Ex-Thieves On How to Avoid Getting Robbed
Former burglars and victims share what to do.
Published 1 year ago in Ftw
It can be hard to know your home is 100% safe -- because it rarely is. We can't control when the winds of misfortune blow in our direction any more we can a hurricane -- but we can control how prepared we are.
Down below is a series of tips
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.
7
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
9
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.
12
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.
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