The days of commonly smashing windows and front door forced entry are gone. Burglars are becoming more skilful as polished, soundless methods of prohibited entry are being discovered.
But what does this mean for us?
We all need to take more precautions when it comes to leaving the house, especially unequipped houses without alarms. Burglars are opportunists and extremely observant when it comes to making their access easier. Statistics show that 32% of reported break-ins are caused by unlocked doors and only 40% are actually forced.
After speaking to a family who were broken into out whilst they were on holiday, it seems burglars have found a cleaner, quieter way of finding entry into people’s homes.
A family from south west London, left for their holiday destination on 14th December 2016 when receiving a phone call from their neighbour who heard their house alarm go off less than twenty four hours after, telling them two men in their early twenties had just broken into their home.
Their neighbour called the police who arrived within ten minutes and did a series of searches in and around the house. The family were advised to carry on their holiday as normal, however Mrs H later told me she “spent the rest of the holiday worried,” whereas her husband displayed more sangfroid in the situation.
Mrs H stated: “they emptied my entire jewellery box and left only one bangle; luckily only inexpensive jewellery was stolen.”
The burglary was discovered to be done with much precision through a window in the dining room when the police arrived at the scene. Unlike most cases, the window had been cleanly removed without any scratches or cracks and left to rest against the dining room wall, untouched for the rest of the break in.
“They went straight upstairs to the bedrooms and didn’t bother touching anything downstairs,” Mrs H said. "They were only in the house a few minutes." Her belongings were left strewn across the floor.
When I asked the family about the police’s involvement in the burglary of their home, Mrs H told me she was “very pleased with them” as they came quickly – as informed by her neighbour – and boarded the removed window after performing checks.
Although it’s a common stereotype (mainly due to media influence) that burglaries happen mostly during the night – this is not the case. It is quite widely known that burglaries often happen during the day when people are out and the H’s informed me that their break-in happened at around 11am in the morning.
This is why more care and safeguarding needs to happen within homes before leaving. Evidently in cases such as these, it was quite hard to avoid, and unlikely too, as the house was secured with a burglar alarm, but extra precautions still decrease the likelihood of being burgled.
With this increase in advanced skill amongst burglars, remember to stay aware and vigilant and not to be careless or lazy when it comes to securing your homes.
A burglar could be targeting your home next.
Miral Pankhania, Rosebery School
