Retired Burglar Reveals How You Should Protect Your House From Getting Robbed

Being burgled is undoubtedly one of the worst things that can happen to a homeowner. But there are some truly ingenious ways out there of stopping it happening in the first place that you’ve probably never even considered. With mind-blowing tips coming straight from the mouths of ex-burglars, let’s check out how you should protect your home from being robbed.

Laminated Windows

To the untrained eye, burglaries appear to happen at random, leaving you with a large hole in your bank account as well as your living room window. But, as any skilled burglar will tell you, there’s no such thing as random when it comes to professional burglary. Luckily, through various online posts, including several Reddit “Ask Me Anything” threads, former burglars have shared some of their greatest, little-known tips for protecting your house.

Among these suggestions, one of the most common is to install laminated windows in your home. Normal windows made with tempered glass or safety glass are designed to shatter into shards if destroyed, making it easy for thieves to get into a house quickly. Laminated windows, on the other hand, are designed to shatter, but not break apart, thanks to a layer of plastic which holds the shards together. This stops burglars making a hole to reach or climb through.

12.52mm laminated glass breakage test by Winnovative

Being so tough to break, if a burglar encounters it, they’re much more likely to leave rather than risk more time loudly smashing away at it. While laminated windows are about twice as expensive as standard, double-glazed windows, they’re certainly worth considering for the vast upgrade to your security. But if you don’t want to purchase all new windows, you can alternatively have professionals install a laminate film over your current windows, reinforcing them for less.

An even cheaper option is security film. This piece of rubbery plastic works on the same principal, but isn’t quite as strong. But coming in as cheap as around 10 dollars on Amazon, using it could save you way more than that little investment if a burglary is attempted. Ultimately, any delays you can cause the burglar significantly increase the chance they’ll decide your home is more trouble than it’s worth.

But before you grab your wallet, check your windows for a label in the corner with text saying !laminated!, or with the logo of a laminate brand like FireLite Plus. Most laminated glass is clearly labelled like this, so don’t go splashing out if you already have it!

Canine Security

Dogs may be man’s best friend, but that doesn’t always make them the best security measure. According one of Reddit’s ex-burglar tipsters, dogs were never that much of a deterrent during his burglary career. Most of them were quite friendly, and even the uneasy ones could be won over with a couple of rawhide strips, before being locked into another room for convenience.

The ex-burglar did point out, though, that if your dog isn’t specifically trained to be a guard dog, your best bet is to get a smaller breed. These tend to bark a lot more, drawing attention. But there’s another dog-related security point that may take you by surprise. As counterintuitive as it seems, placing a “beware of dog” sign on or near your front or back door can actually encourage burglars.

If these signs are present by entryways, it lets the intruder know that there’s a dog inside the house. And if a dog can move around inside without triggering the alarm, in all likelihood, so can a burglar. So, make sure to love your dog with all your heart, just don’t leave your home security completely in their paws.

Most Burglaries Occur Between 6 AM and 6PM

While the movies love to show dramatic break-ins occurring in the middle of the night, the real-world statistics tell a much different story. The majority of break-ins actually happen during the day, between 6 am and 6 pm, which makes sense if you think about it. If a criminal wants to steal something, it’s smarter to break in while the residents are out of the house at work or school.

Breaking in at night virtually guarantees that the homeowners will be home, making the chance of discovery dangerously high. One ex-burglar even gave a more specific time window of 10am to 3pm, as he claimed these were the lowest risk periods of someone arriving home. For these reasons, it’s extremely important to make smart choices about your home security because, odds are, you won’t be home to see it in action when it’s needed.

Clean Secret Hiding Places

According to ex-burglars, being smart about your security extends in some pretty surprising directions, including making sure you clean and dust your house regularly. One tipster claimed that by looking at specific places like mantelpieces, cabinets, or counter-tops, he could tell by the dust around the objects how often they were moved.

This was useful for discovering hidden cash caches and stashes, like clocks with fake backs, or teddy bears used to conceal valuables. If there was a trail in the otherwise-undisturbed surrounding dust that suggested movement, it instantly gave away any attempt to hide stuff.

So, make sure to regularly dust any secret hiding spots, to keep any unwelcome guests guessing as to where you hide your rainy-day fund. That said, after you clean up, be sure to put any brooms and mops away from your front door. Thieves sometimes use brooms they find lying around to prop against the front door during burglaries as a sort of makeshift alarm system. If anyone opens the door, the broom noisily falls down, altering them and giving them a chance to escape.

Another surprising object you should pay attention to is calendars. Always ensure calendars are out of sight of any windows, as any thief with a pair of binoculars can look to see when you’re planning to be out of the house. The same applies to ensuring your mailbox is emptied regularly. If you let the mail pile up, it may give off the impression that you’re away on vacation, making a break-in more appealing to any burglars who spot it.

