If someone at your work or in your neighbourhood makes you wary, do not give him or her any personal information. Former professional burglar, Robert Earl Barnes mentions in his book, (Are You Safe From Burglars?), how he would find out where valuables or large amounts of money were. Sometimes he would nose around by listening to people in bars talk about how certain businesses handled money or who owned what. But most of Barnes' information came from what he called The Finger Man.
According to Barnes, professional burglaries require three parties: The Finger Man, the Burglar and the Fence. The finger man, points out where the valuables are. The burglar steals the items. The fence quickly sells the stolen items and splits the profits. The professional burglar will not act unless the finger man and fence are ready for the theft. This is why the professional burglar will often leave behind valuables. He will not steal certain items, like paintings, unless there is someone waiting to fence them.
Full Motion Tv Bracket
The finger man (or woman) can be a laborer in a moving company, a kid asking for pop bottles, a co-worker, a neighbour or even the store cashier who sold you an expensive item. In Barnes' operation, his main finger man was a high-class jeweler in Washington, D.C. The jeweler would sell jewelery to wealthy clients and then tip off the burglar to the items, location and vacation time of the jeweler's customers. The professional burglar would then arrange a fence or buyer of the stolen goods.
Professional burglars will also check mail boxes, expensive item want ads and telephone book addresses. They will take the time to telephone people or knock on their doors to find out who is home and at what time of day. Then they can strike all at once. In one day, a team can sweep through and rob an entire apartment building.
For low-level thieves, a faster process happens. They just make a quick evaluation of available goods, like CDs or clothing, access-in and an escape route. Even the stoned amateurs will get into an apartment building and try turning doorknobs until one of them opens. If caught in the act, they will make up some excuse about looking for someone like their brother. It is best to start asking them questions as this usually makes them nervous enough to leave. Otherwise, the creeps will keep trying to break into different apartments at different times of the day.
Most people will not question or confront strangers. Friendly people will understand a comment like, "Hey, no offense, but I really cannot let you in. We have had break-ins in this building." Legitimate visitors usually will not take offense.
It is the would-be drug-dealers, vandals and burglars who start arguing, making it a frustrating process. But some days, it can actually be entertaining. By asking them questions, you can get all sorts of weird responses, ranging from looking for their friends to self-righteous remarks ("I don't have to take that from you.") to them just running off.
Sometimes thieves will just push every button on the intercom until someone lets them in. If this happens to you and your building has a close circuit television, you can harass them into leaving. When some drunk used to hit my intercom button, I used to check him out on the close circuit camera. Then I would make fun about their clothing (eg. "Hey, when are you going to give your sister back her jacket?"). This either spooked or frustrated them enough to leave. Scaring off trespassers can be cheap entertainment if you are stuck at home.
Better than alarms and locks is the impression of someone being home. This means having regular activity in your home, such as radios playing, light timers or someone actually there. In an interview, one professional burglar explained how he avoided burglarizing an unlocked building because of some noise inside. He returned a week later to a locked door, but no sound. So, he broke in.
Giving the impression that someone is home also includes, removing mail and newspapers from your front door and not leaving notes like, "Gone to store, back by 4 p.m." If you leave a light on inside of the house, make it the bedroom light, so that it appears that someone is staying up late, reading. Motion detector lights are very useful in backyards. But, you should install them at a height that is out-of-reach. Otherwise, it is too simple for the thief to unscrew the light bulb and work in darkness.
For basement doors, I like the old sliding two by four piece of wood across the door with a medieval-style bracket. For securing windows, holes can be drilled into aluminum window frames and nails can be inserted. Another cheap method is to put a stick of wood in the sliding track behind the sliding window. For second story windows and balconies, I have found that a series of small finishing nails or carpet tacking can help dissuade unwanted house climbers. Within a few weeks after installing some of these tacks, I had found bits of cloth on the nails. Someone had some stitching to do.
I had also installed the tacking and window wood piece in the second story of a friend's house after she had a second story break-in. The burglar had climbed up the side of the house, entered through a second story window and had hid inside a cupboard before being scared off by her dogs. People often forget to secure the upper levels of their homes.
DOGS
Speaking of dogs, they can be a great asset for home protection if trained properly. The late dog trainer Harold McCullough once told me about a man who had approached him for an attack dog. When Harold asked the man what was wrong with his present dog, the man told a break-in story. The man had woken up that morning to see both his wife and daughter with the words "I Like Girls" written across their foreheads. During the night, a cat burglar had entered and left the house without any noise from the family hound.
But, instead of getting an attack dog, Harold trained the man's family dog to be a competent guard dog. Even small dogs can do a good job of an early alarm system.