generally see out, but effectively prevents passersby from seeing inside your house. Leaving the curtains/blinds closed all the time is a bad idea because it leaves the impression people aren't there.

Don't leave toys, yard tools, bikes, or other items outside when you're not using them. Keep the garage door closed, except when you're entering, exiting, or actually outside near it.

Use several lamp timers (I prefer the electronic ones) and compact fluorescent bulbs (to keep the cost of energy down) to turn several lamps on around 5pm-ish and off at 11 or 12pm-ish. You'll use the lights anyway when you're home and the house will appear more occupied when your not.

A neatly kept home that doesn't flaunt valuables is a decent deterrent. Hoodlums might pick a wealthy-looking home hoping to get valuables or a run-down home thinking the owners aren't around much or don't care. You don't have to make your house burglar proof, just less desirable than your neighbors' homes to broken into.

Consider a professionally installed alarm system. I prefer the wired systems that protect the doors and windows over the inside motion detector systems. I'd rather the alarm go off while the burglar is trying to get in rather than waiting until entry is gained. A perimeter (doors and windows) alarm system can be armed while you are home without worrying about a motion detector. The best ones will be monitored by an alarm company, but even one with a loud local siren will scare off someone trying to get in.