Originally Posted by
Bad Lag
The thing most scary to me is you had been "cased". The burglar knew how many lived there. The burglar knew you were not home from watching you leave. The theft of the paperwork is also most serious because of the identity theft it implies.
One of the things I learned through interviews is that these guys use logic all the time.
They would go on whitepages.com and insert an address, then call several of the numbers on a street to see if anyone answers. in an era of double-income families, they'd often get strings of homes without anyone answering. Then, they'd drive by the home to check vehicles, see which ones move over a 2-3 day period. After a week of checking, they'd pretty much know where no one would be home.
They also went to apartment complexes, where the numbered spaces easily told them which apartments were empty. The apartments with small patios and privacy fences were almost always first, because once over the fence, they were invisible.
Homes on country clubs were popular, because they had no rear neighbors and often easy access from the "view" side of the home.
Larger homes with alarm systems, they'd tap the windows and see how long it took for the vendor to notify the owner or if police came. If it took 15-20 minutes, they just waited until everyone left, and then broke in. 90% of the time, the vendor just turned off the alarm, thinking it was another malfunction, and they were generally in/out in 5 minutes, anyway.
The really good ones would bring a van marked with home appliance repair, etc, often go in the back, raise the garage door, drive in, load up, and leave. I can't tell you how many times the neighbors waved at them as they left.
The best deterrent is a nosy neighbor, next is a surveillance system with an alarm, next is a dog, but many a dog has watched the burglary in progress.
Those that are home and choose to protect themselves with a weapon should be trained, practiced, and ready to use it, then ready for the legal consequences. Not every state lets you do such and move on, but that's a different subject.
Amazing how many gun collections I've investigated where the owner swears it was no one he/she knew, but they walked right in, defeated the alarm, went straight to the gun cabinet or safe, and carried it out.
Home burglary is a study in human nature and psychology, that's for sure.