If you receive your mail through a letterbox in your door, however, there’s another issue you should bear in mind. Thieves can fish keys and valuables through letterboxes like this, so ensuring your valuables are nowhere in sight is essential. Better yet, you can install a letterbox cage to prevent any pole-wielding burglars having their way.

But, as a general rule, never leave your cash or valuables sitting out in plain sight, hide them as best you can. Most break-ins are over in around 5 minutes, and the more time a burglar spends looking for your valuables, the more likely they are to abandon the job.

Contrary to popular belief, the most common targets of burglars aren’t huge and heavy objects like safes or TVs. It’s the quick and easy items like jewelry, phones, passports, wallets, and firearms, all of which can be shoved into a jacket and easily concealed. So, leave nothing valuable in sight, and keep your hiding spots dusted and subtle!

Neighborly Vigilance

While you might like the way a back or front yard fence gives you privacy from neighbors, a tall fence also gives thieves privacy from your neighbors, too. Fences are surprisingly easy to jump, and once over, a person breaking into your home remains hidden from view, unlike in a more open yard. The same idea also applies to bushes around your house. While the privacy seems nice, bushes and fences are really like erecting a neon sign that says, “Free Cash, Privacy Guaranteed”.

The best way around this is to make sure that, even if you do have fences or bushes, your neighbors can see your entry doors. Seeing as you probably won’t be home to deal with a break-in if it happens, neighbors are your best line of defense against intruders.

Having a good enough relationship whereby, if they see something suspicious, they feel comfortable calling you, can make all the difference. This can even extend as far as calling you if they spot landscapers they don’t recognize working on your lawn.

According to one ex-burglar, thieves will occasionally put one guy out front, pretending to be gardening and keeping watch, while another guy breaks in the back. A bit of neighborly vigilance could make a crucial difference even if your neighbors are a little annoying in general.

It’s also worth considering leaving drapes open instead of closed. While closed drapes hide what’s inside a room, this isn’t usually enough to deter someone who’s already planned to break in. Open drapes, meanwhile, allow your neighbors to see if someone’s walking around inside while you’re out of the house.

A similar idea applies at night, especially when you’re away. If possible, leave a couple of lights on, to make it look like someone’s in and awake. Your overall goal is to make your home as unappealing to burglars as possible. If they have to choose between your exposed, well-lit house, or a hidden, dark house, they’ll always take the safer option.

And if you have venetian blinds instead of drapes, you can boost your security with a simple trick. All you need to do is make sure the slats are pointing upwards instead of downwards. This will mean that if anyone looking in from the street is able to see through the tiny gaps, they’ll only see what’s above their eye level. They won’t be able to look down and scout out what you have lying around.

Fortress Door

In case you’re wondering how you can physically lock down and secure your house’s doors, the good news is that there are countless options. But, intriguingly, one of the best security measures is actually one of the simplest and most affordable.

For defense against home invasions, the most useful installation to make is called a “Strike Plate”, which you can pick up in most home stores for less than 5 bucks. This incredibly useful and simple device stops your door from being smashed open in a matter of seconds by someone trying to gain entry.

How to Install a ‘Fortress Door’ to Keep Your Home Safe by Inside Edition

The “Strike Plate” is a small sheet of metal that is bolted into the door frame, securing the deadbolt in place. That way, if someone tries to brute-force the door, the stress is spread throughout the metal plate instead of just cracking the deadbolt straight through the wooden door frame. For a burglar, having to repeatedly kick a door means drawing attention to themselves, and more often than not, this difficulty will turn them off the job altogether.

Signs Of Security

In recent years, home security systems have massively increased in popularity. But the truth is, security systems are only useful if they’re used correctly. If they’re used in the wrong way, they can have the opposite effect to your intentions.

If you decide to invest in security cameras for your house, make sure to place them in places that are most likely to give you I.D., quality videos or photos. 87% of burglaries are never solved because the police can’t get enough information on the suspect, making it almost impossible to investigate further.

Granted, a wide-angle CCTV shot of your living room and kitchen might alert you that you’re being robbed if it’s synced up with your phone. But it won’t really help the police figure out who’s responsible if the thief’s face can’t be made out. Instead, place the cameras at eye-level at entryways like doors and windows. These will provide the clearest images, and will hopefully give the police enough information to help you recover your stolen goods before they’re sold off.

But while security systems can provide a sense of comfort, they won’t always be enough to stop a thief who’s committed to the job. For some thieves, they can even encourage burglaries. If a thief sees that you’ve invested in a security system, that sometimes sends the message that there’s clearly something valuable and worth protecting inside.

That being said, other thieves will see any indication of a homeowner’s awareness of home security measures as a sign that whatever’s waiting inside is not worth their trouble. While different online ex-burglars seem to disagree on the point of home security systems and CCTV, the best approach seems to be being smart, subtle, and accurate, but not too flashy.

