Originally Posted by
Vintage_Cyclist
In my area, there have been incidents where the various neighborhood lawn care services had people in their employ who would case the homes on their route and come back later with their gangster friends. This was a more organized scheme than a druggie burglar looking for something he could sell for quick cash.
And construction companies, for sure. Almost every apartment complex that is under construction with part of it already occupied will have several burglaries before it's done and fully occupied.
Some gangs require newbies bring something to the table, namely money or items, mostly money. This leads to some property crimes, car break-ins, purse snatchings, and muggings, a lot. Entry-level position.
I've had them where the newbies realized the house was going to be unoccupied for days, and the gang partied on for 3-4 days. Not a lot of damage, not a lot of theft, but imagine coming back and seeing what went on, thinking what went on, etc. Very troubling for the owner to think about.
I've had targeted bike thefts in California, serious bikes stolen as the sole intent of the break-in. It does happen.
With those, the policy had replacement cost, so I built the bike on paper with new stuff and made the offer. Insurance policies generally pay the used value up front, replacement cost when actually replaced. In every case, the owner took the used value and bought a new bike for somewhere between the used value and less than my rebuild price, and we paid what he/she paid and everyone happy.
In one case, the guy had his grail tri-bike stolen, and there's no doubt if the stolen bike showed up, people would know. He told me he carried a spare tire iron on his car in case it "showed up" somewhere. He went from a DA 7800 group to DA 9000 because that was the replacement component for Dura Ace, in my evaluation. Which also meant a wheel upgrade. You can see how he was satisfied, right?