Breaking Into A Garage

Another common vulnerability pointed out by ex-burglars online is an example of convenience coming at a price. Many homeowners park in their driveway but keep a garage door opener fob in their car, for convenient access to the garage. However, cars are very easy to break into compared to a house, and if a burglar gets access to that fob, the house becomes completely accessible via the garage.

But even without an electric fob, it's not that difficult to break into a garage door. In fact, a resourceful thief can slip a wire over or under the garage door and hook onto the manual disengage lever, triggering it to open. After that, they can simply lift the door up and have free access to the home. For this reason, it’s essential to lock the door connecting your garage to your house every night. Unless you’re really desperate for company.

Breaking into a Garage - Garage Door Locks - As Seen on Shark Tank by whathappened16

Birthday Burglars

When you’re celebrating a birthday, you want it to be a fun, carefree occasion. But even as you celebrate, burglars are on the look-out for opportunities. As much fun as birthday parties are, it’s best to keep any indicators of the occasion out of view from the street. Signs of a birthday usually hint at newly-acquired valuables, which likely haven’t been unboxed or hidden away yet. This is like catnip for burglars, and they’ll wait until the right moment to steal those valuable gifts.

In a similar vein, if you have children, try not to leave their toys or bikes visible outside or inside your home. For a burglar, seeing you have kids in your home means you likely have more electronics, like consoles, tablets, and laptops, that are easy to sell and hard to trace.

Specifically avoiding attracting birthday burglars, though, means keeping cards off the windowsill, and only using celebration banners in rooms that aren’t visible from the street. And sadly, optimal security means keeping balloons out of sight too. I hate to sound like a party-pooper, but nothing ruins a birthday like no presents and a broken window!

Though if you must have balloons, consider combining them with some boxes and buckets and placing them in a slightly shadowy area of a room, or in front of lights. As silly as it sounds, creating a vaguely human shape or silhouette like this one in the image below can be enough to spook any intruders scouting out your home. Just don’t make it too obvious.

Virtual Property Tours

When you’re looking to sell your house, be wary of the details you put out there. According to one ex-burglar, online realtor sites like “Zillow” make it easier than ever to virtually scope out a house, without ever having to step foot near it.

From the comfort of their living room, thieves can see pictures and sometimes even videos of the interior and exterior of the house, quickly mapping out its weak points. These virtual listings also allow them to determine the value of the house and allows them a reasonable guess at how much the items inside might be worth.

After they finish virtually scoping the house, Google Maps and Street View can then be used to plan out their exact escape routes. In case all of that doesn’t sound enough like an episode of “Black Mirror”, some sites even offer full 3-D tours of the house. This means that, by the time they arrive, the thieves may know your house better than you do.

Burglary Protection Through Lighting

While it can certainly feel pleasant to have a regular routine, burglars thrive on you feeling secure in the pattern of your life. The more routine your life is, the easier it is to figure out when you will and won’t be home, providing opportunities to burgle you.

In order to keep a potential burglar casing your home on their toes, you need to shake up your routine. If possible, occasionally change up the times you leave for and return from work. And if you use timers to turn on lights in your house during the night or day, randomize the schedule so it looks more like it’s being done by actual people. A skilled burglar knows how to spot an automated lighting system, and failing to account for something like that is essentially an open invitation to a generous giveaway… of all your valuables.

Trick A Burglar

One of the best things you can do to safeguard your property is to keep criminals on their toes by throwing curveballs their way. This can take many forms, but the general idea is to make potential burglars aware that you’re actively security-conscious. Think of it as leaving a sign to say, “I know you’re there, and I’m watching you.”

One approach is gluing a fake spare key to the underside of your "welcome" mat. One Reddit user described their experiences with this in an area where burglaries were commonplace. On several occasions, they took great pleasure in watching their CCTV as prospective thieves walked up to the door, checked under the mat, then tried to grab the key. When they realized it’d been glued, they would nervously look around and then hurry away, assuming they were being set up.

While hilarious, these kinds of decoys are genuinely great tactics for slowing thieves down. And as ex-burglars tend to reiterate time and time again, the more time wasted, and the more obstacles, the more likely burglars are to abandon the job. Another route worth pursuing is purchasing fake jewelry to place prominently somewhere, so that if someone does break in, hopefully, they grab the fake stuff and run.

It’s also wise, if you can afford it, to install a decoy safe, partially-hidden in a slightly obvious place. Your real safe should be hidden somewhere completely unpredictable, like inside your bed-frame, or behind a fake air-vent. If you have the option to bolt it down somewhere above street-level, it helps your chances of avoiding it being carried away or cracked open. There are countless ways to outsmart burglars, and the more creative you get, the better.

I hope you were amazed at these tips to protect your house from thieves, based on tips from ex-burglars! Thanks for reading!